• WHAT: A way to eliminate techno-clutter, be reachable faster and manage your voicemail better
• WHY: Too many voicemail or answering machines can drive you nuts
• COST: About $5/month, but might actually save you money

It's a blessing and the bane of our existence.  It's a pain in the neck to have it and impossible to do without it.  You use it dozens of times a day - on one end or the other - and mostly suffer through it.  It's voicemail and, love it or hate it, it's here to stay in one form or another.  So let's talk about the best way to manage it so that it doesn't manage you. 

Even though I've had a cell phone since 1984 (no kidding - one of the first people in the country, I'm sure, because it cost about $3000 at the time) I rarely give people the number.  Back then there were no problems with multiple voicemail boxes because voicemail didn't exist... you got a message slip at your office if someone called or, if you were really advanced, you might have a tape answering machine in your house.  But voicemail?  Not yet.

That's changed, to say the least.  Now the problem is more often how to manage the multiple voicemail boxes you might have at home, office and cell phone.   I've managed mine just fine thanks to a $3/month feature offered by the landline telephone company and a strong desire to keep a tight rein on my messages.  If you've got more than one voicemail box to check with regularity - listen up.

I take a simple, three-step approach towards managing voicemail.  You can easily emulate it and avoid the confusion and duplicate number problem that so many of your friends have.  Here's the way it works:

1. Pick the primary number that you want to give people.  For my application, for example, I use my home office number.  I rarely give out my mobile number because I want to be able to answer calls at my desk, keep the minutes of usage down and answer a call on any of the extension phones scattered throughout the house. 
   
2. Have "Busy/No Answer Call Forwarding" installed on that primary line.  In my calling area I can get this feature for just a few dollars per month but you should check on yours.  If you're using a VOIP line (Vonage, SunRocket, etc.) there's a different approach that you can opt for - you can actually have multiple lines (e.g., home and cell) ring simultaneously.  If you're using a standard landline, though, the "Busy/No Answer Call Forwarding" option will solve a lot of the problems for you.  In any event, the key here is to have the primary line forward to your cell phone or to have your cell phone ring simultaneously. 
   
3. Use your cell phone's voicemail as your central voicemail box.  When people ask why I do that I reply with the opposite question - Why not??  It makes your voicemail mobile, it alerts you when you have a message, you can send calls directly to voicemail by pressing the "Ignore" or "Reject" button on the phone when a call is coming in, etc.  You can access your mobile's voicemail through a landline, so you're assured of being able to collect your messages even when you're in an area that doesn't have cell phone covergage. 
   

In short, you already have a great voicemail system - on your cell phone - so why not use that one as the central number that you drive all callers to instead of having to check multiple voicemail boxes. 

Once you get the hang of it you'll wonder how you ever did without it.  The "Busy/No Answer Forwarding" feature allows you to set a duration (either time or number of rings, depending on your provider) after which the call will "forward" to whatever number you designate (in this case, your cell phone number).  I can leave the house in confidence knowing that I don't have to do anything and my calls will follow me to my cell phone.  Most landline phone providers will even put a special notification on the cell phone's screen saying "Incoming Call Forwarding" before showing you the number, so you'll know right away whether the call came directly to your cell phone or was forwarded from your landline to the cell.   

If you're already using voicemail on your landline phone this will actually save you some money - the cost of the call forwarding is typically lower than the cost of the phone company's voicemail.  Plus, the only way you know that there's a message for you on the phone company's voicemail system is when you hear the "stutter" tone (a terrible name, but that's what it's called) - if you're out of the house you have to continually check.  If you have your calls forwarded to your cell phone then all you'll need to do is check your screen... if you've got a message there will be a notification for you.

Life's complicated enough - use this method to simplify your voicemail and make things just a little bit easier.