I tore my tendon doing Pilates.
To say that I’m annoyed would be an understatement, especially as it’s been keeping me sane and strong for years. Surgery is scheduled for October, and I'm looking at months of recovery where typing with one hand is going to be my reality.
I'm approaching this practically, because when something disrupts your life, your work still has to move forward.
Your clients still need you.
The emails won’t stop.
Student feedback still has to get done.
So I found something positive amidst the chaos that I want to share with you today, that has completely changed how I work.
A few months ago, I started using Wispr Flow, an AI-powered voice dictation app.
I started using it because I knew surgery was coming and I needed to get ahead of the problem, yet I am surprised by how much I have come to rely on it well ahead of October.
What I love about it most is that Wispr Flow turns your voice into polished, formatted text across all my apps including email, Google Docs, Notion, and LinkedIn and others.
Not only that but it goes beyond basic transcription by removing filler words (which I constantly try to avoid) and adapting to the context of wherever you're writing.
You speak, and what appears on screen is clean and ready to use.
Three ways career professionals can put this to work
#1: Capturing ideas wherever they actually show up
My best thinking rarely happens at my desk.
It happens on my walks, when I’m stuck in the car on a long commute, or in that random moment when I’m away from my computer altogether.
Most of those ideas disappear because by the time I sit down to type them out, I’ve completely lost the thread.
With Wispr Flow, I can capture my thoughts wherever I’m at, and what lands in my notes is already formatted and readable. I use it now for session observations, newsletter ideas, and reminders to myself (you know how much I love to-do lists, 😉).
#2: Supporting clients through interview prep
Voice is central to everything that happens in an interview.
How a client sounds.
How they organize their thinking out loud.
How they translate what they know into language that connects with a hiring manager.
Wispr Flow gives my clients a useful way to practice that. They speak, they see what comes out, and they spot where their thinking gets muddy and needs a bit more practice.
That real-time reflection is valuable in prep sessions, not only for them but also for me as their coach to see how they’re practicing and progressing.
#3: Building a workflow that holds up under pressure
This is the piece that surprised me most.
I assumed my workflow was fairly resilient, but a torn tendon clarified how much of what I do depends on my ability to type quickly and for long stretches.
You don’t have to experience a setback like mine to seek alternative tools. If your setup looks similar, it's worth thinking about what happens when that capacity changes. Adding a voice-first tool now is low-cost preparation that pays off when something unexpected arrives or simply if you’re figuring out how to work smarter, not harder.
Every cloud…
I'm still a little annoyed that Pilates is the reason I'm scheduling surgery. I've mostly made my peace with it, and am looking forward to getting back in the studio in early 2027. In the meantime, having to think through my own workflow vulnerabilities turned out to be more useful than I expected, and it's probably the kind of preparation I should have done a long time ago.
Worth thinking about for yourself too.
Stop typing what you could say in 10 seconds.
Wispr Flow turns your voice into clean, professional text inside any app. Emails, Slack, client updates — speak once, send without editing. 4x faster than typing.
Talk soon,
Heather