Leave Voicemail Faster

Every time you need to leave someone a message on their mobile phone, you have to sit through a time-wasting, robotic script: “To page this person, press five now. At the tone, please record your message. When you are finished, you may hang up, or press one for more options.”

There are some simple steps you can take to skip through this drawn-out greeting and get straight to the beep so you can leave your message and get on with your life.

Of course, the simple steps vary, depending on your mobile carrier. Blogger Jeremy Toemon came up with a three-key combo that works on major U.S. mobile phone carriers. Here are the three steps and why they work:

• Step 1: Push 1. If your friend is on Sprint (or possibly Verizon, but not always), this skips the greeting and you are done; leave a message after the tone. If you hear a message that says “One is not a valid option,” go to Step Three. Otherwise, continue to Step Two.
• Step 2: Push * (the star key). If your friend is on Verizon, you’ll hear the beep and can leave your message.
• Step 3: Push # (the pound key). This works for both AT&T and T-Mobile subscribers, and you’re all set to go.

One-Star-Pound: Train your fingers to remember these keys so you won’t ever have to listen to this again: “At the tone, please record your message.”