Are you overwhelmed by
too many voice messages and too many short phone calls you have to make? Messages that pile up during meetings; conversations that you need to have during periods of dedicated work?
I am.
One of my Israeli friends, a terribly busy international executive, has found a solution that I like. His voice mail says: ‘ don’t leave a message, send me a text.’The benefit of a text is that it is a polite way to avoid our required social formalities. A polite and efficient way to live in the world. Of course, you had better be a nice person to start with, otherwise you will have overlooked the main reason for social formalities: interpersonal lubrication.