A year and a half ago, I had voice mail and kept missing things, since I didn't check it zealously enough. People would leave messages with the assumption that

A year and a half ago, I had voice mail and kept missing things, since I didn't check it zealously enough. People would leave messages with the assumption that I'd listen to them. This assumption was incorrect. I then switched to a voice mail message that asked the caller to email me, but I still kept missing things - perhaps your contacts would be more polite, but 80% of the people who called me would still leave messages on my voice mail. I finally got rid of voice mail altogether about a year ago - if I don't pick up, people get the standard 'this voice mail inbox has not been set up' message. I no longer miss things, since people can't leave a message and therefore don't assume I'm on it - they go and find another way to get in touch with me instead. There were complaints at first - from my girlfriend, from a couple of business associates. It took a couple of months for them to adapt to my new behavior. Now they text me.