You don't have to completely give up your cell phone to protect yourself. A portable phone can be a godsend in times of emergency or when the truly unexpected crops up in your day. When I bought my first car, my mother insisted that I also purchase a cellular phone to take with me. I got the cheapest plan, which allowed for ten free minutes a month--more than enough to allow me to make a quick phone call if I broke down. I used that phone twice.

Many people tell themselves they are getting the cell phone in case of an emergency, but once they get it they find all sorts of other uses for it. Cell phones make it easy to not plan ahead. Instead of taking a moment to actually think through your plans and communicate with people you're meeting, you rely on the cell phone as a shortcut.

Some people get a cell phone because they want to make sure they can be reached in case the emergency happens to someone else. For that to truly work, you have to only give your cell phone number to those who might need to get a hold of you 24/7, your child's teacher at school or babysitter, for example. Without a cell phone, a little bit of preplanning and communicating with your child's caretakers can cover most of the contingencies. You can provide them with such pertinent information as your child's doctor, your favorite emergency room, your spouse's work number (in case you can't be reached), a number for a neighbor or trusted friend who can make quick decisions on your behalf, a list of your child's allergies, and any other information that will help.

Other people get cell phones for business purposes. Their line of work takes them on the road and they want their clients to be able to reach them. But is it really efficient for you if someone can interrupt you at any moment for any reason? Woudln't it make more sense to communicate by email or instruct people to leave detailed voice mail messages, then have scheduled times to return calls? Some phone services even allow voice mail messages to be sent over email. How many times do you get a call where you truly need to act on the information without a second to spare?

While there are some true emergencies in which having a cell phone is a huge help, most of the time it seems people fail to plan ahead because they know they can fall back on last minute cell phone communication. Except when the calls are dropped, the phone is out of range, it didn't get turned on, or the service doesn't work for no apparent reason. Then it's time to really panic and wish you'd taken a few minutes to plan ahead.

If you're concerned about the connection between cell phones and cancer, there are devices you can purchase inexpensively to shield the majority of the radiation.