My home was a fire hazard. When the pandemic hit in 2020, I went on a minimalism kick. I decided to declutter my house, which included turning my house paperless. I became a scanning fiend, putting everything into Dropbox, which I then backed up to Box.
I arranged for a local shredding service to pick up and destroy 13 banker’s boxes and seven hard drives. I felt cleaner and lighter. And my office became an organized haven for working.
And then life went on. But the stacks of paper and file folders started to grow again, like weeds. Once in a while, I would get around to scanning piles again, but it became a chore and I rarely had the time to devote to the growing stacks.
And my office suffered.
So I tried a few alternatives. First was the Rocketbook smart notebook, but the pens and the actual notebooks were awkward for me. And turning them into PDFs was inconvenient. Next I tried the GoodNotes app, along with the Apple pencil (actually, a knock-off). But I kept getting distracted by messages on my iPad and the pencil kept having to be recharged at the most inconvenient times.
Also, writing on my iPad screen felt slippery and uncomfortable. Back to the stacks, it seemed.
Good-bye Stacks
Then, recently, I was in a meeting with my insurance guy and he was using what I have now found to be my next big kick: the ReMarkable 2. It is going to change my life and my business.
The ReMarkable 2 (an update from their original offering, the ReMarkable 1) touts itself as the next generation paper tablet, and there are several huge features that I love:
- It actually feels as if I am writing on paper; it provides the friction I am used to when writing on actual paper
- It allows me to focus on what I am doing without any distractions that I would experience on other devices
- I can resize sections, move them and delete them
- It allows for multiple layers for editing so I can choose what to display if I am sketching things out
Different types of paper
When creating a new document on the ReMarkable 2, I can choose from a variety of paper templates, including: blank paper, various line widths, various grids, dots, music, calligraphy, storyboards, day planners, and other designs. And I can choose between portrait and landscape orientation.
Connect Plan
While the ReMarkable is an outright purchase, you can subscribe to its * Connect Plan (after an initial 100 days free) so that anything you create on the ReMarkable 2 can be uploaded to OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive. It also can be emailed with comments.
https://support.remarkable.com/hc/en-us/articles/4408237619857
This monthly plan also includes unlimited cloud storage in your my.ReMarkable.com portal. But perhaps the biggest draw of the Connect Plan is that it converts your handwriting to text so that you can search PDFs for content.
I think it converts pretty well:
The Connect Plan also extends the warranty to 36 months.
The Connect Lite Plan, offered at a lower fee, does not include the integration with Google Drive, Dropbox and OneDrive and also does not do handwriting conversion or any of the other fun stuff.
Chrome extension
There also is a Chrome extension that takes any web page I am looking at and sends it to my ReMarkable to view and/or mark it up later, without any distractions that I might otherwise encounter on my computer or iPad:
ReMarkable documents are accessible on other devices
There is a desktop and mobile app as well. Aside from uploading them to cloud drives, here is a screenshot of my documents from the ReMarkable Desktop app:
Battery
Unlike my knock-off Apple pencil, ReMarkable’s Marker does not need charging. As for the ReMarkable 2 tablet itself, I found that its battery stays charged for a long time before I need to recharge it.
Pricing
Here is what you need to know about purchasing the ReMarkable 2: it is not cheap and only you can decide if it is worth it to you. There is a 100 day trial period, and you really cannot beat that. The prices below are in USD:
- The ReMarkable 2 costs $299.
- The magnetic marker is extra: You can purchase the Marker at $79 or the Marker Plus at $129. The Marker plus has an integrated eraser (erasing is possible without using it but it’s more accessible using the Marker Plus).
- Marker tips: ReMarkable 2 comes with eight tips, and how long the tips last will depend on your usage.
- The Connect Plan (after the first 100 days free) costs $7.99 per month (Connect Lite is $4.99 per month).
- You will want to buy a folio to protect your device, and they are available on the site, ranging from $79 to $169. But I purchased a cheaper one on Amazon that had a sleeve for the Marker. I found that more secure than relying on the magnets in the Marker to avoid losing it. Just keep in mind that if you are buying a folio elsewhere, it is not part of the 100-day trial period offered by ReMarkable.
- Speaking of Amazon, I know that there are non-ReMarkable markers that purport to work with the ReMarkable 2. I have no experience with them so cannot recommend them or their replacement nibs at this time.
Only you can decide if the ReMarkable 2 is worth it for you. I have decided that it is worth it for me, because now that I am keeping the stacks of paper at bay, my home and office are neater and safer. And really, with a 100-day trial period (including the Connect Plan), what have you got to lose?
If you're interested in purchasing a ReMarkable at a discount, use Esther's referral code HERE.
Insightful Accountant is giving away a Remarkable 2 and a Marker Plus at "Scaling New Heights" next week, so stop by Booth 148 to register for the giveaway.
Esther Friedberg Karp is an internationally-renowned trainer, writer and speaker from Toronto, where she runs her QuickBooks consulting practice, EFK CompuBooks Inc. Consistently in Insightful Accountant's Top 100 ProAdvisors, she has been named to the Top 10 twice.
A ProAdvisor in three countries, she has traveled the world with Intuit, spoken at QuickBooks Connect in San Jose and Toronto, among other places, and has written countless articles for Intuit Global.
Esther has been named one of the “Top 50 Women in Accounting,” a “Top 10 Influencer” in the Canadian Bookkeeping World, and is a repeat nominee for the “RBC Canadian Women’s Entrepreneur Awards.” She counts among her clients many international companies, as well as accounting professionals seeking her out on behalf of their own clients for her expertise in multi-currency and various countries’ editions of QuickBooks Desktop and Online.
She can be reached at esther@e-compubooks.com or 416-410-0750.
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