Trying to Develop New Habits
So, one of the cool things about traveling in 2013 is that a smartphone or an iPad make it really easy to stay in touch without having to pull out my overly large work laptop. (Seriously, it’s impossible for me to work on my laptop on an airplane, there simply isn’t enough space, and it’s more work than it’s worth much of the time in airports or even hotel rooms.)
That’s great, except for one thing. I really hate trying to type on any of these gadgets. Oh it’s easy enough for a quick text message, or short email, but longer emails to friends, coworkers, or blog posts are just difficult for me. So those things tend to get put off until I’m sitting in my office with my desk and a full keyboard to work with. One of the things I’ve since realized though, is that habit of putting those things off, has led to me not blogging nearly as much, and not keeping in touch the way I want to. I see something on my iPad that sparks an idea for a blog post, I put it off, telling myself I’ll write about it when I am next on my laptop, and then I forget what I was going to write about. Sound familiar?
In an effort to try and get out of this rut, I went out and picked up an Apple bluetooth keyboard to use with my iPad. At least this way, when I’m just using the iPad because it’s easier, if I want to write something more significant, I can pull out a small, lightweight keyboard instead of struggling with the native keyboard to iOS. I’ve already seen myself using it here and there when sitting around the house, and I used it in a hotel right after purchasing it. The big test may come this upcoming week, to see if I can pull it out at an airport, or even on an airplane, and actually get something done more than flipping through Flipboard and Facebook. We’ll see if that become my new normal.
Anyone else out there struggling with the ease of carrying around a tablet, with the difficulty of typing anything on them as much as I do? Any suggestions on how to deal with it?
@mikemac29 Is it a fold-up keyboard? How much bigger is it than the native device keyboard. #fatfingersme
@mikemac29 I bought a BT keyboard for my tablets, I used it like 5 times. I rarely use it these days.
I recently moved into a position where I’ve been wanting to take notes on my iPad at meetings more and more: the on-screen keyboard really wasn’t getting the job done.
I tried an Apple BT Keyboard for a day and found it to be *really* inconvenient. It was just another thing to lug around (and there are too many things that the “power button” is responsible for so I had a hard time making sure it was turned off in my bag).
So after a day of that nonsense, I bought a keyboard case (I got the Logitech “thin keyboard case” but there are lots of different kinds available from multiple manufacturers) and I just love it.
It changed the way I used my iPad: I’m writing a lot more on it and even propping it up in “laptop mode” on a table can be a nice hands-free way to read and watch stuff on it. I still carry my smart cover around because the keyboard case doesn’t work very well when using it in “tablet mode”; but the keyboard case has exponentially increased my iPad’s usefulness as a productivity device as opposed to “just” a consumption device.
(The downside? I *had* been setting my iPad up as a makeshift video conference solution at meetings. But now I want to actually use it for notes at those meetings so our remote employees no longer feel as involved. Oops.)
I am a little afraid that this will become another thing to lug around. So far it hasn’t been an issue, but it is definitely a possibility!