Apple’s recent release of the iPad Pro has brought up the question again, can you replace your laptop with a tablet? For some early adopters, the answer is yes.
Xero CEO, Rod Drury, is among those early adopters. He recently made the switch and decided to stick with it. His motivations for doing so:
- Instant on
- TouchID keeps you secure but lets you unlock your device and apps in a moment
- Work from anywhere with 4G data – your location becomes irrelevant
- All day battery life
- Cloud based apps and services mean everything stays in sync between devices effortlessly
There’s no doubt that as tablet hardware and software progresses, an increasing number of people will not only be able to do their job on a tablet, they will prefer it.
How can you take make the move from laptop to tablet?
You’ll need to start with a pretty powerful tablet, like the iPad Pro. You’re also going to need some hardware, like a keyboard or the Pencil, to make things more efficient.
Know your keyboard shortcuts
You’ll find that in many cases the same (if you use a Mac) or similar (if you use a PC) keyboard shortcuts work on the iPad:
- Command-Tab to switch quickly between open apps
- Command-X, C and V to cut, copy and paste, respectively
- Want a reminder of these and more? Hold the Command key by itself for a couple of seconds to see a cheat sheet of commands possible from that screen
Remove all games and other distractions
Most of us have a game or two on our phone that we reach to when we have spare time. But you wouldn’t have a game on your work computer. Or if you do, you certainly wouldn’t be on it in the middle of the work day (and if you would, can I have your job?). Think the same thing with your iPad pro. Remove all but your essential apps so you don’t lose an hour to Facebook or Candy Crush.
Simplify your workflow with apps
What’s your workflow like? Do you catch up on the news with Feedly? Jump into work conversations with Slack? Update projects on Trello? There’s an app for that.
Most of the things you’ve previously done in your browser can now be replaced by the beautiful, smooth experience in an app. You can do everything from editing photos to checking out your competitors to posting on your social channels. And when you’re done you can simply close the app. No more browsers with 25 windows open across the top.
Be more efficient with split screen
For many of us, using the larger screen of a laptop means we can have several things open side by side while we’re working. With the new split screen feature on the iPad you can do the same. You also have the slide over function, which lets you temporarily overlay on app over another. This is great if you want to jump into a Slack chat or change the song on Spotify and then go back to your main task.
The bottom line
You can’t expect to maintain your workflow from your laptop to the iPad. But if you’re willing to alter things, explore apps that may make you more efficient, and make use of Apple hardware, you may have yourself a new laptop. One that’s light enough to carry with you wherever you go and has the battery life to match your busy lifestyle.
