Dictation software for ADHD
The email you have been avoiding for four days is forty seconds long.
- Nothing to open
- Say it messy
- 99%+ accurate
Free to try. No card. Two minutes to set up.
Apple Silicon · macOS 14 or later · Windows 11
You know the email. Three sentences, open in a tab since Monday, nothing about it difficult, and it is Thursday and it is still not sent.
Said out loud it takes forty seconds. The gap is not typing speed. Starting has a cost, and typing the first line is where that cost gets charged.
How do you start?
Step one
Hold one key
Wherever your cursor already is. Nothing to open, switch to or find.
Step two
Say it however it comes out
Half-sentences, restarts, thinking out loud. No punctuation spoken, no pausing.
Step three
Let go
Clean, punctuated text, in your words, exactly where you were.
Your thinking is faster than your hands
This is why the end of the sentence keeps disappearing. You hold a whole thought while your hands deal with the first six words of it.
40 a minute
Typing speed. Everything you thought of has to wait its turn behind your hands.
150 a minute
Talking speed. Close enough to thinking speed that less of it gets dropped.
Nothing to hold
The sentence goes out as it arrives instead of queueing in your head.
Say it messy on purpose
The usual advice is to draft rough and fix it later. The fixing never happens.
- Ums, false starts and the “no wait, actually” are dropped
- Punctuation and capitals go in
- Everything else is exactly what you said
So thinking out loud gives you something you can send. It tidies how you said it, not what you said.
Nothing to open
Most dictation tools make you switch app, dictate into a box, then copy the result back.
Somewhere in those three steps the task gets lost, usually in a tab that was open for a different reason. Here your cursor is already in the reply. Hold the key and the words appear in it.
To dan@harlow.io
Subject Re: Monday
Sorry for the slow reply. Monday works, and I’ll bring the figures with me.
Idea before I lose it: put the pricing switch above the tiers, not below them.
Call notes: they want it by the 14th, and legal needs a look first.
It makes one job smaller
Turning a thought into written words is the job that sits in front of a lot of avoided tasks. That is the one it takes off you — not the wanting, and not the remembering.
Free to try, no card. Enough to clear the backlog that has been open since Monday.
Works in every app you already use
It types at your cursor, the same as a keyboard does. If there is a text box, it works.
Plus Outlook, Word, Teams and every other app on your Mac or PC.
Better than the dictation you already have
Mac and Windows both include it. On anything longer than a sentence:
| Feature | JotMic | Built-in dictation |
|---|---|---|
| Accuracy | 99%+ | ~85% |
| Ready to send | Fillers taken out | Every um typed in |
| Learns your words | Taught once | No way to teach it |
| Languages | 99+, picked up as you talk | One, set in Settings |
| Controls your apps | Open apps, switch, scroll | Types only |
Setup takes two minutes
- Download, allow the microphone, pick your key
- No voice training and no configuration to get lost in
- Free to try, every feature, no card
Read next
Dyslexia
When spelling interrupts the sentence, and you write around the word instead.
Dysgraphia
When getting letters down takes the attention the sentence needed.
Voice commands
Saying what you want the Mac to do instead of going to find the menu.
Compared with the other apps
The one that helps is the one already running when you finally start. Setup is most of the difference here.
Questions
How does dictation help with ADHD?
It makes starting cheaper. Typing a first line is a much bigger ask than saying the thing out loud, and most of what gets avoided is avoided at the start. It does not make you want to do the task. It makes the task smaller.
My thoughts run ahead of my typing. Does that help or hurt?
It helps. Most people type around 40 words a minute and talk at about 150, which is much closer to the speed the thought arrived at.
What if I ramble and change direction halfway through?
Say it anyway. Ums and false starts are dropped, so you can think out loud and still get clean text. It tidies the delivery, not the argument.
Will it change my words?
No. Filler comes out, punctuation and capitals go in, everything else stays exactly as you said it. You can turn the cleanup off and take the raw transcript instead.
Do I have to open an app first?
No, and that is the point. It types where your cursor already is. No window to find, nothing to copy, no trip to a second app on the way.
Do I have to say the punctuation?
No. Full stops, commas, question marks and capitals come from the way you talk. You never say "comma".
Can I use it for notes and half-thoughts rather than emails?
That is what a lot of people use it for. Anything that is quicker said than typed: a thought before it goes, a summary straight after a call, the three things you have to do tomorrow.
Will it spell names and jargon right?
Add them to your vocabulary once and they stay right. Fewer corrections means fewer chances to get pulled off the thing you were doing.
Does it work in the apps I use?
It types where your cursor is, so anything with a text box works. Email, Slack, Notion, Docs, your browser, a form. Nothing to set up per app.
Is it better than the dictation built into my computer?
The built-in ones leave every um in and never learn your words, so you fix it at the keyboard afterwards. For a sentence or two they are fine, and they are free.
Do I have to train it on my voice?
No. Install it, pick a key, and talk. The whole thing is about two minutes.
Is this a treatment for ADHD?
No. It is a way to write with your voice instead of your hands. It does not diagnose or treat anything and it is not a substitute for any kind of care.
Free to try, no card. Two minutes to set up, nothing to read aloud.