The “low battery” light on my guitar transmitter came on just as I was finishing my gig last night. I made a mental note to pick up a pack of replacement batteries, but I have limited space on my mental bulletin board, if you know what I mean. If I don’t write it down somewhere, it rarely gets done. I’ve known this about myself for a long time; that’s why I keep a to-do list and check it frequently. That works pretty well as long as I stick to it.
But Murphy’s Law will have its’ due. It seems like every time I’m in the car or in a situation where jotting down a note to myself is inconvenient at best, dangerous at worst, some little idea bubbles to the surface. There are several ways to deal with the problem. Some people carry a little voice recorder. Some people call their own voicemail or answering machine and leave themselves a message. Neither of those appeal to me. In addition to being a musician, I also hold down a day job as a network admin and carry a small arsenal of geek toys – thumb drive, PDA, cell phone, iPod, laptop, portable external USB drive, etc. What I don’t need is one more little device to carry around and have to keep track of. I confess, I’m also bad about checking my voicemail. More often than not, mine is audio junkmail.
What to do?
The perfect solution for me comes in the form of a free service called Jott. It’s simple and convenient and can be used practically anywhere a cell phone can be used. Here’s how it works:
- go to http://www.jott.com/ and sign up for a free account. You’ll have to validate your email address and a phone number, but it’s relatively quick, painless and free.
- set yourself up as a contact. You can add other contacts as well or even import your whole contact list if you’re the chatty type.
- call Jott’s toll free number 877-568-8486. I added it as a speed dial number for convenience.
- wait for the prompt “who do you want to jott?”, reply “myself” (substitute the appropriate contact or list name here), wait for the tone, then dictate your message.
- hang up and forget about it. I said “dictate” for a reason – your message will be transcribed and emailed to you or other desired recipients along with a link to a recording of your original voice message.
When you next check your email your “mental note” will be waiting and you can deal with it then or add it to your to-do list or calendar. (I use Remember the Milk and Google Calendar for a seamless, ubiquitous, total Web 2.0 solution. And did I mention they’re all free?)
So far I use Jott strictly for notes to myself, but you can also use it to email or SMS other individuals in your contact list or set up groups. Got a great idea for your team’s upcoming sales presentation but you’re on the road and can’t safely fumble with your Blackberry? Jott them a note. Got a great lyric idea for a song you’re working on? Jott it down. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’ll bet I could even sing a song idea and get some sort of transcript, or at least a web link to a recording of me warbling into my phone… The possibilities are myriad. Want to show your wife that you’re thinking of her? Umm, no. Take her out to dinner instead. Let’s not take this Jott thing too far…
Keep in mind that there’s a real live breathing human being someplace, trying to make sense of your mumbled message and transcribing it to an email or SMS, so be kind – keep it short and speak clearly. You’ll get a link to a lo-fi audio recording of your call included in the email too, just in case. I’ve found a few Jott transcriptions to be pretty strange, but when I listened to the audio it became obvious that there was a ratty cell connection at fault. It’s also worth mentioning that, although Jott has measures in place to ensure your privacy, you probably won’t want to dictate highly personal information, credit card numbers or detailed plans for your next bank robbery via Jott either.
Surf on over to http://www.jott.com/ and check it out — it might just be the missing piece to your personal GTD time management strategy. Great idea? Lame excuse to use a massive technological infrastructure when a simple post-it note would suffice? Got a better or alternative solution? Leave a comment here and let us know what you think.