I am constantly in search of the “Holy Grail” of productivity tools and software. In fact, I probably waste a lot of productive time looking for the next best thing when it comes to managing my time and “to do’s”. About a year and a half ago, I stumbled upon Jott at jott.com. I used the free app for most of that time and I really only used it occasionally even though I found it to be a very useful application. Basically, you sign up for a Jott account at jott.com and tie that account to your mobile phone number. Then you simply call the (866) JOTT-123 (or if you hate phone numbers with letters like I do – 866-568-8123). A recorded voice asks you “Who do you want to jott?” and you reply typically with something like, “myself”. The record voice responds, “jott yourself, is this correct?”. You respond, “Yes”. Then you will hear a beep and you have about 15 seconds to leave a message. Through the miracle of the internet, your voice is transcribed into text and sent back to the email address you provide on your jott account profile.
Jott also allows you to send jotts to your Google calendar, and a couple of other options. If you are willing to pony up for one of the two paid accounts, you can send jotts to the email addresses of others that you create in your Jott address book. You can also send jotts to other applications like Twitter, Facebook, and Remember the Milk. It was the last one of these that prompted me to subscribe to a paid account. I have started using Remember the Milk as my “to do” manager both online and particularly on my iPhone. It is the best to do tool I have found for my needs so far. I will write more about Remember the Milk another time.
The paid Jott account subscription also provides for faster transcription and more integration. I am using it regularly with Remember the Milk, but I have also used it with Twitter, Facebook, and even my WordPress blog here at Quawkle.com. I have also emailed my wife using Jott. I am not sure I would trust using it with my work-related email needs for fear of erroneous transcriptions, but in testing it with personal emails, it has performed remarkably well. As long as you speak clearly and not too quickly, the transcription almost always is spot on. I like that you do not have to talk like a robot in order to be understood.