How To Use The iPad To Be Super Productive | A Guide

Do you want to be productive? Super productive?  Well, I have a way you can do it using your iPad and it involves using some apps that help you get things done where ever you are.  I’m going to show you how you can take advantage of a few great apps and ways of working to be super productive using your iPad.

How To Use The iPad To Be Productive

Ok. So you know that the iPad is great for surfing, playing games, and generally consuming.  But you can make it work for you and be productive.  There are ways.  One way I have found is to use a few certain apps called “cloud-based” apps and choose just a select few that work for me.  I have found that the apps with tons of bells and whistles are not as productive because I tend to just want to get something done.  Here are the things that can make you productive:

1.  A good calendar for meetings and reminders

2. A place to store files and retrieve files

3.  A good To Do list that can be accessed from anywhere

4.  Access important documents from anywhere

These three things can help make you productive.  And they happen to be three things the iPad is really good at.  But you will need to get some apps and follow some best practices to take full advantage of it.  Try this out because it really makes the iPad a productive tool whether you are using your iPad for business or for school or just for everyday tasks.

What are “Cloud-based” Apps?

Before we launch into how you can be super productive using your iPad, you might want to know what these “Cloud-based apps” are. It might even be better to approach this from the question of “What are Cloud-based Services”?  The cloud is the Internet.  And cloud services are how you can interact with the Internet to get things done.  For example, if you have ever used Dropbox to store your files then you are using a cloud-based service.  If you have ever used Google Calendar, then you are using a cloud-based service.

The main takeaway is that cloud-bases services and applications are convenient since you can access them and do your work anywhere there is access to the Internet.  Before there were cloud-based services you would have to drag files around on various hard drives or you would have to only get your work done the in the ONE place your application was installed.

Cloud-based apps are just ways to access cloud services.  So, Dropbox is a service but the Dropbox app is how you access that service.

Getting A Good iPad Calendar App

We all know that the calendar app which comes with the iPad is good but could use some improvements.  It’s OK for the basics but there are a ton of people (myself included) that want to be able to access a calendar and make changes even when not using the iPad.  This means that you will need to get an app that can make the calendar a much more productive experience.  A lot of people use Outlook and/or the Google Calendar or iCal.  So if you use one of these three, how will you use it with your iPad?

There are some great iPad Calendar Apps For Google Calendar.  They all pretty much look just like Google’s calendar program and they allow you to do all your calendar functions just as you do within Google.  There are some good ones and bad ones.  One of the most popular ones is called CalenGoo. It is a highly rated iPad app that gives you a fast and easy way to access and modify your Google calendar.  The one nice thing about this app is that you can work on the calendar while offline.  It comes with all of the views you are used to using on your Google Calendar and a set of very compelling features.  CalenGoo is $6.99 in the app store.

But what if you don’t use Google’s calendar and instead you use iCal? Syncing with iCal can actually be accomplished by turning on your sync functions on your Mac and iPad.  All you do when you plug your iPad into your Mac is make sure you select the “Sync” function in iTunes (by clicking on the iPad icon in iTunes) and then make sure you set up syncing on your Mac in the Mobileme settings where you set up syncing for Contacts, bookmarks, etc.

Using Outlook?  No problem.  Plug in the iPad to your PC and once iTunes launches click on the “iPad” icon over on the far left pane.  Now click the “Info” tab and then click on “Sync Outlook Calendars” option.  Click “Apply” and it will sync with Outlook.  Keep in mind that in order to keep the two in sync, you will need to plug your iPad in each time.

A Place To Store Files And Retrieve Them

Being able to put files somewhere such as PDF’s you want to read or other types of files that you want to export from the iPad is a huge productivity boost.  Ideally you could put all your “stuff” somewhere in a digital central location and this is 100% possible with Dropbox.  Dropbox is a cloud-based service that is free storage (up to 2GB) with a small fee for additional storage.  The thing that makes Dropbox so good for productivity is that you can access it from the Web or an App.

There is a dedicated Dropbox app but there are also plenty of apps that have Dropbox built-in so that if you were working on a document, for example, you could save it right out to your Dropbox account.  Here are a few productivity-type apps that have built-in Dropbox functionality:

• Auditorium Notes ()
• iStorage HD ()
• Elements ()
• Notesy ()
• Documents To Go ()

A To Do list that can be accessed from anywhere

Having a ToDo list that isn’t accessible when you need it, can really be unproductive.  It was not until I started using an online ToDo list service that I really got more use out of ToDo lists and being highly productive.  If you have not yet used Toodledo then it would be well worth it to give it a try.  The service is free and it’s so easy to use.

Basically you sign up and start adding tasks.  You can then use folders, subtasks, due dates, priorities, tags, goals and notes.  It’s an online service so you can access it from anywhere you have access to the Internet.

One word of advice. Don’t think too hard about your lists. Just start entering things and sort it out later.

As it turns out, the Toodledo service was built to be able to access with other applications.  Thus, there are a ton of really great iPad apps you can use to access your free Todo lists.  It’s really great because you can have the same app on all your devices so this makes being super productive on the iPad even easier.

Here are some apps you can check out that have built-in access to Toodledo. They are all top rated apps that have the primary function of making your ToDo list easier to manage from anywhere:

Toodledo – To Do List ($1.99)

Task PRO ($1.99)

2Do – Tasks Done In Style ($6.99)

Todo for iPad ($4.99)

Access To Office Documents From Anywhere

The last part of being super productive on your iPad is having access to certain office documents.  You might use Google Docs or Microsoft Office or Apple’s iWork Suite.  Once you have created a document, you might want to access it on your iPad and make changes, etc.  This is part of how the iPad can be a great productivity tool.

The best overall iPad app you can get to access, edit, and save documents whether you use Google or Microsoft is Documents To Go (Premium).  It’s a bit more expensive ($16.99) but well worth it if you really use it.

This app even lets you access Dropbox so no matter where you store your documents online there is probably an option within Documents To Go. With this solution you now have access to all your important documents and it does not matter where you create them because everything will be in sync.

Tying It All Together

This is how to use the iPad to be productive.  There are certainly more ways to do it but this guide helps you with the core of productivity and making the iPad a useful tool.

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