I only use my Kindle Scribe for these 4 things

• To-do lists
• Weekly planning
• General note-taking
• Reading at home
• Do I think the Kindle Scribe is worth buying?

I wish my work space was worthy of an aesthetic ‘it girl’ Pinterest board, I really do. Instead, I was blessed with the organizational tendencies of a mad scientist who jumps across her desk to ravenously write down ideas as soon as they pop into her head. I had pens strewn across the desktop and notebooks stacked higher than my monitors with notes from over the years.

A couple of months ago, I decided to try Amazon’s E Ink tablet and see if it could improve my workflow, albeit nervously. Full of skepticism and an “if paper ain’t broke, don’t fix it” mentality, I entered my digital notebook era with doubts and emerged organized and surprisingly satisfied.

I won’t say the Kindle Scribe revolutionized my entire workflow because it hasn’t. There are still things I still use paper exclusively for, and other functions that the E Ink tablet couldn’t possibly take on itself — there’s no way I’m opening a spreadsheet in an e-reader under any circumstances. But, here are the four things I use my Kindle Scribe for the most.

To-do lists

Check one, check two

The very first thing I did on my Kindle Scribe was use the checklist template to make a general to-do list. Between being a full-time editor, part-time freelancer, and the kind of person who can never say no to a good social gathering, there’s always some task or chore that needs completing. I typically create several lists at a time and often deal with everything from daily to quarterly to-do lists — which is what I primarily use my Kindle Scribe for.

Before I was a digital notebook user, these checklists would live in my Apple Notes, paper agendas, and on random pages of half a dozen notebooks. It wasn’t the most organized process; sometimes I’d stumble upon long-forgotten lists between meeting notes and realize I had never completed a certain task. Worse were the lists I needed to find but couldn’t remember where I had put them.

Enter the Kindle Scribe. I have one specific notebook called “To-Do” with several pages: Today, This Week, This Month, and This Quarter. That way, I can flip through the digital pages and know exactly what needs to be done and when. If I run out of room, I don’t have to rip off a new sheet of stationery or start a new paper page that increases the risk of tasks falling through the cracks. Should I split these into separate notebooks? Maybe, but I prefer categorizing my lists together so everything is accounted for.

Weekly planning

Not so much daily or monthly

If you couldn’t gather from the last section, I’m a planner. My days are ruled by a daily to-do list, weekly organizer, and monthly calendar. The daily to-do is covered by my Kindle Scribe’s checklist feature, but it also has Weekly planner and Monthly Planner templates built right into the operating system.

The Weekly planner template looks exactly like my old paper stationery, and so planning my weeks on the E Ink tablet quickly became second nature. It helps me organize my to-do list by day, and I’ve noticed a significant boost in my productivity since. However, when it comes to monthly planning, I keep that on my paper calendar. I prefer seeing it on my wall, where I can glance up anytime instead of exiting out of a notebook I’m jotting notes in and risking losing my train of thought.

General note-taking

A lifesaver for meetings, phone calls, and anything else worth noting

Kindles are famous for being single-use devices, and being quite good at it. The Kindle Scribe is no different, but I’d argue it serves two roles: an e-reader (of course) to replace books, and a digital notebook to replace your stack of physical notebooks. That’s exactly what my Kindle Scribe did in the last month or so, and now composition books are sitting nicely underneath my desk, chaos enclosed and not bothering the now quite zen landscape of my workspace.

I have specific notebooks for recurring meetings, recaps of important phone calls, budgeting moves, recipes I want to try, books I want to read, and even a running list of business plans. There’s even a ‘misc.’ notebook I created for quick-hit ideas that need immediate transcription that I go to if I ever struggle to remember where I jotted something down.

Reading at home

It’s a little big to lug around

The Kindle Scribe is a Kindle, after all. While the larger 10.2-inch display is bulky (and heavy) cargo for a book bag, no one can argue that reading isn’t a scrumptious experience on a Kindle Scribe. The large display can fit significantly more text on it, so you aren’t constantly tapping to turn the screen. It’s great for entertaining books, yes — but even better for reading articles I download from the web.

I’m an avid article and Substack essay collector, and the Scribe’s display is notably better for consuming that kind of media, unlike on my Paperwhite or base Kindle where the format may experience some smushing.

Do I think the Kindle Scribe is worth buying?

Yes, but you should know what you’re getting it for

I only use my Kindle Scribe for the four predominant things I listed above. It really comes down to what the E Ink tablet is at its core: an e-reader, and a physical notebook replacement. The Scribe blows expectations for both things out of the water, but you must note that at its regular $420 starting price, those purposes feel awfully simple.

If you’re someone like me who lives by her checklist and wide array of notes (with a bookworm tendency on the side), the Scribe is a worthwhile investment. However, like I’ve recommended before, I’d wait for a sale before I bought it again. It’s worth the cost, but it’s still intimidating for someone who isn’t sure how a digital notebook may fit into their workflow.

I was the perfect example of such a person, but I quickly realized that as the Kindle Scribe digitized my notes, it optimized my productivity. So yes — I may mostly use my Kindle for the activities above, but it makes all those activities even more convenient and organized.