Reducing Inputs: Phones

Wednesdays are simplicity days at SimpleProductivity blog.

---

It used to be (and not that long ago) that there was one phone number per household, the phone was owned by the phone company, and it was mounted to the wall in the house. Eveyone in the household shared the phone, and messages were left by people writing things down. If no one answered, you tried back at another time.

In this day, most of us have two or three phones. Each of these phones have voice mail, and usually one of those phones is carried at all times. The amount of information coming from these phones can be overwhelming.

Let’s look at reducing inputs of the phone.

Phones, Devices and Numbers

While 50 years ago, a single phone and number was shared by multiple people, now each person has multiple phones and numbers.

You might have:

• A home phone
• A home fax/secondary line
• A work phone
• A personal cell phone
• A work cell phone
• A pager
• A virtual phone number (Google Voice, for example)
• A Skype number

Each of these might have voice mail, further complicating the inputs.

List out each of your phones, and where the voice mail (if any) ends up.

Eliminating Phones

The first step is to think about what you can eliminate.

Do you have a fax number? Do you use it? Could you get rid of it in favor of a virtual fax? How about just using email?

If you carry two cell phones, consider if you need a separate cell phone for work. I am not saying you don’t – my personal preference is to keep the two separate because of privacy laws. Can work forgo a pager in favor of your cell phone?

Can you dump your home phone number? If you have no children at home and don’t depend on the land line for medical equipment, it might be possible to get rid of your home phone.

Can you get rid of an answering machine in favor of voice mail?

For each of the phone numbers and devices on your list, see if you can find a way to get rid of some.

Consolidating Phones

Sometimes you might not be able to downsize your phones. However, there are virtual services that consolidate multiple phone numbers for you.

Google Voice is one of my favorites for this. I have one number people call, and depending on the day of the week and the time of the day, it forwards the call to other phones. As an added bonus, this means I don’t have to give my home or personal cell phone out to clients – which in past has proved to be problematic – and I can block numbers as well.

Using a virtual number, you could have all work calls automatically forwarded to your personal cell, meaning you can leave the work device sitting on a charger somewhere.

For the remaining devices and numbers on your list, consider if consolidation is possible.

Phone Information

The devices are one thing, but then there is voice mail. With just about every phone number having voice mail, it can be multiple sinks of requests and information.

Make a list of your voice mail, answering machines, etc.

Eliminating Voice Mail

Most phones don’t allow you to turn off voice mail. You can, however, tell people in your message that you will not check this voice mail.

For example, our home phone number comes with voice mail. We have an answering machine in the kitchen, which is attached to the phone, and that is where we want messages to end up. You can tell with one glance if you have a message, where the voice mail requires you to pick up the phone and listen to the dial tone. We made the decision that we will not respond to the voice mail, so the recorded message says, “If you have reached this message, we are either on the phone, or the power is out. Please do not leave a message here, because we will not receive it. Please call back later.”

Remember, just because voice mail is there doesn’t mean you have to use it.

Redirecting Voice Mail

Some people feel that they need to leave detailed instructions on the voice mail for the caller to email them. While this does have the effect of getting rid of messages (few people, having made a phone call, will turn around and send an email), it can also alienate those who are trying to reach you.

I am not in favor of this approach, but it is a way to reduce the amount of voice mail. I instead favor batching the voicemail, and letting people know that you only check voice mail once a day. This gives a valid way to reach you, but doesn’t interrupt your flow.

Even better, if you can find a way to redirect messages automatically to email, you don’t have to worry about checking them at all. Google voice integrates with email, and some commercial phone systems integrate with Outlook and will email you the recordings.

---

Phones are a great convenience, but with multiple devices, numbers, and voice mail end points, the system can become overwhelming. By reducing your phones and voice mails, and consolidating the rest, you can get it back to manageable.

What other phone inputs do you have? Share below.