97. Get Rid of Your Phone

As a teenager, I loved the telephone. It always rang with such anticipation. As an adult, I look on the phone as a necessary inconvenience. However, now that I’ve developed the ability to not answer a ringing phone and to use the answering machine to monitor phone calls, having a phone in the house is at least tolerable. But I have a friend who came to look on the phone as a major intrusion in her life. She disconnected it entirely a couple of years ago and says she wouldn’t have it any other way.

She is in sales and consequently spends most of her day talking on the phone. The last thing she wants to do at home in the evening and on the weekends is spend more time on the phone. She is able to conduct whatever personal phone business she needs to during the day, and her family and friends know that if they want to talk to her, they have to call her at the office. (It helps to have your own business, or a tolerant boss.)

Obviously this technique would not work for everyone. If you have children at home or aging parents who may need to reach out and touch you at a moment’s notice, disconnecting the phone might create more problems than it would solve. But think about it. If your life-style is such that going without a phone at home wouldn’t be inconvenient and, in fact, would create a sanctuary of peace and quiet, doing away with the telephone in your life could go a long way toward simplifying it.