Why You Should Go Paperless At University

Everything in one place
This is one of the main reasons why I decided to go paperless at university. I love switching up where I’m studying and end up spending some time in libraries, cafes and my bedroom when I need to study for an exam. Having everyone on my iPad means that I don’t need to lug giant folders around with me and never forget to take something with me.

More environmentally friendly
Most people know that using an iPad hugely reduces the amount of paper you use and inevitably waste. Most things that I used to print out and annotate, I can now add to my GoodNotes account or onto a page in OneNote and I can annotate it using the Apple Pencil. Also, in addition to paper, you also end up saving on stationary, printer expenses and folders.

Saves space
When I was at school, most of the bookshelves in my room were packed with folders and papers that held all of my revision notes. Now, I can use that space for other things since all of my files are on a single iPad (which is smaller than the size of most of my textbooks). Although I absolutely love my iPad, there are still a few things that I still have in paper form e.g. my anatomy textbooks and handouts from my tutorials.

Saves you a lot of time
Without having to waste time looking for your papers or needing to be in a particular place because that is where you left your handwritten notes means that you can work anywhere and everywhere. It is also a lot easier to get started on doing work, since all you need to do is open one application on your device.

Easier to organise and find files
Even if you are using dividers, colour coding and post it notes, a loose-lead binder is often a hassle to use. It’s easy to lose a piece of paper or rip a page as you’re trying to find the one handout you know you put in there, but can’t seem to locate. With a physical notebook, all your notes are organised in chronological order and that it’s something you can really change. The problems of both the loose-leaf binder and the physical notebook are solved when using a digital note-taking app. You can easily change the order of your notes, add pages in later (or remove them), bookmark given pages or give them tags to find easily later.

For anyone who is thinking of going paperless (or has been convinced after reading this blog post), here is my post about how I went paperless and how you can do it too.