Cell Phones

If you’re like me–and hopefully you’re not–but I simply cannot seem to keep my hands on my cell phone. And if I can, it’s not charged or I don’t have any reception. Or I’m a thousand miles away from the charger and can’t bring myself to buy (yet) another charger. It makes me feel crummy because I’m supposed to be all up on my technology. But I have recently come up with a solution that at least lets me catch my voicemail in a timely fashion.

First off, I got myself a skype-in phone number. Then, I have my phone set to forward if the phone is busy or turned off. That would be when I leave it in my car to die while I’m at the office all day. Or all the times it’s in my bag and I think it’s lost until I find it later. Or when it gets shoved into a relative’s shoe during a visit to my house and then the phone ends up across the country. For example.

Then, since I’m in front of my computer all day–or at least more often than I am with my phone–I get any voicemails that come in right away. And Skype is pretty good about letting you know who called with various alerts and so forth. For the return calls, since I favor landline reception, I just pick up the phone and call the number Skype has captured. But if I had a headset/mike, I could return the calls with a click of a mouse.

Even if you’re not a space case with your cell phone, this system is a good failsafe because sometimes people will, for example, drop a phone in a toilet, and you really can’t predict such a devastating event.

Now, if you have figured out solutions for forwarding text messages, I would really like to hear them, so throw them in the comments!

Nick Senzee writes on associations, social media, and staying (or attempting to become) organized.