Good ideas have a habit of arriving at inconvenient moments, usually when pen and paper are unavailable or using a keyboard is perilous. A technology I use to get around this is Apple iOS voice to text. On the iPhone, whenever you’re presented with a text box iOS almost always includes a microphone icon. That means, when you’re on the go, you can record a new idea with the same ease as conducting a Google voice search.
Until recently, I used a popular note taking application. Unfortunately, all my ideas were either mashed together as one big text file or separated into multiple files, one per recording. Organizing, collating, and making everything usable was tedious.
Then it struck me, I could use Smartsheet to capture my voice to text transcriptions in individual cells. I created a sheet and added a web form with only one field, a text box.
When I hit the submit button the form returns to itself, presenting a new place for another new idea or note.
I just took the form link from here,
And pasted it into the Send the user to this URL field.
I now had a loop.
Next, I opened the form in my iPhone’s Safari web browser and pressed the Send To button at the bottom of the screen.
Then I pressed the Add to Home Screen button.
Which added the form to my iPhone’s screen, just as though it were an app.
Now I can record and transcribe notes while on the go.
Then at my leisure, add categories and sort them.
Since I began doing this I haven’t even opened that popular note taking application I used to record into.
Here is one final thought. Stay safe. Don’t use this on the road. Using voice transcription still requires touching your screen. When you touch your screen you’re taking your eyes off the road.