Week 5 -- Writing Shorter and Shorter

May I reiterate that WRITING SHORTER MAKES YOUR JOB EASIER.  I took a few depos this week, and one last week -- the first depos I've taken since January.  I've been full-time CART during the semester, and doing depos only during school breaks.  And when I did these depos, I could tell a VAST difference between January and June, since I've hardcore worked at shortening my writing in between.  When you write shorter, you write cleaner.  When you write cleaner, your rough drafts are cleaner.  When your rough drafts are cleaner, your editing goes quicker.  When your editing goes quicker, you get the job done quicker.  When you turn in a job quicker, the invoice gets submitted to the attorneys quicker, and HOPEFULLY they pay quicker, but, well, sometimes they don't :o)  Regardless, you can then take on more work without feeling as overwhelmed, or you'll have more time in the day to relax or play video games or drink or whatever it is you fancy.

Write shorter, folks.

Oh yeah -- what I've done this week.  Starting to keep up more on the 300ish Q&A.  Literary's increased a bit.  So progress is slight, but slight progress is progress.

(posting this on Sunday since I'm at an all-day job tomorrow)

Week 4 Progress

Week 4 progress

At the time I write this, it's Thursday night at a resort at the Lake of the Ozarks.   I'm providing CART for a conference. I can't say I've noticed much progress this week in PRACTICE...  but... I sure do notice it at work!

This is a combination of things.  Yes, I've been practicing literary at speeds at or above 300 words per minute, so that definitely made things seem slower than it would have, had I not been practicing this.  But in addition to that, I've been writing more and more words in fewer and fewer strokes.  Words that I used to write in two or three strokes I write in only one.  And I'm still learning more phrases.  If I can write two, three, or even four words in one stroke, I want that!

Plus I've been using DigitalCAT's briefs suggest window.  For my nonsteno friends, if you're writing something in two or more strokes, but your steno database has an entry for the same word that is one stroke, it'll tell you in a little window.  I don't use this for one-on-one CART, because I don't want the window to cover up any screen space nor do I want it distracting my consumer.

But I use it when I'm projecting CART, because I send the feed to a netbook, and hook the netbook to the projector.  That way I can add dictionary entries at the last minute, use the briefs suggest window, and I can adjust the projection display independent of my own viewing preferences.  (I don't normally use this two-notebook system with students, because I've found there's usually not enough time or space to set that up.)

So I have the ability to shorten my writing as I go, which is the key for me, I believe.  I've long suspected that my fingers have hit the ceiling when it comes to finger speed -- something I've discovered is wrong, as my fingers have gotten faster -- and therefore, shorter writing is how I'll attain more speed.  Shorter writing definitely was the order of the day here.

My flashcard app has over 3000 briefs and phrases, and it's paying off.  I'm adding more almost every day.  Well, almost every day.  Depending on when the depo is done.

Week 3 Progress

Week 3 progress

Getting more and more used to 350.  Fingers are getting faster, and I expect accuracy will improve as I sit at 350 for a bit.  I'll bump it up to 375 maybe the end of June.

I didn't practice Thursday, though, as I had an all-day depo -- first depo since January, in fact -- and it was in a quiet room.  Which is normally good, but the witness and her counsel were soft talkers, and I felt like I had to lipread the entire time.  Yes, I asked them to speak up.  Many times.  And that day the knot in my neck that my chiropractor JUST got out returned with a vengeance.

And I'm registered for the speed and realtime contests at the NCRA annual convention this year, and if you haven't registered for the contest or convention yet, you can do so at this link.   I think the early bird discount may still apply, so use the discount code EBCV12 at the checkout.

Illinoisans and nearby people and people who would love to attend:  September 7-9 is the Illinois Court Reporters Association annual convention, this time in Springfield, Illinois, and we have none other than the lovely and talented Mark Kislingbury teaching at it!  There's also speed and realtime contests, so save the date!

Week 2 Progress

350 testimony is understandable, and I'm starting to get it in short bursts.  I'm considering upping the speed again, but I'm going to stay here for a few more weeks.

I'm maintaining my practice schedule of at least ten minutes during the day, ten minutes before supper, and ten minutes before bedtime.  If I don't have a class or depo, I get another ten minutes' lap done during the day.  That's only 30-40 minutes of daily practice (not counting the 15 minutes or so of daily briefs practice and review), but it feels right, and it's challenging while not overwhelming.

Here's a link on Lifehacker to check out. http://lifehacker.com/5910125/30-minutes-a-day

Week 1 Progress

"The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short but in setting our aim too low and achieving our mark." Michelangelo

Brief/phrase progress so far: I've been working my way through the Magnum Steno book, shoveling briefs and phrases into my AnkiDroid flashcard app, and reviewing them daily.  On the job, the phrase enders "these," "those," and "them" are finally starting to come out of my fingers.  (e.g. "for these" = TPORPG, "could those" = KAOFBL)  Saved me a TON of strokes on my last job, an all-day class with a very speedy instructor.  I used a LOT of two-word phrases, which helped me keep up nicely.  And about halfway through the day I realized her voice sounded just like Betty White, and then that's all I could hear.

Speed progress -- actually has been pleasantly surprising.  I've been speeding up the takes to approximately 300 on literary and 350 on testimony, and I'm getting more used to the SOUND of such speedy language.  In fact, there's been a few times where I wondered if I'd forgotten to speed up the dictation, and I did in fact do so.

I'm not GETTING the 300/350 by any means.   HOWEVER, the last part of the daily Magnum Steno video usually includes a 200-word slowdown, where Mark K dictates 200 words a bit slower, times it, and gives you the EXACT speed of the slowdown.  One such testimony slowdown I took did not suck.  Were it an actual test, I didn't "pass" it, but I would have at least turned it in for grading.

I had already sped up the slowdown.  Did the math.  Therefore, the slowdown was 340 wpm.

Holy crap.

It's surprising how much has happened in a single week of ramping up the speed.  Remember, I'm NOT a serial speed contest winner.  I'm NOT amazingly gifted.  I'm a regular Jo Steno foot soldier, and if I can make progress this quickly by just practicing high speeds in bursts of at least three 10-minute sessions a day,* YOU HAVE NO EXCUSE :o)

Will I probably plateau soon?  Maybe. Probably. We'll see.  If I do, I do.  If I don't, COOL!

*I did not practice Saturday because we had a graduation to go to in the early morning and a wedding reception in the evening with a 3.5 hour drive in between.  I also didn't practice this last Friday because I wrote all day, plus we discovered a pipe broken in our plumbing and $2K+ to fix it and AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHH.

The Impossible Goal

The current world record for stenographic court reporting is 360 words per minute of question-and-answer material.

Mark Kislingbury's going to attempt to break his own record within the next year or so.

I've stepped forward to try to break it as well.

Right now I've passed a 270 Q&A at the State contest level, and I've passed the Literary and Legal Opinion portions of the National contest.  I am nowhere NEAR the speed I'd need to be at.  It is utterly absurd to think that I could gain the speed needed in less than a year and a half.  Ridiculous.  The next morning after I put my name in for it, I woke up thinking "OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE????"

But I want to see if it's possible.  I want to see how far I can get.   And if I can gain an insane amount of speed in that short time, others can as well.  Trust me.

Plus I plain need a shot in the arm or a kick in the pants or both.

My regimen so far is at LEAST three times through a Magnum Steno video per day, once in the morning, once before dinner, and once before bed, with hopefully a few more goes throughout normal working hours -- at 300 wpm literary and 350 Q&A.  After the speed contest this year, I'll speed them up past 400.

I'm also shortening the dickens out of my already-short writing.  I'm going through my Magnum Steno book and shoveling entries into my Anki Droid flash card app -- a neat app, mind you -- so I can easily review briefs/phrases every day.  It's amazing how that's worked to get the briefs/phrases into my head so they eventually come out my fingers.  My experience is, the less strokes I take to write something, the less tired I am and the more accurate I write.  Plus it's more fun to do my job when my fingers aren't on fire.

I'm going to blog through my progress as we journey, so stay tuned!

And think on this -- if I can make it happen, so can you.

Why are you in this business?

Since my last entry in November I've been crazy busy, which is good. I did another presentation at TechCon, still focusing on social media, but this time the topic was your general online presence. I believe it went well. Got a few good gigs coming, but here's what I'm thinking about:

Why did you decide to go into this business?

And when I say “this business” I mean whatever business YOU are in, but here I'm focused on the general machine steno profession.

Are you in this business because you want to make money? Are you in this business because you heard it had flexible hours? Are you in this business because you heard that training only took two years to complete and you'd be making six figures? Are you in this business because you heard you'd work with amazing people and hear interesting stories?

Why are you in this business?

Do you love the English language? Do you love converting it to text in the most efficient, accurate way possible? Do you love the record? Do you love knowing that the transcript is an excellent product that accurately represents the proceedings? Do you love hearing your Deaf consumer laugh as he reads your realtime feed of his coworkers BS'ing each other? Do you love knowing that there are dozens of Deaf/HOH persons in the audience who have complete access to the session because you have put in hours of practice and dictionary building?

Or are you just doing this for the paycheck?