For a few years, I wore it like a badge. “I run everything on my iPad Pro.” And I meant it.
Not as a flex, but because it was genuinely true. Reading, research, writing, light editing, and media consumption. Somewhere around 80% of everything I did on a daily basis happened on that one slab of glass and aluminum, and I loved the simplicity of it.
It fit the way I wanted to live: focused, minimal, uncluttered.
Then I became a full-time content creator and blogger. And slowly, without really noticing it at first, my MacBook started creeping back into the picture.
It didn’t happen all at once. It started with “just the final edits.” Then publishing. Then a few things that were faster to handle on a proper keyboard with a proper file system.
But the real shift came when I added podcasting to the mix, and then recording bedtime stories on top of that.
Suddenly, I wasn’t just writing and publishing anymore. I was managing audio files, editing recordings, jumping between tools, and trying to hold together a workflow that had quietly become a lot more demanding than it used to be.
And that’s the thing about being a content creator that nobody really warns you about: the more seriously you take it, the more your toolchain starts to matter.
More Than Writing
It’s not just writing anymore. It’s recording, editing, scheduling, distributing, and doing all of it in a way that doesn’t make you want to throw your computer out the window.
That requires speed. It requires switching between applications without lag. It requires a device that doesn’t make you wait.
The iPad Pro is powerful. I want to be clear about that, because this isn’t a story about the iPad failing me. It can technically handle everything I do.
But “technically handle” and “actually efficient” are two very different things. iPadOS has been inching closer to a real desktop experience for years now, and Apple deserves credit for that.
But there are still too many restrictions in the file system, in multitasking, in the way certain pro apps behave that slow me down at exactly the moments when I need to move fast.
When you’re deep in a workflow and something interrupts that momentum, it costs more than just a few seconds. It costs your focus. And focus, for someone who creates for a living, is everything.
So the MacBook is back as the primary. And honestly? I had to get over a little bit of stubbornness to admit that. I’d built part of my identity around being an iPad-first person.
It felt almost like admitting defeat. But looking back, I think that stubbornness actually slowed my growth. I was spending energy working around limitations instead of just… working.
The moment I stopped fighting the tool and started using the right one for the job, things moved faster.
Moving Soon
This shift is also making me rethink my desk setup entirely. I’m moving to a new house soon.
One with a bigger, dedicated office space, and for the first time in a while, I’m genuinely excited to design that environment from scratch. A larger external monitor is back on the table.
So is proper soundproofing, which matters a lot more now that I’m recording regularly. And a better microphone, because if you’re going to do audio, you might as well do it right.
I’ve got a month or two before the move, which is actually a good amount of time to think it through without rushing into purchases. I’d rather get it right once than upgrade piece by piece because I was impatient.
Final Word
As for the iPad Pro, it’s not going anywhere. It still plays a real and specific role in how I work. When I sit down to write, or when I want to think through ideas without the noise of a full desktop environment pulling me in seventeen directions, the iPad is where I go.
It’s focused by design. That constraint, which used to frustrate me in a workflow context, is actually a feature when I’m trying to get into a creative headspace. I’m trying to live more intentionally with technology.
Less noise, more purpose, and the iPad fits that part of my life well. It’s also still my default device around the house and on the road.
But the days of it being my everything?
Those are behind me. And I think that’s fine. The goal was never to be loyal to a device. It was to do the work well. Right now, that means knowing which tool to pick up and when, and being honest enough with myself to make the switch when it matters.
