I talked (in person) to T about this today. He said he vastly prefers in person because it's much more difficult for him to lose focus. On video, it's considerably more likely, but the client can also see him, so they could comment if he seemed to be. But on the phone, he says he'll suddenly realize he opened the email on his laptop, then has to close down his laptop to keep focusing. I said I understood because I've found myself doing the same thing if on the phone with my mom, say (who's the only person I regularly talk to at any length on the phone anymore, aside from brief calls from my H like "what do we need at the store?" Everyone else is texting/messaging/email). So that made sense.

I did ask him that if we tried doing video and it felt weird to me (I said it would feel like he was in my house), could we switch to phone? And he said yes, but gave the warning about greater distractibility. Just something to consider.