Have you discovered Jott yet?

I don’t remember when I first heard about Jott, but after playing with it for a while I forgot about it. However, in the past few days I have found myself depending on it more and more, and am seeing this as a great asset for my ministry.

I confess that as I’ve gotten older I have become more and more aware that my memory has its limits. That is especially true for those of us in ministry who are often asked to pack hundreds of facts and thousands of names into that 3 pounds of tissue that we call our brains. I have used all of many different means of trying to keep up with this information, especially that which is given as one is walking down the hall from one meeting to another. But, far more often than I like to admit, I lose the index card or it never makes it out of my pocket, or I have forgotten to bring the memo book with me.

However, I almost always (obsessively?) carry my cell phone with me. What Jott offers is the ability to use that wonderful tool in a way that provides reminders and messages both to myself and to others.

I won’t go into all the details, but will give an example of how I am using it. This morning, I went to the hospital to carry out a visit. After the visit I usually like to take a few notes on the visit — how it went, what is happening next for the parishioner, etc. However, instead of writing all this down on something I might lose in the car, I simply called Jott and dictated my notes. Jott then sends a copy of the recorded audio to my e-mail inbox. However, more importantly, they also have persons listening to these “jotts” and transcribing them, sending the text to your in-box as well, giving me a written record of my visit.

I am also using Jott for daily reminders, for it will send both e-mail and sms (phone text) reminders as per my personal preferences. I have found them helpful.

I’m not really doing the service justice, but it can be amazingly helpful in organizing your ministry on the fly.