The real reason “Not email people” want to talk on the phone or meet.

If your work or business involves communicating with people, there is always the person who — after a well-considered message — insist on a phone call or a “quick” meeting.

A policy of mine that has been essential to being able to do remarkable work with small teams, is avoiding phone calls. By their very nature, they are interruptive — someone has to be free at that exact time, and pause to answer a call. In a fraction of the time wasted on the average phone tag session, most topics can be handled via email.

Meetings are nearly always inefficient, and worse often completely counterproductive. Email provides an overall better solution — contributors have the ability to draft exactly what they mean to say, proofread it, and then share. No one has to take minutes, because the conversation is recorded right there, word for word. Which reveals the reason why some prefer avoid this more productive and economical means of communication.

When you clearly answer someone, and they want to meet up or chat, there is usually one obvious reason for their request: they want to assert power over the dynamic, cajole, charm, persuade, or haggle.

Don’t let them. Save your time and your mental energy for creating your best work. In business, you can politely and respectfully spell out terms in plain English, and if it’s not a win-win then it’s not a good fit.

Obviously, there are times when teams need to work out the details of a project, and gathering around a white board is necessary. And for both business and personal, conversations are critical for building relationships. The vast majority of customer service can be handled better through messages, and the time you free up can be used to wow your fans (even in your email replies!)