my rule

so i've started applying this rule to my mobile phone usage, and it's caused a lot of anger and frustration (not for me, but for everyone else) and i thought i might explain myself.

i came up with the awesome idea of having a "three-call rule", where if i'm in a meeting, or an important coffee session, or just catching up with a good friend of mine, any phone calls i receive would need to be received / pranked thrice in order to demand immediate attention.

the main reason i wanted to start doing this was the large amount of important conversations i had last year, which were interrupted by the mobile phones belonging to either myself, or the other party.

we'd lose our connection and in that moment there was the subtext that "this person on the phone is more important than the person right in front of me".

so this three-call rule would filter out trivial calls that i could get back to later, and instead leave me to give my full undivided attention.

in a nutshell, i don't pick up my phone because i care about the person i'm with, and think that they deserve my undivided attention.

unless of course there's some sortof emergency / pressing matter that CAN'T wait.

and when you think about it,

there are so many other social situations where we don't take calls. why should a friend be less important than a business meeting or a tutorial?