Written by Dr. Michael Mulick, DO
Author’s note: I downloaded a free app and dictated this on one take just to see what would happen. I had to make a few corrections and I have indicated the app’s mistake in [brackets].
I’ve recently been spending a lot of time in my car just recording my voice. But two years ago I got off all social media. Shortly thereafter I stop listening to the news and I started listening to podcasts. Over the last few months things [have] been a little bit stressful with my family. I [needed] a little peace and quiet. I started recording my own voice just to get some thoughts [down].
I then attended the Harvard Writers conference [and] it was one of the best conferences I had ever attended and you can see my blog post about it [soon]. Since then I’ve been doing a lot more writing. I never seem to have enough time. One of the things I learned [at] the conference was to actually read what we have written out loud and see if it sounds any good. I decided to flip the tables on this lesson and try listening to what I had said and then just typing it out. I was actually very pleased with how it came out. I felt like there was a lot of really good things I was saying in the car rides and they seem like they would be good blog posts.
I decided [to] start experimenting with my iPhone and using Siri to dictate some thoughts. Next I did a little search and read about a few apps. I was disappointed to find that the best ones seem to require a payment of some type.
I think it’s really important to take a little time out for ourselves, to shut the radio off, shut the podcasts off, and get a little peace and quiet and let your mind think some thoughts. Yes, I think technology is important [but] we can use technology in a creative way to help us. [As] I started to do this I realized that there’s a lot of stuff that I wanted to say. [There] were [things] that I like to do and it’s a lot easier to think and do the things that are meaningful to me when I don’t have the news or podcasts constantly streaming info at me.
So give it a try. Get a little peace and quiet and give yourself a break from the constant consumption of information.
So what do you think? Are you a blogger or writer and never seem to have enough time to get your writing done? Have you ever tried a technique like this before where you are able to efficiently use your time and technology to write? I’d like to hear about it!