The 2 secrets to save time by Yann Gourvennec In addition to our last article "How to deal with daily while remaining creative" we discussed some tips to save time and optimize its work. Yann Gourvennec an excellent site Visionnary Marketing goes further in us delivering its 2 secrets to save time ... The article "How to deal with daily while remaining creative" leads us to ask ourselves another question: What role technology information and technological innovation in particular can play on personal effectiveness. While it is very difficult or almost impossible to give reliable figures on measuring the effectiveness and return on investment for the introduction of technology, one can find examples from everyday life that prove the effectiveness , At least in qualitative terms - but it is better than nothing. Indeed, who can say that email is an element of efficiency? Do you certainly not a long time to sort your spam, but also unnecessary messages, emails that would have done better to be turned into phone calls and so on. ? The answer to all these questions is certainly positive. Does this mean that you can draw a line on the mail and you go (other than no email Friday decided to major companies like Deloitte or Intel)? Certainly not. That is a living example of an application - the latter well known - where performance measurement is not obvious, but where the need is right nevertheless. So I decided for now to concentrate on the positive side of things and discuss some tools that I find particularly useful in my life as a businessman but also blogger, although the two are often linked "I am sick of personal organization. As a businessman, I am organizing my own time very seriously. Yet while some may believe that this writing is a waste of time for me this is not the case ... But I will admit quite clearly: I have a bunch secret and soon you will understand why it took almost more time to read this article it cost me to write. This is about witchcraft? I think not. This is just to know how to use information technology effectively. And when this technology is so remarkable, I do not even have much merit. As the late Mark   Weiser, renowned researcher at Xerox PARC and died too early a few years ago (see article on the ubiquitous here (ubiquitous computing in English), writing is probably the best technology ever invented because it works at any time and any place and above all, we're so used that it is almost become transparent or natural (no longer considers such that the tip BIC is a technological object while it is true ). But I think there is another 'technology' that is more natural because it does not even require the presence of a tool, if not your language, I mean the language. And it what I do right now. I discovered Dragon Naturally Speaking by going to my doctor 6 years ago (I'm not often sick, I was lucky that day). And I stayed completely shocked when I saw him dictate his text to his computer. I had already tested the voice recognition at that time with a product called IBM Viavoice, but it was the first time I saw operate under normal use. Doctor 'talk' in effect (or should I write 'in') and his computer program interpreted his words in real time and transcribed in the letter he signed and I immediately handed after the visit. After that there was no doubt that Dragon Naturally Speaking software was really to buy and then I tested and used regularly, especially for transcripts of interviews. The Early versions were somewhat flawed however, and he needed a long time for Dragon gets used to your voice and your accent. But the new version, which has corrected this problem (version 9 preferred, which is bilingual French / English for that matter), for its part is very fast and it does not need more than a few minutes to cause the machine to recognize your voice and keep a footprint in its configuration files. The program even includes formatting commands such as "on line" or "semi-colon" and so on. It is able to understand when you spell words and you can even create your own vocabulary, undoubtedly paved various acronyms and product names eg , Or parts of specialized vocabulary. This is all very well but this is not new, and I also know plenty of people who bought as Dragon Naturally Speaking. The reason I started use extensively is quite different. The trigger is a musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) which was declared following a bad position and a misuse of my keyboard, and God knows that I used my keyboard in the last 20 years! I had to find a system to reduce my tendinitis (the form that the disorder in question had chosen to adopt) to reduce pain and especially for allowing me to work, therefore Increase my productivity and my quality of life. Place your life to tap on your laptop (I bought my first laptop in 1990 while working at Unisys) is not really easy. And I eventually tell me that I started getting tired of it all and that I needed a change. And it is at this point of my story that I chose to present what will Dragon NaturallySpeaking version 9 preferred mobile. In fact, earlier I purchased the box without really think this is very rational. I thought seeing the box and discovering this new package called 'mobile' have a digital recorder would in any way a good idea, would be to record interviews when I realized. And indeed, this portable recorder has almost never left my backpack since I purchased this product. And it became my companion every day. Whenever I have an idea, I want to note something, or should I do a report, rather than throw it on paper, I record it directly on the digital tape recorder, I transfer files via USB on my computer and I give 'eat' in Dragon who is responsible for automatically transcribe.   Here is my little secret revealed. Whenever I write an article on this blog for example, I dictate with my recorder and I post. It's as simple as that. Écis I did not, I dictate, as if my computer had become my secretary (in fact, it tends to make fewer mistakes than the last secretary I had, there is already a long time ago prescription). And this system is not only useful for the blog, I used to write memos, letters, e-mails and so on. It's a new life coming through Dragon and its appendix 'mobile'. That is remarkable, not only technologically but also in terms of lifestyle that makes this possible. Since I use it, I actually feel again enjoy my humanity and not be the slave of a machine. We can not wish anyone to have a keyboard as an extension of his own fingers during a lifetime, yet that is what is being happen. These keyboards are not ergonomic, they are stressful and tiring and above all they require you to put yourself in a position that is not at all natural and generates MSD (now No. 1 cause health problems at work, find the error!) So that when I use this little device, I can concentrate on what I say, as if I was talking to someone, not as if I had a machine in front of me . It is much better, much easier and it gives you more inspiration and creativity than setting a screen of a glassy eye for 12 hours. And I've not yet spoken translations. Forget Altavista Babelfish, Systran and others. Human translation has no equal in automatic translation and will probably never do so. The algorithms have automatic translation utility that if you want to read a text in a language that you can not communicate at all (the reason being that languages can not be translated literally and that human interpretation is the key element of the translation can not put the interpretation into an algorithm, or rather not, and please God we can never - read Player Piano K Vonnegut if you do not see what I mean ). When I translate a text in English, or vice versa, I do so on the fly using Dragon and the voice recorder. The contribution in terms of productivity is enormous, despite the necessary corrections (typically about 5% of text not more). If I wanted to decry my toolkit productivity, I use the HTC Advantage 7500 for taking notes mode character recognition ', which is a remarkable way to accelerate the notes. But I use a pencil and paper to my plan, then I dictate into my recorder that transcribes everything in Dragon.   If I had to evaluate how long I win in this process of using voice recognition and speech, I would say to that rule of thumb I can produce about three to four times more than what I would do with the sole use the keyboard. In addition, the result is much better, because I'm not talking to a machine, my concentration on the text is better, and I can forget technology and the result is also much better. If I had to summarize in a few words the contribution of Dragon Naturally Speaking, I would say that this is the very symbol of the technology which is forgotten technology. And going back to the point raised by Mark Weiser reference which we did at the beginning of this article, in this case the technology becomes what it should never have ceased to be, namely a tool for the user , In our view is the ideal objective of any object technology well built.