If you don't know by now, I'm all about automation and streamlining processes to free up more time.  As independent entrepreneurs we need to find ways to maximize our time even when there is downtime. We don't have the luxury of human assistants but we do have the luxury of my favorite assistant, automation.  Sometimes automation tries to disguise itself as a manual task, but you just have to get creative and realize that even some tasks that appear manual can be automated.  Today I'm going to discuss the number one way to maximize time on your daily commute.

You may not have realized, but you actually do have a personal assistant with you at all times.  It's hidden inside of your phone and is called voice-to-text (voice dictation also).  This is the "person" that can type a rough draft of your blog posts for you simply by talking to "them".  I have been using voice-to-text to create my blog posts for the last three posts on here, and let me tell you...time saver!  I've mentioned how terrible Atlanta traffic can be, so I decided to use the time doing something productive in the safest way possible.  As my husband says, and I quote:

"Down time is up time."

Here's my process for voice-to-text blog posts:

1 / Open my Google Doc called "Blog Post Holding Place"

I use this doc for all posts and just delete the contents once the post is live.  This doc is available offline as well so that I can edit it even if I have no connection.

2 / Connect my mobile headset (it's gold, cute and affordable) 

Make sure that your phone is connected to the car charger so that you don't run out of juice.

3 / Talk my blog post out

There are various commands that you can speak to insert punctuation and start a new line/paragraph.

4 / Copy the contents from the doc and paste it into a new blog post window

Once I am ready to get to work on the post when I'm around a computer, I copy and paste everything over.  At that point the post is nearly complete and I hadn't even started typing anything yet!

5 / Edit the post

It's inevitable that voice-to-text will not pick up every single word or phrase correctly, so I read through the whole post and make changes where necessary.  Really this is no different from what I normally do when editing blog posts.

This process wouldn't be as smooth if it weren't for Google Docs.  I can conveniently edit a document on one device then pick up where I left off on another.

You may be thinking, "I take the train/bus/uber or carpool, so how can I do this without looking like a crazy person?"  Well you can always type your post into a Google Doc manually, and though the phone fairy won't be typing for you, you will still be maximizing your time.

If you're interested in trying this out, I have created a handy, free voice-to-text cheat sheet of phrases/words to say when using voice dictation.  I found these phrases on the google voice-to-text help page, but it's formatted nicely in my document :) Click the button below to sign up and get access to this cheat sheet available in the Color Hug Freebie Collection!

I hope you maximize your time today!