People, despite our best intentions, are very prone to distractions. Studies show that we spend 47% of our waking hours thinking about something other than what we’re currently doing. Think about all the times you’ve been in class and have daydreamed when looking out the window. Or when you were at work and thought about the grocery shopping you’ll have to do later. Or when you were listening to a friend ramble and couldn’t help but drift off during the conversation. We have all experienced our mind wandering off, but what if we could find a way to minimize these unfinished thoughts?
Firstly, we have to consider the reasons behind these wanderings. Distractions, task switching, and procrastination are all root causes of our wavering attention spans. Tasks that are also time consuming and complex can cause our attention to drift as well. Distractions can cost 2.1 hours per workday, which is more than 26% of an 8 hour workday. Task switching can also eat away at a person’s productive time, by up to 40%. Procrastination can cause a worker’s tasks to be significantly delayed for many reasons, including fear of failure, low self confidence, perfectionism, low energy, and task aversion.
Some tasks are also difficult to complete in nature. The average worker spends 2.5 hours per day actively typing, which can be extremely time consuming and monotonous. It can also be difficult for the human mind to put complex ideas into words, which can lead to delayed output and confusion. All of these factors can cause major disruptions to someone’s work schedule and cause simple tasks to take much longer than normal.
The human mind is very intricate and rivals the most advanced supercomputers. It covers more than 6,000 thoughts per day, and it can be very difficult for most of these thoughts to be properly captured, which can lead to serious repercussions for our productivity. Our goals are 42% less likely to be accomplished if they are not written down. People, especially writers, are less happy and healthy when their thoughts and ideas are not captured consistently. Taks can also take much longer to complete when there is not a way to jot down thoughts efficiently. Manual composition of emails can stretch into taking over 11 hours per week, and much longer for people with dyslexia.
So it’s clear that one of the best ways to combat our predisposition to distraction is to write down our important thoughts, but what is the best way to do so? The paper and pencil method, such as scribbing down thoughts in a notebook or journal is the most tried and true method that exists. It is flexible and can be carried around anywhere, but it alone confine these notes to where they were written. If the notebook is lost or damaged, the notes will be lost forever. It is also hard for people with dyslexia, which makes up about 20% of the population. Typing is another common method, where people write down their thoughts into a digital device. This method is faster than a paper or pencil, but it is time consuming and distracting.
There are a few more methods that are more technologically advanced. One is transcription, where thoughts are verbalized and then transcribed into text. It is a quick and convenient method that is accessible to anyone with a phone, but it is not always accurate. Some words can be mistyped based on less clear pronunciation, which can garble the meaning of the transcription. AI is another method that involves converting 1-2 lines of brief text into larger pieces of thought. It doesn’t require any typing or talking, but the originality of the idea may be lost. AI generated text can also be inaccurate and over exaggerate some of the ideas. A human check for accurate information may sometimes be necessary.
There is one application called Vnote that improves upon these methods by transcribing thoughts with AI content creator tools. Spoken words can quickly be converted into written text with a simple process. Once a new document is opened, the user will talk into their phone and pause the recording once they are done. The AI application will then ask follow up questions to guide the user to clarify their thoughts. The app is able to help restructure these thoughts in many different ways, including rewriting, converting into paragraph form, and translation into a different language. There are plenty of document options that are available, including journal entries, social media posts, and emails.
