How to use a digital planner in GoodNotes

GoodNotes is the most popular home for digital planners on iPad, and for good reason: it handles big PDFs well, follows internal links, and has a pen that feels close to paper. But the first ten minutes can be confusing if you've never used a planner PDF before. This guide walks through importing your planner, getting the links to behave, and setting up a routine that makes the planner worth opening every day.

You'll need an iPad, a stylus (an Apple Pencil or a compatible one), GoodNotes 5 or 6, and your planner as a PDF. If you haven't made one yet, any planner from our builder in the iPad portrait or landscape format will work.

1. Get the PDF onto your iPad

The simplest route is to download the planner on the iPad itself. In Safari, the file goes to the Downloads folder in the Files app. If you downloaded it on a computer instead, AirDrop it to the iPad or save it to iCloud Drive, Google Drive or Dropbox and open it from Files.

Keep a copy of the original PDF somewhere safe. If you ever want a fresh start, a second copy for next year, or need to re-import after a problem, you'll have it. Planners made here can also be downloaded again from your account.

2. Import it into GoodNotes

There are two ways to do this, and both end in the same place.

• From the Files app: find the PDF, press and hold it, tap Share, then choose GoodNotes. When asked, import it as a new document rather than adding it to an existing notebook.
• From inside GoodNotes: on the Documents screen tap New, then Import, and pick the PDF from Files.

A 400–900 page planner can take a little while to import. Let it finish before you start tapping around. Once it's open, give it a clear name and, if you like, move it into its own folder.

3. Understand how the links work

Every tab, calendar date and week number in a hyperlinked planner is an invisible link pointing to another page in the same file. In GoodNotes they respond when you're not writing. That's the single most common source of confusion: if you tap a tab with the pen tool active, GoodNotes may draw a dot instead of jumping.

• Read-only mode is the reliable way to navigate. Turn it on from the toolbar, tap your way to the page you want, then turn it off to write.
• Finger taps often follow links while the pen is selected, as long as GoodNotes is set so that only the Apple Pencil draws. Check the stylus settings if your finger is drawing instead.
• The outline: our planners also include a PDF outline (bookmarks). In GoodNotes, open the page overview and switch to the outline to jump straight to any month or section.

4. Set up your tools once

Spending five minutes on tools now saves a lot of fiddling later.

• Pick two or three pens and save them as favourites: a fine black or dark ink for writing, one colour for appointments, and maybe one for goals.
• Choose one highlighter colour per meaning, such as work, home and health. Fewer colours make the page easier to scan.
• Learn the lasso tool. It lets you move handwriting you put in the wrong box, and copy stickers from a sticker book onto your pages.
• Stickers: if you have one of our sticker books (included with Pro and Seller), open it next to your planner, lasso a sticker, copy it and paste it on your page. GoodNotes 6 also lets you save stickers you use often as Elements.

5. Build a five-minute daily routine

A planner only works if you open it. The routine below takes about five minutes and is enough to keep most people on track.

1. Morning: open today's page from the month calendar. Write your top three priorities before anything else.
2. Glance at the week: tap up to the week page to see the weekly goal actions. If one belongs on today, copy it down.
3. During the day: add appointments and quick notes as they come up. Don't worry about neatness.
4. Evening: tick off what's done, move anything unfinished to tomorrow, and close the app.

Once a week, usually on Sunday, spend ten minutes on the week page: what happened, what moves to next week, and which goal actions you'll do. Once a month, fill in the monthly review if your planner has one.

6. Adding, hiding and deleting pages

GoodNotes lets you add blank pages or duplicate a page from the page menu. Adding pages is usually fine, because the links point to specific pages rather than page numbers. Deleting pages is riskier: any link that pointed to a deleted page stops working. If there's a section you don't use, it's better to ignore it, or rebuild the planner without it.

With a planner from our builder you don't need to delete anything by hand. Switch sections off, change the number of notes pages, or turn daily pages off, then download the updated file.

7. Back it up

Turn on iCloud sync in GoodNotes so your handwriting is backed up and available on your other Apple devices. Every so often, it's also worth exporting a copy of the planner as a PDF with your notes, especially before you update the app or reset your iPad.

Quick fixes