Don’t use a phone number

A smartphone is a great tool.

To be precise, it’s a great servant but a terrible master.

While you can train and tame a smartphone, you can’t always do that with a mobile number.

I haven’t used a phone number since 2 years now.

I always keep my phone on flight mode + wifi to work with all app notifications off.

This ensures I can engage in shallow work like responding to messages and emails WHEN I WANT. And I usually do this in my scheduled shallow work sessions which are spread a few times in the day so nothing is missed more than a few hours.

However, the problems with a mobile number are:

1. People expect you will be available on call
2. Anyone can call you at any time (how does that make any sense for productivity!)
3. People can text you (Most of which are spam)
4. When people know you don’t use a number, they will most likely send you a message on a chat app which you can reply to at your convenience.