Voice Recorder on Your Cell Phone — For Notes and Reminders on the Fly
Ideas and mental notes show up when they want — they don’t wait until we’re sitting at a desk with a pen and paper to write them down.* Some ADDexecs carry a small voice recorder to capture their flyabout thoughts.** But before you go shopping, did you know you probably have one in your pocket, already?
Most new cell phones have a voice-recording feature that will work fine for notes up to several minutes long - plenty of time for most ideas that hit us while we’re wandering around town. Some cell phones don’t have a dedicated voice-recording function but do have a small video camera with audio. As long as your chin doesn’t mind being on camera, this function works fine as a short voice recorder.
For convenience, figure out how to get the fastest access to your phone’s voice recorder. My modest Samsung D-807 has a programmable “hot key” function that let’s me get to the voice recorder with one click. The convenience makes it more likely I’ll use the thing (and to start recording before I forget what I’m planning to remember), and also makes it less dangerous for using while driving.
As long as I can remember to check my recordings every evening, the voice recorder is a great way for keeping my brain free for other tasks, instead of occupied with remembering the little and big things that I need to track each day.
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*”Reminder — set alarm clock for early tomorrow: breakfast meeting with John.”
**”Hey, here’s a brilliant idea: wouldn’t it be great if we partnered with the Jenson PR Agency and Cassilly Design to make a small marketing cooperative for joint-referrals and occasional team projects? I should call them to see if they want to meet next week before the Venture Capital conference.”
