Each week, I bring to you a new piece of content. Today is different.
Today, I ask you to revisit a blog post and video created three years ago. It’s a story about July 4th, but not the one that occurred in 1776. It’s a story about setting a goal and experiencing failure. It’s a story about not giving up. It’s a story about getting crystal clear on a destination amid the noise and “fog” in our day-to-day world.
It’s a story about declaring your own “Independence Day”:
Independence from things that don’t matter.
Independence from concern over other people’s opinions when they don’t know what they’re talking about.
Independence from procrastination.
Independence from wasting one more day.
I hope you enjoy the story and see some of yourself in it.
“You will never know how much it has cost my generation to preserve your freedom. I hope you will make good use of it." —John Quincy Adams
"In America, every day is a new beginning, every sunset is merely the latest milestone on a voyage that never ends. For this is the land that has never become, but is always in the act of becoming" —Ronald Reagan
Voice Input—Something New
I am a huge fan of voice input, and I've written about it often. You likely see advertisements for services such as Wispr Flow. These services take your spoken word and turn it into text. Evernote has just introduced a new feature that I believe is a huge improvement in this voice-to-text journey.
The term Evernote uses is “dictation.” Here's how it works:
Within an Evernote note, hit the slash and start typing the word dictation. You'll only need to type a few letters before you see the option for dictation to appear. Press <Enter>.
Another option outside of the slash command is to use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Alt+ D. (on Mac, use Ctrl + Cmd + D).
Begin speaking your text. At the bottom of the note, you will see an indication that you are recording. Most importantly, you will see your speech converted to text as you are speaking.
If you need to pause and collect your thoughts, that's OK. The feature does not “time you out.” Resume speaking, and the service resumes turning your speech into text. You will notice that your pause will cause a line break to be inserted.
When finished, press <Escape> to exit the dictation feature.
The new “dication” feature is a standout for me in two ways. First, I see my thoughts as I speak them. With other services, you see the results only after you have concluded whatever you wanted to record.
Second, we all need time to collect our thoughts. We may speak several sentences and then think about how we wish to continue. Other programs stop listening after so many seconds. Evernote’s “dictation” removes this frustration.
The fact that you get a nice line break when you pause is a nice feature. I find I can articulate a paragraph without pausing. For me, pausing comes at the end of a paragraph.
Not only do I like the way Evernote handles speech-to-text, because it’s built into Evernote, I don’t have to pay for the service somewhere else.
You might wonder if the feature works in the Evernote mobile app. The answer is “yes.” Tap the “insert” menu ( + ), and you see it as an option. It’s often hard to know when a feature has been rolled out ot everyone. If you don’t see it now, you will soon.
Note: The dictation feature works only within Evernote. For everything else, the Windows + H function, built right into Windows 11, is my “go to” for dictation on my computer. The microphone key on my phone’s keyboard is what I use when I am on my phone.
Ditch the Keyboard
I see voice-to-text and image-to-text as being huge skill sets for the future. Where are you in your own journey? Here is a piece of content from October 2025 designed to give you a vision for where you can be.
Upcoming PLU
On August 1, we start our next book study on Get Organized Digitally!
This course is geared to Alabama School Administrators, but it is open to anyone
Additional Resources
Evernote Made Easy (updated to include Evernote 11). So much about Evernote has changed in just the last couple of years. This ebook brings you up to date. In a digital world where information is power, making organizing your information easy is huge.
Maybe Google Drive is More Your Style. Is Google Drive the place where you store your information? If so, I have an ebook for you. I've taken what I know about developing a system for digital notes and applied it to Google Drive.
Subscribe to the YouTube Channel. You’ll find new content every week. Encourage friends to subscribe.
Visit the Website. Whether it’s enjoying free content on the blog, (all searchable), listening to a guest podcast episodes, or finding out how to work with me, FrankBuck.org is the place to be
Click the cover to order
Click the Cover to Order
Share the Word
If you are enjoying the content I bring you each week, why not share it with others?
You’ll see links just below where you can share on various social media networks.
Did someone send this newsletter to you?
Subscribe to get it each week.
