Voice-to-Text: A Freelancer's Dream
I am writing this with Google’s voice to text function on my Android phone.
It’s part of my ongoing work to protect my hands and neck from repetitive strain injuries. Being a freelancer, I write a lot, especially on social media, and this simply isn’t good for your neck to do on your phone or your computer for long lengths of time.
It is essential to consciously preserve your body when you work for yourself because it is so easy to get lost in a project. Before you know it you’ve been typing for an hour simply through conversation and research and that is on top of the actual work of writing projects. It’s just not a good idea to do this all day everyday or for many hours at a time, even if your workspace is ergonomically correct.
Voice-to-text is also really helpful in multitasking. I’m actually resting my neck while I write this. It’s occurring to me that I can also write with this while I fold laundry or cuddle my dog or maybe even empty the dishwasher, except for porcelainware because of the inevitable clanging and banging.
Multitasking is a really important skill when you’re freelancing or in any work and it also helps you limit self-censorship. As I’m dictating this I’m not tempted to try to change what I’m saying as I’m writing it. I’m just letting it flow. It’s so exciting to think how much more writing I can accomplish by saving my hands and neck while also doing other things that don’t involve the repetitive strain.
Like a lot of people who freelance, I don’t work 9 to 5. I work on and off throughout the whole day and sometimes I work for very long stretches even though I know it’s not good for my hands or my neck. I just get in the zone and I also have a lot of work to do to grow my brand and enhance my skills.
I would love to hear how you make extra time for your work while also preserving yourself. It’s a huge myth that these are mutually exclusive things.
The next time I’m writing a blog post in may be in between bites of cake — and you would never know, as long as I intonate as I speak and then proofread the words after. How exciting is that?