As I prepared to race out the door this morning, I snatched up the hand-scribbled agenda for the team meeting and thought: “Oh, at a minimum, I should photograph this.” So I don’t lose the piece of paper.
The next thought was: “Hey, I should send this to Claude.”
Before I knew it, Claude had read it and turned it into a proper document - ready to throw into the stack for the day ahead.
On the way to the office, I realised I’d have to come up with a short board briefing on a particular scenario that was proving, shall we say, a little tricky. I was clear about what I wanted to say, but I wasn’t sure when I’d get time to put it all together before the briefing pack went out.
At the next red light, I tapped record on my Apple Watch and started dictating - the scenario, where we’d got to, what I needed the board to understand. By the time I arrived at the office, the transcript was sitting in my email.
Tossed that at Claude. “Turn this into a brief board-level briefing.” Still trying to stop saying ‘please’ to AI agents - that just burns tokens.
Moments later, I had exactly what I needed.
Absolutely mind-blowing. I can’t believe how good these tools are and how empowering they can be. Mind-blowing also in a very literal sense - it is lucky the phrase hasn’t been acquired by the Mind-Blowing Corporation, because I would be paying a fair licensing fee virtually every day in this age of super-smart AI helpers.
One thing I particularly cannot get over: how well Claude reads my handwriting. At times, even I can’t decipher it.
The dictation-to-transcript magic on the watch is Whisper Memos - available for iPhone and Apple Watch. Highly recommended.