The family message center:


Establish a message center in your home. It needn’t be elaborate—it can be on the refrigerator or on a bulletin board or a door. Encourage everyone in the household to use the message center to list plans, needs for the next trip to the strore, and especially important –all phone messages.

Keep the message center current; throw away outdated notes. Take care of as many items as you can each day—or enter them in your notebook for action later.

Phone timesavers:

Install telephone jacks all around the house or get a cordless phone so that you can talk wherever you are in and around your home. Get long extension cords for your telephones so that you can move around freely while talking. Often, you can do a chore while talking on the telephone—cooking, tending plants, for example.

To save time—and frustration—whenever possible use the telephone instead of making a trip. Phone to confirm appointments, to check if a store has the item you want, to learn business hours, and so on. Learn how to cut off time-consumering calls without hurting people’s feelings. For example, its quite all right to, “ this is a terrible time for me, may I call you back?” ( Of course, do call them back later.)

Sometimes a phone call is more timesaving and effective than a letter. Even a long-distance call may be cheaper, especially when you consider how long it takes to write a letter and how much your time is worth.

Resist the temptation to remove the receiver from its cradle during times when you don’t want interruptions. Instead, turn down the bell or volume. Leaving the receiver off the cradle may interrupt phone service even after you’ve replaced the receiver.