Yeah, I hear you on the phone. You’re not alone, lots of people are saying this nowadays, especially people who do a lot of emailing.

There are a couple of ways to reduce phone traffic:

1. Screen your calls and respond via email. I do this for people who ramble. I will write, after a few hours, “I got your voicemail. Here is what I think …”. Usually after a few times at this they get the hint that you prefer email. Voicemail transcription and caller-ID greatly aid this strategy.

2. Be up-front with clients at the beginning about how you prefer working via email for specifics and why.

3. If someone says they work mostly over phone, let them know you aren’t a good fit to work together because your working styles don’t mesh.

But the bottom line of course is that you have to be firm, and what helps this is the certain knowledge that there is nothing wrong with preferring one mode of communication to another.

I too have a list of things I cannot stand, yet still force myself to do them. I always hear a little voice in the back of my head telling me that I’m not up to par, if I don’t suffer and do things I can’t stand, on a daily basis.

I’m not fond of the telephone, for instance. I have hundreds of clients, many of whom want to call me on a regular basis, even for the smallest things. This problem is two fold: one, I have a terrible memory and can’t remember what was said, 10 minutes after I hang up. Email remedies this. Two, I find that people tend to drag their conversation out, telling me all sorts of things that really aren’t relevant to the topic/problem at hand, wasting my time. With email, I can skim through this. I feel super guilty “hiding behind email”, but it’s just how I am…it’s what works for me.

Sometimes I feel like my entire life is a battle of what that little voice in my head tells me I *should* do, versus what I want to do. I have a long ways to go…

I am working to let go of this belief but it is a practice for me. What has really helped me is surrounding myself with a spiritual community who looks me in the eye and truly believes I can be and do what I love to be and do.