I like privacy, believe it or not.  As a “new media” enthusiast, as well as a consultant and coach, I need to be accessible, and I enjoy it. However, there are limits to everything. I take time to be “unavailable” in order to give myself a much needed break, spend time with family and otherwise preserve a healthy work-life balance. The best tool I’ve found to help me manage communications, office hours, messages and personal access is Google Voice. Here are the features I love most about Google Voice: 

1. Never give out your personal cell number again (if you don’t want to).  Google voice allows you to give out one phone number but it calls up to 6 phones! Any forms I fill out, etc. all get my Google number.  If I need to block them later,  I can (we’ll talk about that later)
2. Call Screening – See who is calling before you accept the call.  Send the caller to voice mail or listen to the call.
3. Block Calls – If there is a spam caller or unsolicited caller, you can block the number and the caller will hear the message “this number has been disconnected”.
4. Phone Call Routing – Tell Google voice to call your work, home, cell or all phones depending upon who is calling.
5. Personalized Greeting – You can record different messages for different callers to hear.
6. Office Hours – Google Voice allows you to restrict call hours.  If a call comes in after “office hours” the caller goes automatically to voice mail.
7. Text Messaging
8. Voicemail Transcription and e-mail notification – Google voice will transcribe and e-mail you your voice mail messages so that you can hear and read them.
9. Conference Calling
10. Call Notification  – Get SMS or E-Mail notification of calls

It’s like having a personal assistant in several places.  If you haven’t tried it yet, check it out, I think you’ll be pleased.