Because I work from home and do 98% of my work on the telephone with the support of email communications, I spend a lot of time on my computer. A few weeks ago I was suddenly overwhelmed. I review marketing plans for people in my Get Clients Now! tele-class programs. With 2 programs running, I had a lot of plans to review on top of my usual email interactions. By 3 or 4 pm each day, I just couldn’t type any more.
A friend with carpal tunnel syndrome told me about Dragon NaturallySpeaking 9.0, a software program that allows you to speak into a headset with your email program open. It does the transcription and purports to transcribe your words up to 99% accuracy. After a couple of weeks of research I decided to purchase it as another Get Clients Now! program was about to start.
It’s been a week now, and it’s working! I won’t tell you that it’s all that much faster than when I type. As an introvert, typing keeps pace with my thinking. But, when I’m flowing, it goes quickly, too. I sometimes stutter (I found out) when I’m composing my thoughts, so I have to take time to correct it’s attempts to come up with real words when this happens. (Once, I even yelled “shut up!” at my dog, forgetting my headset was on.) However, the more I work with it, the more it “learns” to recognize how I speak and the words I use.
It’s more relaxing than typing, too. I found I could review a report a client sent me and dictate my feedback without twisting around, back and forth, in my chair.
Costs? From www.amazon.com, $139 (I got the Preferred edition so I could use it with Office programs and on the Internet.) Additional memory for my computer: $60 and a more comfortable headset: $50. Impact on my welfare and ability to do my work: priceless.
In one of the chapters in our book, we talk about some of the things that make it easier for women with auto immune diseases to start a business and work from home. Dragon NaturallySpeaking would definitely be one of them, especially if your illness makes it hard to use your hands and a keyboard. I imagine it would be a viable resource when working for a company as well, though I wonder how it would work in a cubicle situation.
Joan
I tried Dragon a few years ago and found that it made too many mistakes and was too cumbersome. Sounds like they have improved it a lot. I think I’ll give it another try. Thanks.