Capture your thoughts on-the-go (and a great tool to help)

If you’re like me, sometimes the best thoughts strike at the worst times…like, say, when you’re driving.

Oh sure, I’ve been known to try to scribble a note to myself - holding the wheel with my knee, trying to pay attention to oncoming traffic. I’m sure it’s not the safest way to take a note on-the-go, but when inspiration hits you’ve got to be ready.

I knew there had to be a better way to capture my thoughts while I was in the car or in a place where writing a note was just impracticable. I thought that getting a voice recorder might be just the thing I was looking for. So I did a little research online and settled on an Olympus VN-2100 digital voice recorder. It was small, cheap, and held about 6 hours of recordings in “high” quality mode. It also was stylish in a sleek-white-iPodesque kind of way.

I was happy with my new toy…er, tool…and over the next few weeks proceeded to record a ton of ideas, thoughts, next actions, and musings.

After using it for about a month I discovered that there is usually a downside for every upside.

The good:

• Easy to collect your thoughts at the end of the day on the drive home
• Easy to record next actions & follow up items
• Great for not killing yourself while driving

The not so good:

• Get strange looks from the uninitiated when you record a “note to self…”
• You have to play back the notes, one by one, and process them into your capture system
• You have to actually have the thing with you when you want to record a note, or process your thoughts

The biggest problem I had was keeping the thing with me. It’s just big enough that slipping it into a pocket - while doable - is a bit uncomfortable. I looked like I was carrying an oddly shaped lump everywhere I went. I also had a hard time developing the habit of bringing it in from the car and then back out from my desk as I came and went. It was very easy to forget it in the console of my car, and it’s tough to process your thoughts when you don’t have the recorder!

Or I would remember to take it in to my desk, I would play all of my recordings and process them, then I would promptly forget the recorder on my desk when I headed back out to the car.

I also didn’t like the fact that capturing my recoded thoughts into my workflow was a real-time process. If I recorded 15 minutes of notes, it would take at least 15 minutes to replay them and organize them on my action lists or calendar.

I loved the idea of recording my thoughts while I was out and about, but the method wasn’t really working for me.

And then I found a very cool tool called Jott (http://www.jott.com/). I would say it’s a web-based tool, but that’s not entirely correct. It’s a piece of technology that makes capturing your thoughts and ideas very easy, and takes a lot of the work out of adding the items to your action lists, calendars, etc.

For me the biggest benefit is in “Jotting” myself. I signed up and listed my cell phone as my primary “Jott” device. When I call the main number (877-568-8486) it recognizes me by my cell phone’s caller ID. It asks “Who do you want to Jott?” and I respond by saying “Me” or “Myself.” Then it beeps and I can record my thoughts, when finished I hang up.

After you’ve hung up, serious voodoo magic happens. Jott’s servers transcribe your message and email it to you. A few minutes later I get an email with a transcription of my message. I can push it right into my GTD system with minimal effort, and I don’t have to replay the message and transcribe it myself.

After using the system for a while, I’ve been very impressed at how well it works with my notes. I would say the overall transcription accuracy is 80% to 85%. The times it’s not right, I’m usually using some slang or tech jargon or I’m calling from a pretty noisy environment. The nice thing is that when it can’t understand you it will say so in the message, and you can click the little speaker icon to hear the original.

Every morning I get an overview message of all the “Jotts” I left myself from the day before.

It also lets me setup individual contacts, and group them into lists. So I can record a note and have it emailed to a co-worker, or I can record a note and have it emailed to my entire department. If I think of something in the middle of the night that my teams to tackle the next morning; I roll over, grab my cellphone and when Jott asks me who I want to send the note to I say, “team.” How slick and simple is that?

What I don’t understand though (and have had a couple of converts ask me too) is how is this free? I can’t imagine this will stay free forever -and that makes me sad because it’s such a great tool. I think if they charge for it, a lot of people will be turned off of it and not try it out. For now though, there is no fee, and the only ads I’ve seen are in the daily overview I get each morning.

Jott also works much better for me than the digital recorder because while I had a hard time keeping the Olympus with me when I needed it, I always seem to have my RAZR in it’s trusty belt pouch. So it’s not been an issue at all to call and make the note (I keep Jott’s phone number on speed-dial #9 - to call I just hold the key for 2 seconds).

When I get back to my desk, I just copy and paste my transcribed notes into Tracks for my projects and next actions, or into 30Boxes for my calendar items. It doesn’t get much easier than that.

If you already use some type of voice capture while you’re driving or away from pen and paper you know how powerful the technique can be, I encourage you to check out Jott to take the power to the next level.

If you’re not doing any voice capture you’re really missing out. When you know that you can capture your thoughts and ideas (no matter how silly they later turn out to be) they just seem to flow out. Go and get a small voice recorder or sign up for Jott. You won’t regret either decision.

And for my standard disclaimer; I’m not affiliated with Jott in any way other than being a user who stumbled across the site out on the great big “Interweb”. They simply have a wicked cool tool, that really shows how amazing technology and a good idea can produce a killer online/offline application. I’ve not been given any consideration for this review of their service. I’m just trying to find great tools for myself, and share what I find with you.

3 comments June 28th, 2007

A great little space-saving tool.

Does your wallet look like George Costanza owns it? Mine used to. One day I decided that I was sick of having a fat bulge in my back pocket, keeping me sitting slightly off-kilter, and generally hurting my posture.

I slimmed down my wallet - got rid of anything that wasn’t essential to my day-to-day activities - and moved it to my front pocket. Ahh, it was refreshing…invigorating…liberating!

There was one unintended side effect - I didn’t have room to carry the various “club cards” that were in my previous wallet. For a long time I simply didn’t care, usually the cashier at the local grocery would have a spare card at her register and swipe it for me.

But a few months ago all of the grocery stores around me stopped allowing the cashiers to use a “store” card. Customers who didn’t present a club card were out of luck (and out of saving some cash). I was not happy by this turn of events, and I wasn’t about to fatten my wallet back up with the various cards I would need to carry.

So I was extremely relieved to find JustOneClubCard.com. It’s a nifty little why-didn’t-I-think-of-that online application that creates a single, wallet-sized card with up to 8 club card barcodes on it.

No longer do I have to carry Marsh, Kroger, Dick’s Sporting Goods, and Office Depot cards (or rather, not carry them). I just entered the numbers from my real cards, and created one handy card to use!

Just One Club Card currently has over 120 cards in their database, and if you’re card isn’t listed you can use their “advanced” feature to try to create your own barcode using one of the 12 different barcode symbol sets.

You might get a few bizarre looks from cashiers when you present your all-in-one club card to them. So far I’ve only used it at Marsh and Kroger and at both places I’ve received the odd look, but I’ve been able to successfully convince the cashier it’s really a legitimate club card code.

So give it a try, your wallet (and your back) will thank you!

Add comment June 19th, 2007

Let the thoughts flow…

I’m a fan of pen and paper - I like to make notes on 3×5 cards and I always carry spare notes with me. But finding a good pen - one that you can use but not worry to much if you lose - is always a challenge.

I love fountain pens and I use them at work and at home. They’re delightfully retro and really get my creative juices flowing. But a lot of times I just want to dash off a quick note and being a “lefty” makes using fountain pens an exercise in patience and control or the entire side of my left hand turns blue.

So when I’m on-the-go, or just need to dash off a quick note, I reach for something else. And by and large I dislike ball point pens. I know, everyone raves about the Fischer Bullet Space Pen, and I own one, but my preference is for something other than a ball point. I usually gravitate towards Paper Mate felt-tip pens. They leave an effortless line on the page, and I usually don’t smudge my hand to much with them. But they’re still not perfect.

So imagine my surprise when I found a lose Paper Mate “Liquid Expresso” pen at work a few months ago. They’re a felt-tip pen, but they’re fed by real, liquid ink. So they write almost exactly like a fountain pen, but dry quickly and work for a lefty.

The only complaint I have is that they feather a little on cheap 3×5 cards. But then so do fountain pens and plain-ol’ felt-tip pens, so I’m really no worse off.

But the line they lay on paper is amazingly smooth. The tip just glides across good paper; it’s hard to describe, but a pleasant surprise for a pen that costs about $1.75. In my opinion, they write a heck of a lot better than the Pilot G2 gel pens that so many GTD’ers love so much.

And the price is low enough that if I do misplace a pen (or more likely one “grows legs” and walks off my desk) I don’t worry to much about it. If you’re a picky pen person, I highly recommend you check them out for yourself.

And for the record, I don’t have any connection with Paper Mate, this is just my own opinion and it’s not bought or paid for. Hopefully if you’re a pen-and-paper devotee this will be a helpful little article about a pen you may not have tried yet!

1 comment June 16th, 2007