I was in the process of composing a big fancy-pants introduction to this post, and to be honest it was absolutely amazing, I’m talking better than Shakespeare 
But then it hit me…
All those clever words and endless paragraphs were taking away from the real point of this, which is one simple little idea that is going to save you masses of time each day.
So here goes…
IF YOU CAN’T TYPE AS FAST AS YOU TALK THEN YOU SHOULD USE DICTATION SOFTWARE TO WRITE FOR YOU.
I told you it was simple…
If you need lyrics or a blog post in a hurry then forget about battling with your keyboard for three hours and just speak it!
You may be wondering why I don’t suggest an old-school songbook, and the simple reason is that it slows you down when you want to edit and enhance your music before recording.
I’ve been testing this out and have found that I can blast out 1000 words in 15 minutes.
Then I just come back the next day and spend another 15 editing any little whoopsie the dictation software makes and “hey presto”, all your writing worries have gone the way of the dinosaurs.
In fact I’m dictating this right now…hello MOM!
One thing that always use to stop me producing as many songs and articles as I would have liked was my typing speed, I was the ultimate hunter and pecker! It took me months to force myself to touch type fast, and I wish I found this dictation technique before I went to all that hassle.
You can get a free copy of the software if you’ve got an Iphone, and It really works well:
…there is also a pro version for your PC which comes with a sweet wireless mic:
Imagine wondering around your house with your instrument of choice throwing down a big bunch of lyrics that you can easily edit into something amazing on the word-processor later.
This is very cool stuff….
The Rules
Rule 1- Shut your eyes or turn away…
You should not look at the screen while writing. The software is good but it’s not perfect, and if you’re constantly looking at it typing you will keep stopping to correct things and it will kill your flow.
Rule 2 – Work from a simple mind map…
This really helps the process because if you don’t know what you want to write about your dictation might be a shambles.
Rule 3 – Give it a rest…
This is the most important step of all…
Once you have completed your song or blog post you need to let it rest overnight then come back the next day and edit it into something great.
This rest time will give you new ideas and perspectives on the work and you should spend a little bit of time getting it ready.
Credit Where Credit’s Due
I was inspired to write this post after reading a great article on time management for musicians by Chris “Seth” Jackson which is definitely the best advice I’ve read on the topic.
Sometimes we all get caught up in the latest music marketing tricks and forget that musicians actually need time in the day to get this stuff done.
There is no way you can do everything, so just stick with the stuff that makes most sense to you and gets you fastest results. The reason I like to post a lot of tips is to give you a lot of options rather than suggesting that you do all of them. That would be impossible, unless you have a magical clock that can stop time!
Final thoughts
Produce great work BUT don’t be a perfectionist….once you have edited your song use a super simple recording process to capture your masterpiece then publish it to the world.
I follow Owen Critchley’s home recording system because he removes all the unnecessary junk from the home studio and let’s your work fast.
Get a lot of work recorded and distributed on your social profiles and see what sticks with people. (This goes for your blog as well.)
If you want to come back at a later date to remix or re-record with a producer then you will know you’re working on something that people already like.
That’s all I have for today, hope it helped.
- Chris
Watch the video podcast version here…
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