Over Christmas, I bought myself a small gift that would have proven impossible to describe to my family: Dragon Naturally Speaking. Naturally Speaking is a natural language voice recognition system which is integrated with Microsoft Office tools and other popular applications. As a customer of Nuance's Paperport, I had chance to pick Naturally Speaking up for $49, so, with dreams of turning my computer into a responsive voice-command device, I ordered the product and began to play around with it.
The base Naturally Speaking package is more of a taste of voice recognition than flexible software you can use to control all your applications. The Pro version with flexibility to create new commands and text was about $700 on Nuance's web site, which put it well out of the range of my wallet - especially since I had no idea how well it worked.
After setting up and training the software, I began trying to use it, with mixed results. Dictation can be quick if you enunciate well and improves with training if you're willing to put in the effort. At the same time, though, you say "scratch that" a lot and it takes a bit to get used to doing things like controlling the cursor.
What I was really hoping to do, though, was quickly process email and RSS feeds, applying a GTD approach to designate whether an email needs to be archived, trashed, collected for processing, etc. I use flags and categories in Outlook for this, and have mapped those over to Omea so I can go back and forth between them (more on this in a future blog post).
Naturally Speaking has some ability to do this type of thing out-of-the box, but it has no built-in compatibility with Omea. Outlook support in the base Naturally Speaking edition covers the basics, but not a lot of what I have to do.
Fortunately, a solution offered itself in a freeware scripting framework called Vocola. Vocola uses the Python scripting language and some additional natural language libraries to control Dragon Naturally Speaking.
After installing the needed Python scripting support and other libraries, I found myself amazed at how well Vocola's support matched what I needed to do. In many respects, Omea was easier to control and command than Outlook, since Jetbrains has built in so many keystroke commands to help navigate through Omea.
It's really rare that you can find a software product so seemingly well-designed for exactly what it is you want to do. For me, Omea Pro is one of them, and Vocola for Dragon Naturally Speaking is another. Both are freeware.
Creating your own scripts with Vocola/Python to control Naturally Speaking is a very simple task even if you have just a rudimentary knowledge of programming. With DNS running, you can simply say "Edit Voice Commands" in an application and a text editor will pop up with the voice commands for that app. Save changes to the text file, and then say "Load Voice Commands", and DNS will be able to use the commands just programmed for that application.
For Omea, I have crafted just a handful of voice commands to prove out the concept. I have been real happy with the results so far. Here is my Omea voice command file to date:
# Voice commands for omeapro
# Email or Flagged Items View
Clear Flag = {CTRL+0};
Flag It = {CTRL+1};
Mark Read = {ALT+E}r;
Archive = {ALT+E}R{CTRL+SHIFT+V}Curr{Enter};
Categorize = {CTRL+Y};
Reply = {CTRL+R};
Newsgroups = {CTRL+ALT+N};
Delete = {DEL};
Forward = {CTRL+SHIFT+F};
The word on the left is what you say into the microphone for DNS to understand, and the keystrokes on the right are processed. As you can see, so far all I've done is set up simple commands to operate Omea by voice. Using Python, there's far more possible than just keystroke macros.
The "Archive" command is one that is closest to where I want to go with this. This command is for emails which are not actionable, but which I want to keep around for reference and find perhaps later via Google Desktop Search or Omea.
NOTE ON EMAIL: As I've adopted GTD, I find that I don't folder mail other than to stuff it in a area called "Current Month" and then archive it by month and year. I long ago gave up trying to organize mail via folders and now simply use Google Desktop Search to find anything at a later time. Omea's ability to find email by contact is the other primary means I have to pull an email out of storage. Even tagging mail is beyond my time constraints with the volume that I get on a daily basis.
The "Archive" command above marks an email read and moves it out of my In-Box to the Current Month folder. At the end of each month, I move that big bundle of mail to another Outlook Data File for archiving.
Having gotten control of Omea by voice, the question then becomes "Is it any more efficient than using the keyboard?".
At this point, I really don't think I've proven to myself that using voice is any more efficient. That may be a matter of training DNS more so that I don't have to repeat commands or correct dictation. The nice thing about having this option, though, is that using voice commands gives you a nice break from being hunched over a keyboard all day, and it can be good from an ergonomic point of view. Being able to kick back in your chair and get things done just by talking at your computer for a bit is a needed change-of-pace when you get a constant stream of email like I do.
I'm going to continue to experiment with DNS, Omea, and Outlook, and will hopefully have some updated Vocola command files to share in the future.
We received some welcome news about the future of Omea in early December from Jetbrains. Michael Gerasimov, posting for the Jetbrains Omea Team, told us the following:
Dear Omea users,
After collecting your opinions and having long internal
discussions, we have finally decided to move both Omea Reader and Omea Pro
into the open source domain.
This will definitely take some time, but the
first step has already been made - from now on, Omea Pro is available free
of charge!
Thank you for your input, and you are welcome to contribute to
Omea Pro development when it goes open-source.
I feel a little bit of personal responsibility for causing some of those long discussions. Early in November, I was extremely frustrated with my inability to dig out of a deep well of to-dos and scattered information. I had been forced to back off my use of Omea Pro because I was uncertain of its future and didn't want to continue to invest time organizing information in a tool that might be a dead end. After weeks of searching (fruitlessly) for something similar, I finally went a little nutso on the Omea discussion group. The following post got more reaction than I thought it would, and expresses my frustration at the time:
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I'm convinced that Omea Pro was developed just to torment me.
It's the best information management product I've ever seen, tightly tied to
market-dominant tools where it makes sense, but with a unifying classification
structure and workspaces that allow one to successfully navigate the torrent of
information that pours in on a daily basis.
I've searched all over for products which would allow me to manage the
information overload that comes with my business, and I found Omea over a year
ago after going through product after product which didn't meet my needs.
Onfolio, Outlook, Clear Context, Ultra Recall, etc, etc... all met with a brief
flurry of excitement and then found wanting.
When I found Omea Pro, I thought I had finally discovered the promised land.
Sure, there wasn't a calendar, but it tied to my file structure and email tools
and allowed me to pull together all the disparate elements of information I need
to do my job into nicely segmentable workspaces. It helped me turn noise into a
signal, chaos into order. Information management nirvana was at hand.
But, no, development resources were pulled so that Jetbrains could focus on
other niches. It looks like some developers still work on the product when they
can, but it's been placed far down on their priority list.
So, I can view the promised land, but can not live there. I've had to abandon
Omea Pro not because it's somehow inferior to other available tools, but because
I don't have confidence that it will be carried into the future. I check these
newsgroups every couple of weeks, hoping to see some indication that Jetbrains
has decided to invest in the product and that an even-cooler Omea Pro 3.0 is on
the way.
But no, there's nothing, other than unanswered questions.
(Sigh)
I've seen the future, and it says "Outlook 2007" on it. The future sucks.
The post got about 20 responses, which is pretty high for the jetbrains.omea.pro newsgroup, and apparently helped kick off some activity on the Omea front at Jetbrains. With Omea heading toward the land of open source, it's time for me to bone up on C# and put my time where my newsgroups posts are, and start to see if I can help nudge this tremendous application forward. The future suddenly looks more productive and fun.
Since I wrote the introductory blog post, things have gotten even more challenging. In addition to my previous activity, I inherited one hundred or more forums orphaned when my employer, Scout Media, ended its partnership with another organization called Fanhome. Secondly, one of the major sites in our network, Ohio State, left without warning in the middle of the night. As an Ohio State alum as well as a member of the network development team, I have become involved in that situation as well.
So, the challenge is greater, if anything.
The first thing I want to document is software. I have chosen a number of different software components to manage my information challenge, and I will be trying to tie them together to implement a GTD approach which works for me.
1. Microsoft Office 2007
The standard-bearer. I will primarily focus on Outlook, although Excel generally winds up playing a role in my daily work as well. After years of cranking out workplans and spreadsheets, I tend to use Excel whenever I need to break a problem down into its component parts. While Excel promotes strictly hierarchical thinking as you break down a problem, it's something I'm so comfortable with, I'm not tempted to switch to an expensive tool like Mind Manager. I've used Visio for brainstorming as well in the past, but it tends to burn more time for this than it's worth.
The biggest problem with Outlook and GTD, in my estimation, is that the multi-step projects you find in GTD simply don't map to Outlook's flat task lists. This is one area where I plan on using Omea to supplement Outlook. Which brings us to...
2. Jetbrains Omea Pro
A stunningly sophisticated application which has been allowed to sit dormant for far too long as the developer focused on more profitable niches. A number of dedicated users have been agitating to get the developer to pick it up again, or make the application open-source so we can take it further.
Omea Pro allows you to manage a variety of different types of information: email, files, contacts, RSS feeds, Usenet feeds, web pages, etc, within a common framework. Between these different information types, Omea allows for two different types of segmentation: classificatons and workspaces. Between the two you can look at information more like objects, where Omea provides common attributes across them. All information types can be categorized, and then placed into workspaces.
The end result powerfully allows for contexts to be established for different types of work. If you are about to work on your personal finances, for example, you can switch to the "Finances" workspace, see only to-dos which apply to that, and then work with information objects classified to creditors, for example. So, if you have a citibank card, you can click on the Citibank category and instantly see the web page for Citibank, any emails received by them, and files which apply to them.
3. Nuance Paperport
I refused to deal with stacks of paper. Everything I receive is scanned and placed into a file. From there, the file can be described, categorized or what have you. The files are physically organized by date, and then other tools are used to determine what the file contains and whether it is actionable. The objective is to kill the paper which clutters my desk and piles up around the office.
4. Google Desktop Search
Since tagging isn't really supported by Outlook, I will simply be using Google's desktop search engine to find emails. I receive hundreds of emails a day, so storing them in some sort of hierarchical foldering mechanism would make life impossible. I will be using Google Desktop search to find emails and more.
5. Clear Context
An add-in for Outlook which I may or may not be using as part of the eventual system. I will be evaluating this throughout the process.
6. Microsoft OneNote
For unstructured text and "sticky notes" which show up during the course of the day. One Note will be used to store bits and pieces of information which come in or which need to be referenced, like software registration numbers or IM conversations.
The key is making all this software operate together in a framework which makes it possible to deal with the torrent of customer requests I receive.
I am drowning.
Since 2002, I have been in business for myself, operating an independent website, magazine, and general media empire called the "Orange and Brown Report". We focus on providing news, information, and commentary about the NFL's Cleveland Browns each and every day of the year.
I won't go into how I found myself in that business other than to say that I'm from Cleveland, love the Browns and Browns fans, and was either lucky or stupid enough to turn a hobby into a vocation.
Since the OBR is a small business, I don't have an assistant or a team of people to handle problems which crop up every day. They all go through me, and I spend the money we make hiring reporters, writers, columnists, and photographers to make our site, magazine, and radio show better. I get all the customer service emails, write all the checks, and post just about everything that goes onto the site.
Since the Cleveland Browns haven't been a very good team since they returned in 1999, it isn't always easy convincing fans to spend $40 or $100 to learn more about them. My ambitions for the site and magazine have outstripped our revenue, so I took a second job as part of the Network Development team at Scout.com (part of Fox Interactive Media). This gig involves working with publishers on the network, solving technical problems, and helping to improve the network by developing new features.
Managing a small business and working in a communication-intensive second job is probably enough to create a torrent of emails, tasks, nagging half-thoughts of things that should be done, phone calls, instant messages, and so forth.
My situation is complicated further because I'm basically in the business of tracking, creating and passing along information itself. In addition to managing the information related to my business and job, I'm also responsible for tracking the news about the Cleveland Browns.
This means following a staggering array of RSS feeds, web sites, fan blogs, and other sources of information. We also create a tremendous number of digital assets that need to be tracked: photographs (between 50-500 a week during the season and training camp), audio clips, Word documents, PDFs, you name it.
The result is so much information that one's entire day can be spent just reading and organizing it, without actually being able to act on it.
Such has been my lot these last several years. Despite being at my post seven days a week, generally from first thing in the morning to the last thing at night, I continually fall behind. My email box often explodes to more than 500 unread messages, bills, mail, and other paper piles up in boxes, unread RSS feeds swell into the hundreds or thousands.
Meanwhile, I frantically bounce from task to task, and occasionally get so overwhelmed that I simply stare numbly at the computer screen. I've put on about 15 pounds a year since 2002, and spend little time with my wife and children despite working in an office less than twenty feet away from them. Typical "Dad jobs" around the house go undone.
And still the business grows a little each year, but fails to thrive like it should.
Something has to change.
Over the last year, I've tapped into the active "Getting Things Done" community which has built up around David Allen's methodology like strange lifeforms around a deep ocean thermal vent. I've lurked on message boards, surfed the web, and tried to learn what I could, in the time I had, about how people in similar boats manage their time challenges.
Now, I'm ready to adopt, and adapt, their approaches to try to improve my business and my life.
To document this, and to try to help some people who are helping me, I've created this blog.
Welcome to the journey.
Barry McBride
November, 2006