Does anyone use their LA/PA for tasks that save substantial time or are “life hacks”? I use mine to help enter my daily time entries which saves me a lot of time and effort. Wondering if anyone has found other useful tasks they can handle to maximize your own productivity and sanity?

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If your assistant knows how ti transcribe dictation, learn ti dictate. It’s by far the most effective time saving skill you can develop

Average accurate typing speed is around 40 words per minute. Excellent is around 80 wpm. In contrast, the average person speaks at about 150 wpm, and typical audiobook speed is 150-160 wpm. So if you’re average at both typing and speaking, dictation is 3-4 times faster.

The other reason it works is that it’s a start to finish process that gets you a draft very quickly. That reduces the amount of time you spend editing and re-editing your first sections before you even start your last section. It also eliminates any fussing with formatting.

As I said it’s a process. You have to think before you compose. That’s pretty easy to do for something like an email or letter. For a more complex task such as a contract or brief, an a written outline helps.

The goal of dictation isn’t creating a final draft, although with practice you’ll need to do less editing. It’s getting an editable draft on paper quickly. If you’re intrigued most common apps like outlook and word have voice to text options. Try dictating a short passage from start to finish, without pausing to edit. And don’t give up on your first effort.

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