Quickly Create a Note Without Unlocking Your iPad
This trick is exclusive to the iPad, but it’s a great way to jot down a note on the fly — without the need to even turn your iPad’s screen on first. It’s a nice trick that’ll save some time if you’re in a hurry.
There are two ways to do this. If your iPad’s screen is locked, all you need to do is grab your Apple Pencil and tap your iPad’s screen. That will automatically open a new note, even if the screen is off. Since your iPad remains locked, you’ll only be able to create a new note, not browse through any old ones.
If your iPad’s screen is already unlocked, you can also swipe down from the top to bring up the Notification Center, and then grab your Apple Pencil and tap on the screen from there. This will also quickly open the Notes app with a new note ready to go, but since your iPad is already unlocked, you’ll be able to access previous notes from here too.
You can also go into Settings > Notes > Access Notes from Lock Screen to determine whether this always creates a new note, or resumes the last note you created or viewed within a certain timeframe. For instance, you could configure the settings to pull up the same note throughout the day, letting you continue to add to it like a journal, while automatically creating a blank note for the next day.
You can also quickly create notes on the iPhone in a similar manner, but since the iPhone doesn’t support the Apple Pencil, the process isn’t quite as fast. You’ll need to add the Notes icon to Control Centre and pull it up from there. Plus, if you want this to work from the Lock Screen, you’ll need to ensure that Control Centre access isn’t locked out in your iPhone’s security settings.