Last week I accidentally set up our phone system here at Reinvented HQ up in a way that has accidentally worked out quite well.

We have a main business number that’s a regular old analog telephone line. It’s listed in the phone book, and is the main point of contact for our business. As a result, I get a combination of distracting “can I speak to the person responsible for your telecommunications services” spam calls, calls reminding me of physiotherapy appointments, and calls reminding me to come home for dinner … the kinds of calls I can either safely ignore, or at least get back to later.

We also have another number that I set up a few years ago for the convenience of our colleagues at Yankee Publishing. This line, which is a virtual VOIP line, is a local number in Dublin, New Hampshire.

My “accidental” configuration change was to shunt all calls to the main business number to voicemail, but to route all calls to our New Hampshire number directly to the phone on my desk.

The result: much less distraction from the background noise of everyday regular telephone communication, but instant access for our client when they need to talk to me.

It’s working out quite well.