Why doesn't picking up a phone fit into your workflow?
Picking up a phone for voice calls is synchronous.
Responding to an email is asynchronous.
(The asynchronous advantage is probably why SMS texting & WhatsApp/FB messaging has overtaken voice calls.)
I had a friend that didn't use email and always called my phone. Whenever I shut off the ringer, he'd eventually send me an email. But the content of that email was always, "Hey I got no answer on your phone. Give me a call."
Argh!!! Why can't you just put your question directly into the email?!? My behavior of not answering his phone calls failed to "train" him to switch to the email mode of communication. It drove me crazy. I finally realized that some people in this world have brains that work better with voice calls. Unfortunately, that's incompatible with the way I like to work.
I'm not saying that this guy was thinking this through that extensively, but IMO there are times when a voice call is more effective.
Did you attempt to explain to him why you didn't answer the phone as opposed to trying to "train" him? i.e. engage in open communication and have a conversation about what works and what doesn't for each of you about various modes of communication.
His request for you to "give him a call" moves thing for you back into the realm of the asynchronous.
I wonder whether maybe you have some other issue with voice calls?
I agree that voice calls can sometimes be more effective. Some types of tech support debugging are much easier with the interaction of live phone calls.
Those weren't the type of calls my friend was making. His calls were banal questions like, "I'm looking at these cameras the Canon 10D and Nikon D70. Which do you think is better?" He could have just typed that question into an email for me to reply whenever it was convenient. Instead, I hold the phone to my ear while I'm googling "Canon 10D vs Nikon D70".
>Did you attempt to explain to him why you didn't answer the phone as opposed to trying to "train" him?
No, I never told him in blunt terms, "don't call me anymore unless it's a complex question that requires the advantages of voice communication." I was hoping that dropping a ton of hints would do it but it didn't work. In any case, I changed my number so it's no longer a problem.
>His request for you to "give him a call" moves thing for you back into the realm of the asynchronous.
Not really because what ends up happening is after I call back, his brain says, "jasode is available now" and he'll call 5 or 15 minutes later with a new question. His threshold for initiating phone calls was very low which put me back in synchronous hell.
>I wonder whether maybe you have some other issue with voice calls?
Well yes, as I mentioned earlier: it's not my preferred form of communication. I do acknowledge and respect the fact that others default to voice but that doesn't change the fact that it's incompatible with how my brain works.
There is clearly a disconnect between people who prefer different modes of communication since the gp poster (throwawaymath) seemed truly confused and therefore asked, "Why doesn't picking up a phone fit into your workflow?"