With my Season of Creativity in full-swing, and some potential projects for next year circulating in my brain, I’m thinking more carefully about how I set up my devices. For example, I’ve been working on creating a “work phone” for myself, which I eventually managed by activating separate users on my Android phone. I like this separation of devices, so I’m considering how to setup a creative projects device. Thanks to an older MacBook holding its value surprisingly well, I have enough trade-in value for the newest 11″ iPad Pro to take on this new role in my life.
I’ve had iPads for several years. In college, they were for notes and homework. I even wrote much of my senior thesis using TeX Writer After college, I had grand plans for my iPad to be a work device. I would make lots of cool notes as I wrote math curriculum, maybe even bring it to meetings. To some extent, that did play out. It was indispensable for marking up PDFs of puzzles, reading various texts, and having one around for software testing was appreciated.
Since the pandemic, I’m no longer in an office. My iPad’s usefulness for work is limited to when I’m too lazy to bring my laptop from my desk to the couch, or if I want a really focused work session outside to write up a document. In my personal life, it has adapted in my life to become a larger part of my creative projects1Of course, it’s also a perfect media consumption device on flights or if the TV is taken. I’ve edited podcasts on it exclusively for a couple of months; I research and write most of my blog posts using it; I’ve composed small bits of music on it; and I’ve been playing with various graphic art and video editing programs.
As I look toward allowing myself room for creative projects, setting up a new iPad allows me to prepare it for that specific purpose. I won’t clutter it with work applications and accounts, or random games and tools that I never use. I want it to be a lean, mean, content-producing machine. It will be a fun task, and I’m hoping it will help focus my mind when it’s time to start the work of having fun.
- 1Of course, it’s also a perfect media consumption device on flights or if the TV is taken.