Since I started the “Learn to Love the Phone” intervention in April, I’ve noticed a big down-tick in my habit of running away from phone calls with emails.

It goes like this: the right thing to do is to call X, but instead of calling her, I talk myself into sending her an email “first”.  “Rude to interrupt someone without teeing it up first.”  That kind of thing.

What inevitably happens is that X doesn’t respond to the email.  May not even notice it.  And that gives me an excuse to defer the phone call: “haven’t heard back from X”.

Chutzpah giants around me don’t waste any time worrying about being rude interrupters.  They want to reach out, they reach out.  Phone first.

That’s my next step.