Like the preflight seatbelt fastening instructions, you don’t need to hear how to leave a voicemail each time you leave one.

I left my wife a voicemail the other day and was frustrated at how long it took to get to the beep where I could leave my 3-second response. I wondered if there was a way to skip by that.

Lifehacker’s uncanny prescience strikes again with instructions on how to skip right to leaving the message.

The executive summary is to hit one star pound (1*#), which covers all major carriers. The link has more details.