Do you have some of your best ideas when you’re away from your computer, perhaps when you’re out for your daily jog or running errands and your brain’s been freed to wander creatively? Wouldn’t it be nice to have an easy way to capture those ideas and reminders without carrying pen and paper along?

The creators of Jott thought so. They started with the premise that for many, the cell phone was the item most often available in such moments, and they built a free service around it.

Jott allows you to record a brief message via cell phone, then transcribes and emails the message to you in text form within a few minutes. You can also listen to your original audio of the message, and you can Jott messages that go out to others. In fact, you can import your address book to make that easier. The voice transcription isn’t perfect, but it’s pretty darn good.

At first, I didn’t get Jott. Why should I use Jott to record a note to myself, when my cell phone has a built-in voice recorder? And if I’m running late unexpectedly, why wouldn’t I just call a point person to let them know? Then I realized Jott does offer an improvement over these options. When I record a note, Jott takes care of the transcription for me…I don’t have to listen to my recording, then type or write down what I captured. And for emergencies and late arrivals, I can notify an entire group with a single phone call. The message will be delivered via email to each group member and even via text message to their cell phones…some pretty nice customer service.

Here are some ways I’ve been using Jott and can imagine putting it to use in the future:

• Record reminders.
• Add an item to a to-do list.
• Capture new ideas.
• Easily notify a group of a weather-related or emergency meeting cancellation, a good option for we intrepid northern New Englanders who try to make meetings in a blizzard but sometimes have to turn back.
• Notify an individual or group on the fly when running late…like when my commuter rail trips into Boston slow to a crawl.
• Record expenses or billable time when away from my computer.

An enterprising college student has written an article about using Jott and Gmail to manage a to-do list. Since I’m a fan of Remember the Milk, I simply forward my Jott emails to my RTM account, where they’re automatically added to my to-do list. I can add due date, priority, tags, etc.

Jott limits message length to 30 seconds, so keep your cell phone’s voice recorder handy for those longer musings. And it’s only for U.S. and Canada cell phones at the moment.

Would you use Jott? If so, how?

Copyright © 2007 by Tammy Lenski. All rights reserved.