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I wanted to share a technique that I am using a lot now both to write my journal and to take notes on various topics.  The beauty of this method is that it is very efficient and doesn't require that you take a break from whatever activity you are doing — or even open your eyes, if you like to think and "write" in a half-sleeping state as I do.

When I first got my software and equipment my wife looked at all this, said "boy toys", and walked out, but I am the one who is getting the last laugh now.

I use a speech-recognition software called Dragon Naturally Speaking (I think you need the $200 Premium version in order to transcribe audios, but probably a lot cheaper on eBay), and a high-quality digital recorder such as the Olympus WS-400 (about $40 as I recall).   What you do is set the recorder to high-quality and VCVA (voice-activated), then record whatever you need to as you are reading, listening to other audios or dozing.  Later you copy the audio to the computer and run the recognition software against the .wma file(s).   The recognition accuracy is amazing, probably 98%, although you do need to speak clearly and distinctly, and the software does need to be trained (you correct it when it finds an error, or else you train it for your custom vocabulary).

Here are a couple of ways to use it.

1. Dictate your daily journal or memoir as you are resting or falling asleep.  It is wonderfully relaxing.
2. Take notes on a topic that you are reading.  Just wear a headset and dictate your notes.  With the VCVA you just leave the recorder on during your session, it costs you nothing but batteries (about 10 hours per battery)
3. You can even take notes on an audio you are listening, with or without pausing the audio.  Simply connect the headset player jack to your mp3 player and connect the headset recorder jack to your digital voice recorder (DVR).  Speak your notes as needed.

If you try it, let me know — I hope you enjoy this as much as I do.

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That's cool David.. but what is the advantage over a regular mic or headset?

If you get an opportunity to try out Dragon Naturally Speaking it's a geek's wonderland, the most fun I have all day even after 6 months. I paid $40 for an older Premium versus on eBay.. which is fine as the increasing releases don't seem to have much impact on recogntion accuracy, which is the only thing that matters… I don't need to control my entire computer with voice commands, Cntrl-C etc works very well thank you…

For recording I like mp3mymp3… free unlike many of the others.

Rachel,
can you get it to work first from a microphone? If so it's possible your sound files are not convering well. Make sure that you can listen to the converted mp3 and that quality is high. Just fyi this is pretty techie stuff, have courage…

Ok if you can get it to work from the microphone you know the software is working, so you just need to find out why it's not picking up the sound files. The most likely reason is that the recorder is not sufficient quaulity, look at the manufacturer website for the recommended recorders, my Olympus WS-400 works fine and only costs $40 but you do need to set it on "hiqh quality" mode (check your recorder settings)
My recorder generates WMA files that are read fine by the software, you don't need to convert on PC, I don't know about Mac.
And yes of course you have to tell it punctuation, how would it know ;). Think about it it's a miracle it can even recongize words.
Also "new paragraph" is a punctuaiton, you will see yourself using that a lot.

I hear that Windows 7 has voice recognition built in, but I don't know the quality. You can get Dragon on eBay for as little as $30 (older versions work just fine), but remember you need the premium version to transcribe recordings, which is the most fun in my opinion

No Tecia, the software requires (fairly) slow and precise dictation at controlled volume and only works with one person (the one who trained the software)