Given the profusion of emails every professional grapples with—on average, more than 100 per day—it’s become common wisdom that, at some point, you should stop emailing and just pick up the phone. Author James Altucher jokingly praised the telephone as “an amazing tool/app that makes my work 100x more productive,” noting, “I’m not being sarcastic. It’s the truth.” But despite their merits—notably, being able to confer and resolve issues in real time—I studiously avoid almost all phone calls, and never accept an incoming call from someone unknown. I’m not alone. The number of voicemails left, and retrieved, has been steadily declining, major companies like J.P. Morgan and Coca-Cola are eliminating voicemail for many employees, and Millennials in particular seem to abhor phone calls.