Collapsing a bucket

[ineilh]

Hello,

I'm new to GTD (l.5 months) and new to the forum.

One of the interesting things I've noticed on GTD is that my brain regularly spits out a slew of new projects and associated NA's has soon as I get in my car and start driving. I was using my cell phones voice memo feature to capture it all but its storage is limited and it was definitely a bottle-neck to sit down and dictate them into outlook.

I did a two week free trial with a company that does phone dictation to email. This was fantastic! An idea pops in my head, I pick up the phone, speed dial and speak and presto, it gets emailed to myself. I have my phone with me constantly and capturing by voice manages to keep up with the pace of my brain when its in that mode. Plus, when I get back to my computer, projects and NA's transfer to outlook w/ simple cut and paste. No dictation.

It's rediculously smooth and easy. Problem is, most of these companies charge alot for this, up to 150/mo. After alot of research, and establishing a personal relationship, I found a company that will do 60 messages per month for 45/ month, way less than anything else I could find.

Anybody else interested in this? Feedback? Anybody with similar challenges, solutions? I'm actually thinking of starting a side business tailored for GTD practitioners if there is enough interest. I just started using this and I want to check out the quality for awhile before I actually refer anyone.

 

[jazzsyx]

Hi!

I have the same problem...I have a digital recorder, but lent it to a friend. I wasn't using it much at the time. Meanwhile, I'm now having a ton of thoughts in the car & the phone is ok, but as you mentioned, limited storage. And with both, it's a little weird hearing me say "call so & so, and....uh....darn...what else was I going to say.....umm.....shoot!" end recording. Then another recording "oh yeah 1 thing and 2 thing and oh *!&$ I can't remember what else!" And then remembering to look at it & transcribe any messages...right....

Not that anything is probably going to help my short term memory!

I was using a beta of software that you called in & it could create tasks or meetings for you. It was pretty cool. Even if it didn't always translate exactly. A few chuckles from some of those. I stopped using it before the beta was up mainly because I couldn't get to it fast enough. I would dial an 800 #, wait for it to answer, then say whatever I wanted....then....as usual....I would forget the 5 other things I had in my mind that I was SURE I'd remember...so I kept being prompted..."to add another task, say add task". I'm like shutup I'm thinking! Totally blanked. Then hang up. Oh yeah now I remember! Call back....wait for answer & prompts...ok now where was I? *#)#$*(%#$*)$*($ I can't REMEMBER!

Now I realize there isn't any system that will fix my memory problem! It is a great idea, and at least it would attach a copy of your message to yourself in wav format or something. So if the translation didn't come through clearly, you could at least listen & see if you could understand what you said. It just seemed to take too long to get to the actual time you could start talking.

If you could come up with software that would take your digitally recorded files and transcribe them for you into tasks and appointments -that would be cool. I'm sure there's something similar out there, but I'm not sure, and not sure I could afford it if there was!

 

[elf]

You can buy a digital voice recorder that will upload to your PC. I know RadioShack has them, starting at $40 for a 2 hour recorder, up to the $200 range for a really nice one with extra long life. I'm sure you can get them elsewhere as well.

 

[Nikita]

And use good voice recognition software, like Dragon Naturally Speaking. If you do a lot of dictation (or are developing problems with your arms from computer usage) it's worth the time to teach it your voice.