We're doing dictation wrong...

Remember when you tried dictation? Maybe it was Siri transcribing your text messages, or that ambitious afternoon when you installed Dragon NaturallySpeaking, convinced you'd finally write that novel hands-free. How long did that last?

For most knowledge workers, dictation has been a spectacular failure. We've just been doing dictation completely wrong.

Why Traditional Dictation Failed

Knowledge workers naturally "think through our fingers." The pace of typing helps us process ideas and develop coherent thoughts. When we tried dictation, we were fighting against a workflow that actually worked for us.

But that's not the real problem.

The Visual Feedback Trap

The actual issue with traditional dictation is surprisingly simple: watching words appear on screen, one by one, completely destroys your creative flow.

Visual feedback creates an impossible mental load. Instead of letting ideas flow, you're simultaneously:

  • Generating new thoughts
  • Monitoring transcription accuracy
  • Editing as you go
  • Maintaining your narrative thread

Your focus shifts from idea generation to perfection—the exact opposite of what a first draft needs.

The AI-Powered Revolution

New AI-powered dictation tools do something counterintuitive: they remove the visual feedback.

Tools like Granola for note-taking, or Whispr Flow and Monologue for general writing, let you talk without watching transcription happen. You just... talk. Like you're explaining your ideas to a friend.

No word-by-word text appearing. No immediate pressure to be coherent. Just pure brain dumping.

What Makes These New Tools Different?

Beyond the no-visual-feedback approach, modern dictation tools solve problems we didn't even realize were holding us back:

Automatic Formatting: Remember saying "I had fun yesterday PERIOD when can we get together again QUESTION MARK"? Yeah, that's over. These tools handle punctuation intelligently.

Context-Aware Intelligence: Take Monologue, for example. You can create custom rules for different apps. I asked it to put proper nouns in [[double brackets]] for Obsidian, and it's been handling that beautifully.

Purpose-Built Experiences: Granola is designed for meeting notes and brainstorming sessions. Whispr Flow and Monologue are built to replace typing across your system. Each tool has a specific job, which means they do it really well.

The New Workflow

The approach that works:

  1. Open your note-taking app and just start talking. Treat it like you're explaining your idea to someone who's genuinely interested. Don't worry about structure. Don't worry about sounding professional. Just get the ideas out.
  2. Let the AI summarize your brain dump. Most of these tools will automatically clean up your rambling into something coherent. Your raw thoughts get organized without you having to do the work.
  3. Take that summary to another LLM (like Claude or ChatGPT). Ask it to create an outline based on your brainstorm session.
  4. Now write (or dictate) your actual piece using that outline as a guide.

[WORKFLOW DIAGRAM PLACEHOLDER]

[GRANOLA TRANSCRIPT SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER]

[MONOLOGUE CUSTOM INSTRUCTIONS SCREENSHOT PLACEHOLDER]

Why This Works

This isn't about replacing human creativity with AI. It's about collaboration.

You bring:

  • Your unique insights and experiences
  • Your authentic voice

AI brings:

  • Organizational structure
  • Transcription and formatting

It's your ideas, enhanced by AI capabilities, not replaced by them.

Most importantly, this approach completely sidesteps the "tyranny of the blank page." Instead of staring at a blinking cursor trying to craft the perfect opening sentence, you're having a conversation. And we're all better at conversation than we are at writing first drafts.

Everything's Different Now

We need to experiment with new approaches in the AI era. For years, we assumed dictation didn't work for knowledge work—but it wasn't dictation that didn't work, it was our implementation of it. We were using voice input in ways designed for pre-AI tools.

The same is probably true for dozens of other workflows we've given up on.

Your Turn: Throw Away Your Keyboard

Try this approach for your next blog post, project brief, or brainstorming session.

Pick one of these tools:

  • Granola - Perfect for meeting notes and brainstorming sessions
  • Whispr Flow - System-wide dictation replacement
  • Monologue - Customizable dictation with app-specific rules

Set aside 10 minutes. Close your document. Open the tool. And just start talking about your idea like you're explaining it to a friend.

If you've tried this approach, I'd love to hear what broke through your writer's block.

We're all figuring this out together, and the best insights come from people willing to experiment.

So go ahead. Start talking.

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