How to Turn Your iPad into a Digital Journal or Sketchbook

Journaling helps organize your thoughts and unlock creative insight—whether on paper or digitally. If you’ve ever wondered how to use your iPad as a digital journal or sketchbook, it turns out the tools are right at your fingertips.

Using an iPad as a digital journal or sketchbook has its unmatched perks. For one, it’s ultra-portable, meaning you can capture inspiration the second it strikes. Then there’s customization: access all the stickers, fonts, and templates in the world without regret (or sometimes, even without spending a dime). As a digital tool, it’s also eco-friendly—no trees harmed or stacks of half-filled notebooks gathering dust. Add in the ease of backing up, sharing, and editing on the fly, and you’ve got a creativity powerhouse that fits in your bag.

We think the perfect digital journal or sketchbook does exist, and it fits right in your iPad. Here’s how you can help it take shape.

What You Need to Start iPad Journaling or Digital Sketching

Setting up your iPad with the right tools is like laying out your favorite pens and highlighters before getting started on your analog journal.

Physical Accessories

These are what make the digital experience feel natural, even cozy. The first time you write with an Apple Pencil on a textured screen, it clicks. You stop fussing about the tech, and start thinking about your ideas.

• Apple Pencil or Compatible Stylus: The go-to for precision writing, sketching, and pressure-sensitive strokes. It’s what makes handwriting feel intuitive, not clunky.

• iPad Case with Adjustable Stand: Helps with posture and provides a steady base while writing or drawing. Especially helpful if you like journaling or sketching at a café or propped up in bed.

• Screen Protector (Matte or Paper-Like Texture): Adds a tactile, paper-esque feel to your screen. Many people don’t expect how big a difference this makes until they try it.

• Keyboard: Handy for typing journal entries or organizing ideas quickly. Sometimes a stream of thoughts is easier captured with keys than strokes.

Best Apps for iPad Journaling and Digital Sketching

You want it to feel like a creative studio, not a screen. This allows you to switch between sketching, writing, and organizing frictionless. Once it clicks, analog habits find a new home.

• GoodNotes, Notability, Noteshelf: Perfect for journaling, planning, and handwriting. Each one has its quirks, so try a couple and see which layout and gesture controls feel best in your hand.

• Procreate, Adobe Fresco, Concepts: These aren’t just for “artists”. Even if you’re sketching out a room layout or doodling your dream vacation, they give you a blank canvas that responds like paper.

• Trello, Things, or Your Favorite To-Do App: It helps to keep creative to-dos and life tasks in the same space. One swipe, and you’re switching between bullet journal and grocery list.

• Asset Resources: Etsy is a treasure trove, but creators also share beautiful freebies on their blogs or Gumroad. Over time, you build a collection that reflects your personal style.

Digital Journal Stickers, Templates, and Assets to Personalize Your Pages 

Here’s your digital stationery drawer. These little touches bring personality to your pages. Over time, you’ll find yourself reaching for certain palettes or stickers like an old favorite pen.

• Stickers, Washi Tapes, Stamps: These give your pages variety and charm. They’re also helpful for breaking up content or signaling importance without making things feel heavy.

• Templates: When you’ve had a long day and still want to reflect, a solid template can do most of the heavy lifting.

• Color Swatches: You’ll start to notice certain colors match your mood. Creating your own palette becomes part of the ritual.

• Paper Textures: Lined and dotted pages offer structure. Vintage paper or watercolor textures bring a handmade feeling that’s hard to fake.

How to Set Up a Digital Bullet Journal or Sketchbook on iPad

Sounds like a chore? Yeah, we thought so too. But that goes away the moment you get into it. We’ve broken it down into two main chunks.

Importing Your Journal

Apps like GoodNotes or Noteshelf make importing PDF planners refreshingly simple. It’s often as easy as dragging and dropping. Once loaded, you can annotate, hyperlink, and rearrange pages just like you would with a physical journal, but without having to tear out any pages.

If you prefer building from scratch, that’s just as powerful. You can create a new notebook, choose your paper type, and design your own system. It doesn’t have to be perfect. Half the fun is figuring out what layouts work best for your flow.

Organizing Your Tabs and Sections

There’s something grounding about flipping through tabs you’ve customized yourself. The best part is that they evolve with you, from goal setting to mood tracking to random sketches at midnight.

• Covers: Choose visuals that make you want to open your journal daily. A photo, a quote, a pattern that feels like home.

• Monthly Logs: Seeing your whole month at once helps calm the mental clutter.

• Weekly/Daily Logs or Custom Tabs: These are where most of the magic happens: habit trackers, checklists, even random grocery notes.

• Custom Tabs: Don’t be afraid to create catch-all spaces for ideas, inspiration, or messy brainstorming. Your journal, your rules.

Designing and Using Your Journal or Sketchbook

The creative freedom is what hooks most people (guilty as charged!). There’s no ink to smudge, no pages to rip out. You can redo, rearrange, or even erase entire days. That forgiveness invites more play, and unquestionably less pressure.

Labeling and Navigation

The best digital journals feel like a map you designed yourself. Tab labels act like mental bookmarks. Use color or icons to spot what you need in seconds. Most apps let you create hyperlinks between pages, so one tap can jump from your mood tracker to your to-do list without scrolling.

It might sound technical, but once set up, it’s like second nature. You’ll wonder how you ever lived without it.

Textures and Backgrounds

A good background sets the tone. Lined pages for structured thoughts. Dotted for grids and diagrams. Blank for wide-open creativity. The fun begins when you mix those with visual elements, like a faint watercolor texture under your doodles or a grainy paper behind your notes.

That combination of old-world texture and digital flexibility is what makes this medium check all the boxes.

Stickers and Embellishments

Not just decorations. A “Priority” stamp saves time and adds clarity, a few washi strips in your favorite prints make a simple log feel intentional. Once you start using these elements, they become part of your voice. The way you organize, highlight, and personalize turns your journal into a living document.

Ideas and Layouts to Include in Your Digital Journal or Sketchbook 

A table of ideas to enrich your journal or sketchbook:

Color Swatches and Themes

Color can shape the mood of your journal or sketchbook. If you’re more practical, it can also be functional: a soft blue tab might mark personal pages. A deep red could highlight deadlines. By assigning meaning to color, you make your journal more intuitive.

Apps like GoodNotes and Procreate allow you to create and reuse color palettes. Consider saving them to keep things consistent. If you’re unsure where to begin, start with nature. Pull colors from a favorite photo, or a seasonal palette. 

Our trick? Avoid going overboard. Exercising this kind of restraint with your palette can actually bring more cohesion and calm to your spreads (unless that’s not what you’re striving for).

Design Tips for Aesthetic Digital Journals and Sketchbooks

Some of us worry about making things “look good”, especially if we have a perfectionist streak going on. In response to that concern, journaling veterans will tell you beauty in digital journaling comes from clarity and intention. A well-placed header, balanced white space, and a handful of consistent visual cues go further than a cluttered masterpiece.

Design Principles

• Use Templates: They save time and remove decision fatigue.

• Add Dates and Personal Touches: Whether you handwrite or use custom fonts, small flourishes make it feel truly yours.

• Mix Texture and Tone: Combining structured elements with soft, personal touches brings the spread to life.

• Use White Space: A little breathing room gives your thoughts more presence.

• Grid and Align: Clean lines help you find what matters faster, and they’re easy to follow in most journaling apps.

Productivity Enhancements

• Shortcuts: Set up gestures or use Siri Shortcuts to copy layouts or jump to a section instantly.

• Split Screen: Review your calendar or mood board while working on your journal. It keeps you in flow without having to jump between screens.

• Apple Pencil Tips: Double-tap to switch tools. Customize the setting to match your habits. You’ll save more time than you think.

UNIQ Insights and Tips

Journaling digitally doesn’t mean losing depth. If anything, it invites consistency and mindfulness. You can track patterns, revisit progress, and edit entries without mess or limits.

To stay motivated, schedule a time each week to design your spreads or reflect on recent notes. Small rituals help digital habits stick. You can even sketch ideas on paper, then scan and upload them to your digital journal to blend both worlds.

And if sharing inspires you, post your spreads to social platforms or invite a friend to co-journal in a shared planner. The charm of digital is that it catches on in the way we connect and create. Here at UNIQ, digital journaling has brought us closer, too. It’s how our team has found a rhythm, and a shared space to check in and build something that feels human, even behind screens. 

“Digital journaling gives me the headspace to slow down and reflect, without the pressure of making it look perfect. It’s like my mental reset button.”

— Krystle, Brand Marketing & Strategist at UNIQ

“There’s something grounding about starting with pen and paper, but scanning it into my digital journal lets me organize ideas without losing that raw, creative spark.”

— An, Senior Art Director at UNIQ

“I set gentle reminders through my tablet each morning—not to push myself, but to nudge myself back to the habits that make me feel good.”

— Kim, Digital Strategist at UNIQ

Conclusion

The beautiful part? There’s no rulebook.

Your digital journal or sketchbook becomes whatever you need it to be—today, tomorrow, and six months from now when your system inevitably changes (because the best ones always do). Maybe you’ll start with minimalist bullet points and accidentally fall into elaborate mood boards. Perhaps that quick coffee-shop doodle will become a recurring theme. That’s the magic: it grows when you do.

So tap into that curiosity. Try a weird layout, or delete it if it doesn’t stick. Your perfect setup isn’t out there. It’s just waiting to be uncovered in the process.

And when you’re ready to make the experience even smoother, browse UNIQ’s accessories. Founded on the belief that the right case or protector shouldn’t just protect your iPad, but make you want to pick it up and create, our gear helps turn “just another screen” into your favorite creative workspace.

Go surprise yourself.