If you are a WAHM, you may be looking for tips to make working from home work for you. By the time I had begun working and making money from home, I had been a SAHM for over 10 years. I had raised two kids in those 10 years, did about 1,000,000 loads of laundry, learned to make a meal in 15 minutes and had grocery shopping down to a science. I thought that was what people were calling working from home, but I was very wrong! Apparently when most folks talk about working from home, they are implying that you are making money doing so. If that was the case, I was more like slave labor than a paid employee of the Hutchinson family. Now that I am getting paid, I have found a few shortcuts that will make working from home a bit easier for you. Here are a few:
Make Working From Home Work For You
- Schedule: If you are going to make working from home successful, you must set a schedule and stick to it. This is difficult for many of us as part of the reason we chose to work from home was the freedom. The problem with that is if you take too much freedom, you are working less and playing more. Would you take an hour break at work to watch your favorite soap? Well, you shouldn’t do that while working from home either.
- Work Space: If you want to be a professional who works from home, you should have a work space that shows that. Some of you may have a spare room you can turn into an office, or if you are like me, you don’t. If you don’t have the luxury of a whole room to work in, create a small space. My office is in my room and it is just a small little square, but I have everything I need to get through my day.
- Define Working From Home: When I speak about working from home, I am referring to productive work that earns you an income. I am not however talking bout doing laundry, making dinner, talking to the neighbor and running to the cleaners. You must schedule your time for working from home and your homework as two separate issues, if you don’t, you will never get done the amount of work you need.
- Short-Cuts: Whenever possible, find yourself some short cuts to make your work a little easier. If there is a new gadget that would help you get your work done faster, by all means go get it! If you have found some software that will cut your workload, then you should implement that into your job. I recently found software you may have “heard” (foreshadow) of, but may not have tried. Dragon software from Nuance Communications is the naturally speaking software that makes creating documents a whole lot easier!
Easy To Learn Speech To Text Software
If you would have told me before you knew of a way to create documents faster, I would have been skeptical. I mean, unless you have fingers like Dash from The Incredible, how could you make creating a document any faster? Well, how would you feel about dictating your document out loud and having software put it into a document? I know crazy right? With Dragon, The Naturally Speaking software program, you are able to do just that! I was sent a copy of Dragon ($99.00) and it is like a dream come true! I honestly have cut my work load by at least 1/3, if not more. I was surprised to learn that Dragon has been around for more than 15 years now. If you have Dragon 11, you will be happy to know Dragon 12 is even faster and easier to use! Dragon is really easy to set up and use, once you get the hang of it. Here is a summary of what you do:
- Install: Make sure you have a computer that can accommodate the software (Windows 7 and above) as well as the proper processor (1.66 GHz will do). You will also need a DVD-ROM drive as well as a sound card that supports 15-bit recording.
- Documents: Dragon is most known for its easy creation of documents in word programs like Microsoft Word and Open Office. What you may not know is you can create a Power Point presentation or even surf the web with just a few words! Dragon is designed to work for your creating email in programs like Gmail and Hotmail, as well as documents. You can also post updates to Facebook, Tweet the latest news in your life or find recipes and other fun stuff in Pinterest.
- Features: Dragon has the BestMatch V speech model to make recognizing your voice a breeze. Dragon can also detect certain words or phrases you may use for future reference; it also has easy correction and editing options, volume control, on screen help and The Dragon Sidebar which puts important voice commands and tips in one location. Dragon also makes correcting easier by using the most popular word or phrase choices as well as keeping words that are specific to you in memory. So, if you were to write a letter to Honey Boo Boo each week, Dragon will remember her name for you.
When you first set up Dragon, it will take you through a thorough process of getting your voice recognizable to the software by asking you to read several lines in a story. This does not take very long at all. Once that is done, you are then taken on a tutorial that will help you learn to turn the mic on and off, and how to begin a sentence and paragraph. Again, this is done in a matter of minutes, so you are not spending all day learning how to use it. I probably spent a total of 30 minutes getting the lessons down before I was ready to try the program out. I will admit it is a bit tricky to remember the different commands because you are not just saying words, as you must also tell Dragon when you are starting a sentence, adding punctuation, etc. Once you have that down, you are ready to go and are using Dragon like a pro. I love that Caitlin tried to trick Dragon into thinking she was me! Dragon is no dummy! It caught her right away!! I love that someone can’t just come in and start using Dragon and possibly compromising my work. This post would have normally taken me about an hour to write, but with Dragon, it took me about 35-40! What do you think of that?
One reader will win a copy of the Dragon 12 Naturally Speaking Software ($99.00)
Dragon 12
Mine is the Dragonfly.
I think the paperport would be awesome though it all looks very helpful. Thanks for the great review and giveaway!
PaperPort
My favorite is Omnipage
omni page is my favorite product!
paper port
I like Omnipage. It works of character recognition so that you can scan a document and the software translates the scanned document.
PaperPort
I like the DRAGON Naturally spkg
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software
The dragon natural software package.
Dragon Natural–I’ve really wanted to give it a try since the first time I saw it advertised.
Thanks!
Dragon Naturally Speaking Software…definitely. I have had Dragon in the past and loved it..but lost the software in a move several years ago…and the comp crashed…UGH. ( blogging by speaking, while making dinner…made for some odd blogs until I learned to stop talking to myself..LOL)
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software! I’ve been pining after this for years.
Dragon Naturally Speaking Software!
Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software
Nuance voice to text software
Dragon Naturally
like the PDF Player
Dragon. Naturally!
I love Dragon! I really need an upgrade!
naturally speaking Dragon software would make life a lot more easier if you are like I am with suffering arthritis in your hands. Thanks.
Nuance PDF Reader
Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software!
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software!
the “DRAGON Naturally.” thanks.
Dragon Naturally Speaking Premium
Definitely the Dragon Naturally speaking software
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software!
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software!
I like the dragon naturally
My favorite is OmniPage Professional 18
Dragon software – mac compatible
Dragon for Mac!
i like the dragon premium
Dragon for Mac
the Dragon software…
Dragon Naturally!
Dragon!
I like the Dragon Naturally. Is Dragon 12 the latest? Excellent!
Dragon Naturally
I like Dragon Naturally Speaking Software. I had a copy years ago. It was nice. It is so outdated now. I could use a updated version.
I like the Dragon Naturally.
I like the Dragon Speak
The Dragon Naturally Speaking Software is my favorite
I like the Dragon Naturally
never tried this but some of my family has and they love it
Drangon Naturally Speaking
I always wanted to try any of the Dragon software, this would be a big help for blogging.
siri
The Dragon Speak
Dragon of course
Dragon Naturally Speaking got me through long college evenings writing many a term paper, but it has been years and I’m sure it has improved to be even better than it was before. I would love to get the Dragon Naturally Speaking 12.
I really like dragon speaks!
Farrah
I love Swype
dragon
I like the Dragon 12 Naturally Speaking Software
It takes some getting used to, but Swype is cool
I like the Dragon
I like the Dragon Naturally
Dragon Naturally
the dragon software
I would probably go with the “Dragon Naturally.”
Dragon Naturally Speaking
I think that the Dragon Speak is great!
I like the Dragon naturally
Dragon naturally
I love Swype.
Swype is a cool idea
I like the Dragon Speak
I like the dragon 12
Swype
I currently use Dragon 10 but I am ready to upgrade.
Dragon Speak
I like dragon speak….but I’ve never tried this, so it’d be nice!
ticsblog75@gmail.com
http://ticsblog75.blogspot.com/
I like Dragon speak!
I would love to try Dragon. I hate typing!!
I HONESTLEY DO NOT KNOW WHAT MY FAVORITE PRODUCT WOULD BE SO MUCH TO CHOOSE FROM AND SO MANY I HAVE NEVER TRIED-THANKS!
I like Dragon. I’m losing my strength so this would come in handy.
I like Dragon speak.
As a writer, this program would make my life a lot easier. I didn’t see any other products but I read about the company on their Facebook page and they seem reputable and cutting-edge.
Swype
I like the the Dragon 12 Naturally Speaking Software
besides dragon speak, which my sister with RSI uses, which is my fav – I love Nuance’s Paper Port – talk about making things easier.
I hate comments on something I never tried
swype
Omni page
I would say that the Dragon Naturally Speaking is my favorite. I have wanted one for some time now! 🙂
I like the PaperPort Professional 14!
The Dragon Naturally Speaking software would be my favorite.
i like the omnipage
I would like the PDF reader
I like the pdf converter
Dragon Dictate
Followed on Pinterest……..….… emscout9…………….http://pinterest.com/emscout9/
Followed on RSS…Google reader subscriber …as Paol Trenny …pls use emscout9 at hotmail dot com instead of gmail to contact me
The Dragon
OmniPage
dragon naturally speaking…for my husband who dyslexic
I like Omnipage
I think the PDF Converter 8 would be very helpful.
My favorite product is Dragon Dictate for Mac.
I would have to say the Dragon Naturally Speaking is my favorite.
I like the PDF Readers. Thanks for this awesome giveaway
I like the OmniPage
I would love Dragon for my iphone
I like the Dragon Dictation for an iPhone!
PAper port
I really like the PaperPort
my favorite is dragon drive
I love the PaperPort.
Fav is Nuance PDF reader