Day 823: Dictation, day 29 - Trying out morning writing
I got up on time today, but I had a little bit of IBS this morning. However, I took some medicine and was able to get out of the house by 9:30. It's not as early as I wanted to go out walking and dictating, but it's earlier than I have been for the past several weeks. I wanted to try the dictation in the morning, before I did most of my other “frogs," in order to see if I dictate a little better in the morning as opposed to the afternoon or evening.
I was also a little late getting out of the house because I was unprepared. That's my fault. I should have gotten everything ready the night before, but I just didn't think of it. I'll be ready next time. This morning, I had to print out my blocking notes so that I could use them while dictating. I have been reading my blocking notes on my phone, but it times it's very difficult to read. Also, the phone will often go to sleep, and I need to juggle it so I can use my thumb to unlock it. It’s only a small thing, but it’s very annoying. I hope the pages printed out will solve that problem.
I am excited to get back to dictating. I think I am getting more used to it. I don't know if I've really been changing how I think. I started to wonder if that's really something that I would be able to do. It's one thing to change my output from typing to dictation. I'm not changing anything in my mind really, I'm just changing the place I send the thoughts, whether to my hands or my mouth.
But in trying to think in complete sentences, it's a more fundamental change in how I think at all. However I want to give this a shot. I think maybe one of the reasons I have difficulty thinking in sentences is because of my perfectionist tendencies. I want the sentence to come out exactly right. When I write via typing, I will often stop to think before I type something. Not all the time, but a lot of the time when I'm not sure exactly what to say, before I finally type out the sentence, I will think about how to phrase it. This makes me wonder if I would really be able to change the way I think in my head so that I can dictate more cleanly.
But I'm not opposed to at least trying it. If I concentrate really hard I find that I can think in longer phrases now. But it requires a lot of focus. I will try to do it again today, and see how that goes.
I know that I also need to relax my perfectionist tendencies and just dictate the first thing that comes to mind. This will be hard to do. Not simply because my perfectionist tendencies are strong, but because I still have a lingering doubt about how my editing will go. I suppose I simply have to let go of that fear. I'll just have to try my best with my editing and hope that I can do a good job and make the prose the same as when I type and edit as I write. I think that if I can be sure to give it my best, it will be okay. The editing is bad usually when I'm trying to rush through it. Unfortunately, when I have a lot of stuff to edit, I will usually be tempted to rush through it. I don't want to take my time, because I don't want the editing to take too long.
I suppose I will simply have to learn to practice how to focus and concentrate on the editing. It will be hard, but I think it will be possible. I've been reading about focused concentration in the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, so maybe I can apply those principles to my editing to make it as intense and efficient as possible.
***
I'm sorely disappointed! I lost about 20 or 25 minutes of dictation because I didn’t turn off the HOLD button.
But then again, I felt like the dictation had been going quite badly. I have been trying really hard to think in sentences, but that necessarily made me pause a lot more. I knew that would happen, but it still makes me feel as though the dictation went poorly. So I was concentrating, but I still made a lot of mistakes that will have to be deleted later.
I suppose I am being impatient. I want to see more forward progress than what I have made. My average dictation speed hasn't increased in the past couple weeks. That's disappointing.
Then again, I've gotten more used to the physical sensation of dictation. I also think I am enunciating better. So I suppose that is improvement.
***
This time, I sat at my desk while I waited for Dragon to transcribe my dictation, and my transcription time was almost the same amount of time as dictation. That was both surprising and frustrating. I don’t know what else I can do to make my computer work faster. I can’t even use any other program on my computer while Dragon is working. I did some work on my iPad while I was waiting, but there are several things I can’t do on my iPad and can only do my computer.
However, I was shocked to find out that my dictation speed was around 3000 words per hour, which was a tiny bit faster than yesterday. When I was dictating, it seemed a lot slower than yesterday. I guess I can’t really gauge my own dictation speed very well.
I also found that I wrote 5600 words in a little less than 2 hours! So I at least made my daily word count goal.
It is quite nice to have all my writing done before lunchtime, although I still have a great deal of cleanup editing to do after lunch, in addition to my other frogs that I did not get done this morning. At the same time, it felt as though my brain was not very fresh as I was walking and dictating. It could be I was simply not used to doing the sort of thinking that I need to do for writing this early in the morning. I will probably need to try to do this a few more times to see how it goes. I might get better at it eventually.
I also want to try doing the dictation at home, perhaps in the backyard. One of the benefits of going for walk and dictating is that I have nothing else to do while walking except to work. I'm not tempted to stop and use the bathroom or wash dishes or clean the toilet. I'm not distracted at all. If I were to dictate at home, I worry that I would pause to go inside the house for some reason, and get distracted. I have noticed that the dictation gets better the longer I do it, and so I don't want to cut my dictation time short if possible.
I'll have to be very careful if I dictate at home, to make sure that I do not allow myself to get distracted. I want to have a full two hours of dictation just like when I go walking. It might be nicer to walk in the backyard, since I won't have to worry about cars going past or other walkers, and I can keep a glass of iced tea nearby, rather than needing to carry my water in a backpack.
Tomorrow I could try dictating in the backyard, especially if my IBS bothers me again. The tail end of my walk today was a little hot, although not too uncomfortable.
I think I will continue trying to dictate in the morning, before doing my other frogs, and then comparing my total words as well as my words per hour speed. If I give it a week, I think that will be enough to know if working in the morning works well for me or not.
***
Cleanup editing took so long and I still haven’t finished yet! It was because I had run out of time to do the cleanup edits on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I have a huge backlog.
Also, the dictation I did on Tuesday was a COMPLETE AND UTTER MESS. It took longer to do the cleanup editing than it did to dictate the prose.
I haven’t quite finished all the cleanup editing from Wednesday, and I haven’t touched the editing from the dictation today. So I have a feeling I’ll probably skip some frogs tomorrow in order to squeeze in more time to get that done. Ugh! I’m going to get behind on my marketing again, just when I said I didn’t want to do that!
Writing streak: 302 days
My takeaway for today: Continue to try dictating in the morning to compare to how I do when I dictate in the afternoon.
My second takeaway for today: Try doing the dictation in the backyard to see if I can still get a lot done and not be distracted.
I was also a little late getting out of the house because I was unprepared. That's my fault. I should have gotten everything ready the night before, but I just didn't think of it. I'll be ready next time. This morning, I had to print out my blocking notes so that I could use them while dictating. I have been reading my blocking notes on my phone, but it times it's very difficult to read. Also, the phone will often go to sleep, and I need to juggle it so I can use my thumb to unlock it. It’s only a small thing, but it’s very annoying. I hope the pages printed out will solve that problem.
I am excited to get back to dictating. I think I am getting more used to it. I don't know if I've really been changing how I think. I started to wonder if that's really something that I would be able to do. It's one thing to change my output from typing to dictation. I'm not changing anything in my mind really, I'm just changing the place I send the thoughts, whether to my hands or my mouth.
But in trying to think in complete sentences, it's a more fundamental change in how I think at all. However I want to give this a shot. I think maybe one of the reasons I have difficulty thinking in sentences is because of my perfectionist tendencies. I want the sentence to come out exactly right. When I write via typing, I will often stop to think before I type something. Not all the time, but a lot of the time when I'm not sure exactly what to say, before I finally type out the sentence, I will think about how to phrase it. This makes me wonder if I would really be able to change the way I think in my head so that I can dictate more cleanly.
But I'm not opposed to at least trying it. If I concentrate really hard I find that I can think in longer phrases now. But it requires a lot of focus. I will try to do it again today, and see how that goes.
I know that I also need to relax my perfectionist tendencies and just dictate the first thing that comes to mind. This will be hard to do. Not simply because my perfectionist tendencies are strong, but because I still have a lingering doubt about how my editing will go. I suppose I simply have to let go of that fear. I'll just have to try my best with my editing and hope that I can do a good job and make the prose the same as when I type and edit as I write. I think that if I can be sure to give it my best, it will be okay. The editing is bad usually when I'm trying to rush through it. Unfortunately, when I have a lot of stuff to edit, I will usually be tempted to rush through it. I don't want to take my time, because I don't want the editing to take too long.
I suppose I will simply have to learn to practice how to focus and concentrate on the editing. It will be hard, but I think it will be possible. I've been reading about focused concentration in the book Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World by Cal Newport, so maybe I can apply those principles to my editing to make it as intense and efficient as possible.
***
I'm sorely disappointed! I lost about 20 or 25 minutes of dictation because I didn’t turn off the HOLD button.
But then again, I felt like the dictation had been going quite badly. I have been trying really hard to think in sentences, but that necessarily made me pause a lot more. I knew that would happen, but it still makes me feel as though the dictation went poorly. So I was concentrating, but I still made a lot of mistakes that will have to be deleted later.
I suppose I am being impatient. I want to see more forward progress than what I have made. My average dictation speed hasn't increased in the past couple weeks. That's disappointing.
Then again, I've gotten more used to the physical sensation of dictation. I also think I am enunciating better. So I suppose that is improvement.
***
This time, I sat at my desk while I waited for Dragon to transcribe my dictation, and my transcription time was almost the same amount of time as dictation. That was both surprising and frustrating. I don’t know what else I can do to make my computer work faster. I can’t even use any other program on my computer while Dragon is working. I did some work on my iPad while I was waiting, but there are several things I can’t do on my iPad and can only do my computer.
However, I was shocked to find out that my dictation speed was around 3000 words per hour, which was a tiny bit faster than yesterday. When I was dictating, it seemed a lot slower than yesterday. I guess I can’t really gauge my own dictation speed very well.
I also found that I wrote 5600 words in a little less than 2 hours! So I at least made my daily word count goal.
It is quite nice to have all my writing done before lunchtime, although I still have a great deal of cleanup editing to do after lunch, in addition to my other frogs that I did not get done this morning. At the same time, it felt as though my brain was not very fresh as I was walking and dictating. It could be I was simply not used to doing the sort of thinking that I need to do for writing this early in the morning. I will probably need to try to do this a few more times to see how it goes. I might get better at it eventually.
I also want to try doing the dictation at home, perhaps in the backyard. One of the benefits of going for walk and dictating is that I have nothing else to do while walking except to work. I'm not tempted to stop and use the bathroom or wash dishes or clean the toilet. I'm not distracted at all. If I were to dictate at home, I worry that I would pause to go inside the house for some reason, and get distracted. I have noticed that the dictation gets better the longer I do it, and so I don't want to cut my dictation time short if possible.
I'll have to be very careful if I dictate at home, to make sure that I do not allow myself to get distracted. I want to have a full two hours of dictation just like when I go walking. It might be nicer to walk in the backyard, since I won't have to worry about cars going past or other walkers, and I can keep a glass of iced tea nearby, rather than needing to carry my water in a backpack.
Tomorrow I could try dictating in the backyard, especially if my IBS bothers me again. The tail end of my walk today was a little hot, although not too uncomfortable.
I think I will continue trying to dictate in the morning, before doing my other frogs, and then comparing my total words as well as my words per hour speed. If I give it a week, I think that will be enough to know if working in the morning works well for me or not.
***
Cleanup editing took so long and I still haven’t finished yet! It was because I had run out of time to do the cleanup edits on Tuesday and Wednesday, so I have a huge backlog.
Also, the dictation I did on Tuesday was a COMPLETE AND UTTER MESS. It took longer to do the cleanup editing than it did to dictate the prose.
I haven’t quite finished all the cleanup editing from Wednesday, and I haven’t touched the editing from the dictation today. So I have a feeling I’ll probably skip some frogs tomorrow in order to squeeze in more time to get that done. Ugh! I’m going to get behind on my marketing again, just when I said I didn’t want to do that!
Writing streak: 302 days
My takeaway for today: Continue to try dictating in the morning to compare to how I do when I dictate in the afternoon.
My second takeaway for today: Try doing the dictation in the backyard to see if I can still get a lot done and not be distracted.
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