For business, only call/text during business hours unless it's an emergency. Email whenever you feel like it and I'll get back to you when I'm ready.

For personal stuff, call/text anytime between about 0800 and 2100. Outside of those times it better be an emergency or at least very damn important. Email, same restrictions as business.

Circa 2008-ish...

I had been at this particular Regional airline for several years and was trying to get out on the dating scene (again). So my brother from another mother shamed me into getting back on Match.com...it had been a disaster a few years earlier. So I go on Match and connect with a nice lady. We were both in our mid-40's and she was in school to be a medical assistant...a career change for her. Her family was of Russian descent and she was very attractive.

First red flag...she had been married 4 or 5 times, with multiple times to the same guy. That didn't bother me, as I wasn't planning on proposing marriage anytime this century...just looking for a friend to go to the movies or grab a bite to eat. She DID love to text. However, as a flip-phone user at the time, I did not like text and really the whole notion of texting was idiotic to me and quite useless.

If you know my job, then you know I can be scheduled to have EXTREMELY early report times and therefore have to plan my sleep schedule at the hotel accordingly. Such was the case several times after we met...I'd have to bed down before 8:00PM in order to be up in time to get ready for a 4:15AM van time, e.g., to the airport. That meant waking at 3:15AM at the latest.

She had texted once or twice before when I had already turned out the light. And these texts were like at 10:30 at night. I had explained my schedule to her on several occasions, hoping she would grasp the concept that late texting might not be a good idea for me.

So finally the straw broke the camel's back...I had turned out the light WELL before 8:00PM and sure enough, the text chime went off at like 10:45. I didn't acknowledge nor answer that text.

Instead, I sent her an e-mail when I got home from that trip THANKING her for wanting to reach out and say "Hi", but re-educating her very nicely on the trials of my schedule and that I would appreciate it if we could agree that she not text after saaaay 9:00PM.

I never heard from her again...

C'est la vie

When I was a kid I was raised that it was rude to call before 8 am or after 8pm. That seems like a pretty good general rule, though I’m fine with inbound calls from 7am to 9pm. I tend to also be conservative in my texting times. Sometimes I’ll write a text at night but leave it unsent until morning. I consider email asynchronous, just like mailing a letter, and send email at any time of day or night without worrying about it.

I realize that different people treat their communications differently. Some use do not disturb and texting them at all hours wouldn’t bother them. Others not so much. By the same token, some folks get email on their cell phones and get notifications. I figure if they are doing that they should have do not disturb set up. I can read email on my phone, but I have disabled all email notifications because I don’t want to be bothered by it. I’ll check email when I feel like it.