Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Phonaphobia

In the past the biggest time suck of all had to be my phone. This may come as a shock but I talk…a lot. When I received a phone call, I would enter some sort of time warp and before I knew it a few hours had flown by.

My only defense was to stop answering it. This did have side effects. I received messages from friends wondering if I had died, guilt inducing ones from my mother, and a few sarcastic, insulting ones from other family members.

But if I was to have any time to pursue writing, something had to be given up. I went from long rambling phone conversations to quick texts or emails. Of course, there are exceptions such as school, doctor’s office, or business calls (and my mother, the guilt was too much) but that’s it. I have now developed phonaphobia and wince anytime I hear one ring. My husband has become the official message taker. This comes with its own set of problems.



Did you have to give anything up to find time to write more?

9 comments:

  1. i had to become very strict on how often I looked at the Internet. It's amazing how much time can pass my looking at different sites etc.

    I decided to have a set time when I would go on there - usually when I had achieved my set writing quota. It was hard but it was worth it.

    ReplyDelete
  2. OMG, please tell me your novels are as funny as you are.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I watch a lot less TV than I used to, helps to not have cable/satellite, but that can still be my biggest distraction. If someone else has the TV on I can still get caught up in Maury Pulvich who's the daddy test results shows.

    ReplyDelete
  4. LOL at that phone message. I just hate talking on the phone. Seems like you can't just have a quick conversation. I stick with e-mail, but the sacrifice is to friendships and relationships. You can't stay as close in e-mail as you could in conversations.

    ReplyDelete
  5. lol, wow, I've always hated the phone!
    As for giving things up.. well, yes. I gave up tv awhile back. Best decision of my life. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hahaha! Love that fridge note. It's totally something my husband (bless his non-writer, phonetically inclined heart) would do.

    My Blackberry is definitely my biggest time suck. I don't know when it happened but I pretty much talk to all my friends and family via text or email these days -- when the phone rings, it actually causes anxiety because people only call out of the blue when there's bad news!

    But I do try to have voice to voice conversations. Nothing beats that. But they're usually scheduled in advance, via text, so nobody has a heart attack when their phone rings.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I have no problem answering my cell phone. I always know who it is, or I know ahead of time if it's not someone I know so I'm prepared to give the "wrong number" speech. I hate answering our home phone though, and I hated the one at my internship too. I wonder if I can get over my phonaphobia as easily as you created yours!

    ReplyDelete

It helps to know I'm not just talking to myself.