Cleft Notes is the AI app that turns your voice into action

Part one of my series where I share AI tools I use and how they make a huge difference in business.

Cleft Notes ready to record your thoughts!

👋 Hey there, it’s Meighan! Welcome to ⚙️Ops+Bots, a newsletter where I share insight into technology, creating better systems, and running a business online.

Quick housekeeping!

We have two member events this month!

• Office Hours + Co-working Sesh, May 16th, 2:00pm EDT: A 90 minute session that’s part office hours and part co-working! Learn more here and reserve your seat (paywalled).

  • Office Hours (30 mins): Have a question for me about Notion, tech, or something about systems with your online business? Let’s discuss!

  • Co-working (1 hour): Have something you need to work on but you’ve been putting it off? Come work along side me and others to get ‘er done!

• SOPs + Processes 101: Transform Your Business, May 28th, 12pm EDT: This members only workshop is all about creating SOP’s in your business! I’ll go over why they’re important, how to create them, and then we’ll take some time to talk about what SOPs you should start with in your business! Learn more here and reserve your seat (paywalled).

If you’re not a supporting subscriber, I’d love to have you! You can sign up below to join us and come to these events (or watch them later!).

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A little series! Four AI tools I use + recommend

Like most people, last year I was all in on AI. I felt like I did in the mid to late aughts, completely energized by new tech! Every where I turned there were new ways to use AI.

It was mind blowing.

By the middle of last summer, the excitement had worn off pretty quickly for me (and many others). I was overwhelmed by all of the options and some what underwhelmed by many of the new startups popping up.

It’s a year on, and the landscape is still blowing up, but there’s not only fatigue there’s also skepticism, with good reason. People are too overwhelmed with the work they have to do day to day, they’re unable to dedicate any time to exploring and researching new tools. Things feel like a fad (they’re 100% not).

It doesn’t help that extremely mediocre and very weird (Shrimp Jesus, anyone?)AI generated content is cropping up everywhere.

I understand the cynicism and fatigue. But I’ve done a good job at keeping blinders on and focusing on the positives of AI for me professionally.

AI has enhanced my professional life in massive ways. It’s not hyperbole to say I’m in awe at least once a week at what it’s able to help me with and do on its own. It’s truly astounding.

I know AI is a huge deal, I know it is such a huge asset for online business owners, especially those of us who are neurodiverse. But I also understand the feeling of shutting down when a market becomes flooded with new apps. You only have so many hours in the day. What to pay attention to? Who to trust?

Attention is finite. I don’t know about you but I have a hard time dedicating time to a new show so I 100% get giving up on exploring apps that can be a crapshoot.

With all of this in mind, I thought I’d do a deep dive into four AI tools that have changed the way I work and truly reinvigorated me. I’m going to do this in a 4 part series over the next month, otherwise in true ADHD fashion you would get a 5000 character post and no one needs that. 😅

Here’s what I’ll cover

• Why I love them

• Any downsides if applicable

• How I use them

• Why I pay for them

A note about AI’s gray areas

Before I begin though, I want to address the elephant in the room. I know that people have real concerns about their data and IP. I understand this. I don’t have IP, not in the truest sense of the word. What I do and write about can be found elsewhere, I’m not breaking new ground. Therefore, I am not concerned with the info I share with AI. You may be different.

To be totally transparent, I’m still not sure how to navigate this part of the conversation, what I have experienced personally has enhanced my life, so I remain on the sides watching and learning.

If you are worried about your information being scraped and used, I recommend that you do not share proprietary info with these tools.

All right, let’s go!

Cleft Notes is the game-changing AI tool for capturing your ideas and thoughts

I’ve always wanted to be that person that uses a dictation device. Except I’ve never known what to do with the word salad I vomit into it, and because I have ADHD I never ever go back and listen and/or read the transcription.

I’ve tried. I have tried so hard. There is too much work involved, I rather just write out what I’m thinking. Except we all know that’s not always possible - especially if you are on the go. This is why people love audio notes.

I have tried various apps, but I just never interact with the transcript. It’s overwhelming to me. So I abandoned it, it just felt like a thing that didn’t work for me. Like what do I do with this wall of text?

Then I discovered Cleft Notes.

Cleft Notes has been a true game changer for me. I suddenly have a place to put the thoughts that never seem to stop somewhere! AND they’re not only organized but laid out in a way that are useful.

You just open it and start talking.

It’s quickly become an app I use multiple times a week, sometimes daily. In fact, it help me organize my ideas for this whole post.

“Cleft transforms your thoughts into coherent text along with heading titles & even reorganizing the structure for easier to read content.” from Cleft’s website.

Before: The transcription of my voice note

Here’s what I love about it and why

Cleft is really beautiful and extremely seamless to use. Here’s some of the things I have found that made it quickly become one of my favorite apps:

• Simplicity: All you have to do is open the app and talk into it. I can do this in my office, bedroom, in the car, on a walk…

• Actionable ideas: I find that more often than not the notes I put into Cleft actually turn into something. Like most online business owners I have a ton of ideas, and it’s very easy to forget them and not take action. Cleft has allowed me to capture these quickly and then add them to Notion (an integration is coming soon!) for me to work on.

• Streamlines my thoughts: It gives me up to 10 minutes to just rant, I’ve rarely gone beyond 7 minutes. I seem to average around 2-3 minutes. It organizes my racing thoughts quickly and easily. More often than not, what Cleft comes back with helps me be a better writer. It’s organized in a way that is written much better than the stream of consciousness I just shared. Like most AI copy, I rarely take the exact copy, but it just gives me a jumping off point. No more looking at a blank page.

• Freedom: Many of us with ADHD have a brain that will not STFU. It is absolutely constant, and it’s exhausting, honestly. Cleft allows me to just brain dump those thoughts that will not quit. This gives me a feeling of calmness and helps my anxiety a ton. To be able to turn your brain off? Priceless.

After: My word salad organized and clear!

I had an onboarding call with one of the founders Jonny Cosgrove, and this last point was something we discussed in depth. Both of us are neurodivergent and being able to calm one’s brain while feeling like you’re actually moving forward is an awesome win.

Here are a few things Cleft has helped me with

As I mentioned above, Cleft has allowed me to take action very quickly. This in and of itself is the reason why I will pay for it when they launch paid tiers; it saves me hours a week. Here are some of the ways its help me save time and get into action…

• Product launch planning: We all know how much there is to do when you launch a product/service. Sure SOPs are a big help, but being able to just list out everything you need to do and get a clear bulleted outline of tasks for a new product launch? AMAZING. And! Cleft has a desktop app, so I cut and paste that list right into Notion and drag them into my tasks. The amount of time saved here is significant.

• Writing emails and blog posts: There’s so much I want to write about, and I find myself overwhelmed. Cleft has helped me not only write better, it has helped me organize topics I want to write about in the future. It’s taken topics and expanded on them in a way that lays out what I am trying to focus on and achieve.

• Quarterly planning: I listed off all of the goals and projects I wanted to achieve and start for Q2. Cleft categorized them into marketing, product development, and client retention.

Cleft’s desktop app - my Q2 plan that has already changed in a month 🤣

I’m not paying for Cleft, but when when they introduce a paid tier I will be throwing my money at them. Right now it’s free for a limited time.

I find Cleft to be such an asset for me with ADHD, it has a coveted place on my phone’s home screen (unfortunately, it’s only available for Mad and iOS, but I do believe Android is planned down the road). Cleft’s founders are both neurodiverse, and it says explicitly on the website that the app is “built for the neurodiverse.” I love this.

Cleft uses OpenAI. I don’t have a problem with this, but you should know that your content will be run through that LLM.

Overall, I absolutely love Cleft. I find the founders to be extremely open to their community, their shipping features at break neck speed, and it’s just a beautiful app!

Download it here for your desktop and for your iPhone.

Let me know if you try it!