Making Notes on the Run

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I recall the first time I rode in my father-in-law’s car. He had a huge pad of paper stuck to his dashboard so he could take notes while driving. He would get a call on his mobile phone, and quickly write down a note after he hung up. It would be a to-do item or a thought about something he needed to include in a report. Here was a man who drove a stick shift, trying to drive in stop and go traffic while taking a call, and writing a note.

Fast forward 10 years, there is a service called Jott (jott.com). Jott provides you a phone number that you can call and leave notes for yourself or others. You call the number, tell the automated assistant who you would like to Jott, and tell it your message. If you Jott to yourself, it will ask if you would like a reminder set. Your contacts can be setup to also receive your note via text message on their phone or simply on email. If they receive it via email, Jott will transcribe it into text, but also include a link where they can listen to the audio of the Jott.

I like this service because I don’t text message, if I can help it, yet I find myself without a computer needing to communicate to someone who I know is sitting in front of their email. Now, I can get them a note that is more complete than a text message. Also, if I remember something I need to remember at a particular time, I can leave myself a note and have a reminder set. I have enabled text messaging in addition to email. You can add more contacts to your account through the Jott inbox interfacse, or by sending a text message to Jott in particular format.

To make this service easier to use, I have put it as the first contact in my address book on my phone under “A Note”. When I’m in a hurry, I didn’t want to fumble through the long list of numbers to find it.

Overall, this service is simple to use, makes sense for people on the run, and is free.

Oh, and I forgot to mention, they have many different web services built into the service. Call and send a Jott to Amazon with a question about the author of a book, and get the answer. Call and send a Jott to your blog, and have it posted. Lots of options.

What do you think?

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