Two months ago I penned down a piece on how the iPad allowed me to create a new habit field, one surrounding fun and entertainment, which inadvertently created another habit field of using the Mac as a production device. At least I hoped it would, and had been pursuing that workflow for at least a week before publishing that piece.

I try not to publish things I’m not absolutely sure of. You know, write about some application stating it will change the way you work, and next week moving on to something else — it has happened, and I hate myself for it. When it came to publishing this particular piece, I was most hesitant. After all, I had had the iPad in my possession for just over a month, so it might have been the try-to-do-everything-on-the-shiny-new-gadget syndrome. But it felt right, so I took a leap of faith and published it anyway.

It’s been two months since that article, and I can stand by every word. I might even want to add some to that. When it comes to surfing the web, I hardly miss the Mac. The desktop definitely helps while researching and gathering data, with its superior tabs and caching capabilities (rather, the iPad’s inferior caching and non-tabbed user interface is a bitch). The desktop is also much faster at loading pages, even on my connection. It’s sad that I can’t prepare and publish posts right from the iPad, but that’s just the way it is. But for regular surfing, checking out websites, looking through Tumblr, and seeing the latest on Boston Big Picture (of which i can’t wait for the iPad app), the iPad has been extremely accommodating.

When it comes to email, I’ve ditched the desktop almost completely. I’ve been receiving and responding to most email directly from the iPad, with almost no difficulty (though is it too much to ask for separate signature for different accounts?). Moreover, I suspect that people who do receive an email ‘Sent from an iPad’ appreciate the effort even more, but I have no evidence to back that claim. I’ve so far avoided launching Mail on the desktop because of it’s painful sync with the cloud, especially since my Internet connection isn’t worth talking about. Mail on the iPad still is a long way from perfection. Its searching capabilities are laughable. That, coupled with MobileMe Web’s equally pathetic search means I have to go back to the desktop if I need to find something. I could also do with a unified inbox and threaded conversations, but I guess I’ll have to wait a while for that to happen. The most relieving aspect of the iPad mail, is the keyboard. I love the soft keyboard. Moreover, unlike the iPhone, it allows you to see much more of what you’re typing, and replying to, so you never lose perspective.

The one ‘play’ task that doesn’t work for me on the iPad, is IM. Instant Messaging is mostly not a focussed task. I prefer to do something else while IM’ing. So I usually don’t sign in on AIM on the iPad. If Apple were to allow developers to interact with those notifications, much like biteSMS allows in-notification replying to SMS in any application, that would be something worth talking about. Hopefully iOS 5 will have some major overhaul to the notification system. Till then it’s iChat on the desktop.

Was it too difficult sticking to this workflow? Not at all, but it takes practice. During the first few weeks I’d occasionally open up Tumblr from my Mac, which I had to very consciously close before I looked at it. Favstar was another. Now those tasks are completely absent from my desktop. I never access Twitter from my Mac. I have to get up from my work chair, and pick up the iPad. It’s gotten to a point where I don’t even think about Twitter while I’m working.

Now to get to the meat of the argument: Has it made me more productive? That’s a little hard for me to judge, but I can tell you that I’m much more aware of what I’m doing. I can tell whether it’s been a productive day, or whether I’m been fooling around on Twitter, based on how much I’ve used either platform. “The most dangerous way to lose time is not to spend it having fun, but to spend it doing fake work.”[1. Paul Graham: How to lose time and money.] And if I’m determined to finish something off, I distance myself from the iPad for that time. For perspective, I didn’t look at Twitter even once while doing the SA and BP redesigns. It was 100% concentration.

Hope that helps.