What you need:

1. Google Voice Account (free):  https://www.google.com/voice
2. Skype Account
1. Get the $2.95/month unlimited United States and Canada option
2. Get a Skype to Go Number which is discounted if you have the unlimited US and Canada plan.  You rent the number in 3 month blocks for $12.05  (it’s $15 if you buy the number first and then sign up for the US/Canada plan.
3. Remember you need a microphone and speakers to make calls using Skype.  I have a Jawbone headset that connects to both my computer and cell phone so you can use one device for both.
3. Land Line.  I get basic service from Cox for around $20.

The set up:

1. Connect the Google Voice number to your land line, Skype, and cell phone
2. Provide the Google Voice number to everyone. 
3. When you are near your land line (e.g. home office) use the web interface at https://www.google.com/voice to call a contact.  Make sure to select your land line in the dropdown box so it rings that phone and not the others.
1. This will allow you to call long distance number using your landline phone without incurring long distance charges
2. You can also use your Skype number instead of the land-line but I prefer to use a landline because the sound quality is better and far more reliable.

When someone calls your Google Voice number all your phones will ring:  Home, cell, and Skype.   When this happens pick up the phone that costs you the least per minute. In order of priority:

1. Land line
2. Skype
3. Cell phone

WARNIG:  Even if you use Google Voice you will still get charged minutes on your cell phone.  Read that line again.  Google Voice just connects a call to multiple devices it does NOT replace minutes you use on your cell phone.  So ,if you use Google Voice and your cell phone, you’ll still get dinged for the minutes.

Benefits:

1. Using this system you can avoid having to use your cell phone minutes when you have access to lower cost communication methods
2. You can send and receive text messages from your Google Voice number and have them appear on your cell phone and get an email of the text.
3. You can create rules so only some phones ring at certain times of the day and or week.  For example your home office line will only ring between regular business hours.
4. You can have different voice mail messages for different groups of people.  This is helpful if you use Google voice for your personal and work number.  The voice mail I have for my friends is very different than my professional greeting.
1. The Google Voice transcripts of voice mails are hilariously bad so those are at least worth a laugh.
5. You can block people.   For example if a telemarketer keeps calling from the same number you can block them and whenever they call a message will be played that says “this number has been disconnected”.  I’ve used this several times on crazy ex’s.  It works like a charm.

Limitations:

1. Some phone numbers you can’t call using Google Voice because it costs Google too much money.  This is often the case with free conference call numbers.   I’ve had this happen a couple of times when calling FreeConferencCall.com numbers.  In this case I just use my Skype number. 

The first step in becoming more efficient is to figure out what your time is worth. For most of us that’s pretty easy. I take my daily earnings and break that down into the number of hours I devote to the project. Notice I said hours devoted to the project not worked. For instance I need to write a link bait article but first it takes an hour in research, then I spend an hour writing, and finally another half and hour clearing it with the client’s legal department etc… so I’ve spent 2 hours on a project of which only 1 hour was spent creating the final product. Even if you aren’t self employed the equation is just as simple. Say you get an hourly wage of $10 an hour or $80 a day. You spend two hours commuting back and forth plus you lose another hour for lunch so that 8 hour work day is in reality an 11 hour work day. So, you effectively make $8 an hour before taxes.

With this theory in mind lets make these numbers interesting. Say you generate $50 an hour as a programmer. Everything that you do that isn’t programming costs you money. For instance instead of programming you run to the bank and pick up some office supplies. This is the type of work that $10 an hour person could be doing. By running these errands you have effectively lost $40 running errands. If you had outsourced that labor you would have increased your companies revenue by $40 instead of running those errands which only added $10 in value.

Of course you can’t work all the time, and even a workaholic like me even needs some down time, but knowing what your time is worth is the first step to allocating resources. Yes this is a simplistic view and there are a whole bunch of factors like taxes, expenses, etc… but the idea is just to get you to start thinking about your time in relation to dollar value. Because if you don’t know how much your time is worth, how do you know if you are losing money on a project?