How long does it take you to type an email?

When I was in college in the late 1990s, a friend in mine had a challenge - he was a slow-typer.  He’d never learned proper typing technique, so his two-finger method would take hours longer than it needed to.

I remember walking into his room one weekend and seeing him at his computer with a headset. He’d just installed brand-new voice recognition software.

He absolutely loved it.

It saved him time and helped him relax. And it was fairly accurate.

I was amazed at this new technology that could recognize his voice and record it into typed words with incredible accuracy.  

Fast forward to today, and almost all of us have voice recognition software like this in our pockets.  Our smart phones literally have this feature built into them.

I personally use Siri every single day. I even purchased a Bluetooth headset - as dorky looking as they are - just to be able to better use this software.

I even write most of my blog posts by speaking into my phone.

Sure, the voice recognition software isn't perfect, but it’s the first phase of my writing. It's my uninterrupted creative draft. I can then switch my brain to editing mode and quickly publish my articles.

It absolutely saves me a ton of time - even though I type fairly fast.

What is surprising to me, is that I still see those who type with two fingers, and wonder just how much time they could save if the used their voice instead.

How much time could you save a week by using voice recognition software on your smart phone?

ACTION ITEM: Complete one writing task today by using some sort of voice recognition software instead of typing it out.