101 Tips for Telecommuters—Successfully Manage Your Work, Team, Technology and Family

94. Learn to Love Voice Mail (and Other Impossibilities)

Voice mail is a much-maligned technological advance. It's a bit like the annoyance we feel about having to empty the dishwasher, completely overlooking the utter convenience and time savings we derive from not needing to hand-wash all those dishes! Voice mail suffers a similar lack of respect and appreciation. However, the flexibility and productivity you gain from voice messaging enables, in part, your ability to telecommute, so I wouldn't be too annoyed about its existence.

Without voice mail you would spend far more time in the completely unproductive game of telephone tag. True, now you play voice mail tag. But, used effectively, voice mail can drastically minimize the level of “tag ...