This question has been posed before but this time I found a lucid discussion on the topic by two individuals that have for over a year used their iPad’s for virtually everything including writing a book, #iPad Only, on the subject. The authors; Augusto Pinaud and Michael Silwinski never met face-to-face even while writing the book. By the way, Augusto lives in Fort Wayne Indiana and Michael lives Europe. Both are successful entrepreneurs; Augusto’s passion is writing and helping people get organized. Michael is the founder of Nozbe.com, a time and project management application with native apps for the Mac, Windows, iPhone, iPad and Android. In that capacity he manages 15 employees scattered around the world.

I will not try here to make their arguments but will provide a glimpse into the thought pattern. They say “The iPad was never designed to substitute the computer in a literal sense. It was designed to help us realize we didn’t need a full-blown computer for most of our computing tasks”. In other words – look at what we want to do not how we have always done it. For instance have you ever sent an email referencing an attachment and forgot to include the attachment? Ya, me too. That happens because in most environments you construct the email and then do the attachment. On the iPad, and on the iPhone for that matter (remember both use iOS), you go to the item you want to send, tap on it and tap share. Then you direct to whom and how you want it sent. No way to forget.

Obviously the iPad has many benefits; size,weight and battery life that can make what we do, particularly if one travels, easier and most certainly lighter. As I read the book some of the ideas I knew and others I had been doing without thinking about it. Having said that the approach they take on workflow changes provided a new look at productivity and how best to obtain it. If you use an iPad I think you will find the book, and the time you put in reading it, a good investment – I did. By the way, I wrote this post, and many others for that matter, on my iPad with a Belkin keyboard case.