I Replaced the to-Do List App on My Phone With This Reusable Smart Notepad and It’s Amazing!
I’ve always been one of those people who needs to jot down my thoughts, lest I forget my latest brilliant idea. I used to always have a few notebooks on hand for this purpose, but they’d invariably get lost, dirty, damaged, or simply too inconvenient to keep organized. I switched to apps, but never developed the habit of doing so consistently, and turning on my phone never seemed to contribute to my productivity.
Then I discovered the Rocketbook Core reusable smart notebook . I tried it, and now it’s replaced all my productivity apps and paper notebooks—and the best part is, it’s incredibly affordable, costing me only about $24.
At first glance, the Rocketbook looks like a regular paper notebook, but its pages aren’t made of paper, but rather of a material that’s a bit like a dry erase board: you can write on it with the included stylus and then erase the ink with a damp cloth. Unlike a dry erase board, your hands won’t get stained with ink, and it won’t smear across the pages (unless you write too quickly or let the ink dry). Once dry, wiping with your fingers or a dry cloth won’t erase your handwriting.
A reusable notebook is great, of course, but the real highlight is the integration with the free Rocketbook app, which scans your notes and organizes them. At the bottom of each notebook page, you’ll find various “smart tags” that you can use to create folders or bookmarks in the Rocketbook app to categorize your scanned notes.
Let’s say you created one of seven smart tags at the bottom of the page called “Biology.” Every time you scan an image and circle this tag (or type it in the “tag” field in the lower right corner), it will be placed in this folder. You can then upload these files to other apps like Google Drive, Slack, Dropbox, or OneNote. This video explains how smart tags work in detail:
When the pen that comes with the notebook runs out, you can replace it with another one, provided you buy a suitable erasable pen . A regular pen won’t do. Since I like to keep things organized and often lose things (like the special erasable pen I need for my special notebook), I added this pen holder , which also keeps the notebook closed when not in use.
If you want to be less dependent on your phone and reduce the number of notebooks scattered around the house—and you don’t have a lot of money to spend on a Supernote or reMarkable —the Rocketbook could be a great option. For me, it was a real game changer.