Picking up the phone is becoming an increasingly underappreciated productivity hack.

Increasing hybrid and remote work rates have led to a correlated increase in people who used to be together in person regularly suddenly not seeing each other at all. From there, it is easy to just drift further and further apart by the day. Early on you think “I should give them a call.” With each day that passes without the call, it becomes harder to make it. Like that, a connection disappears.

I believe in the power of the phone call. It has been a refrain since the dawn of the internet that emails and text messages cannot convey tone, intent, or nuance. It is too easy to misinterpret or misunderstand when trying to parse through a handful of sentences that may have simply been dashed off. We have all dealt with the situation where someone simply forgot to include a “not” somewhere which accidentally changed the message entirely. Most topics may not be critical enough where this matters, but some are.

One of my fundamental rules is that three emails on the same topic within an hour means a phone call is required. Each email increases the likelihood of misunderstanding, even on simple topics. A 30-second conversation takes less time than writing one more email and almost always resolves questions completely.

More importantly, a phone call has a way of resolving stress and anger that no email can. It is easy to find unintended meaning or sarcasm in an email (or intended because the other party has gone past the point of reason). Hearing a person on the other end of the line has a way of forcing empathy back to the forefront. Empathy can be hard to find when you are interacting with a computer. It is easier when there is a person you are interacting with.

Relationships come from person-to-person interaction. It is possible to build that relationship entirely virtually through email, text, or online chats, but it takes longer to create. Pick up the phone (or Teams or Zoom or Google Chat) and talk to someone regularly. Even if you are talking just to talk. Especially if you are talking just to talk.