|PIC1|The rise of BlackBerry and mobile phones that allow you check your e-mail has seen an alarming increase in the number of people unable to go five minutes without thinking about work.

Brush your teeth, check your e-mail, get on the train, check your-email - the cycle is hard to break, and increasingly people feel honour bound to start replying to work mails in the early and late hours of the day.

Although it sounds like a fun problem, it is a genuine concern for many that feel e-mails are actually pushing them around. So how do you break the cycle and return to normal life? Here are five tips to help free yourself from the e-mail addiction.


Try not to mix personal and business emails

Okay, so you have a BlackBerry that you use for your work mails, but you've probably given that same e-mail address to your friends and family because you always have it with you. Well don't. Discourage your friends and family from sending things to your work e-mail account and then you won't feel that you have to check to see if your mate replied about the pub visit and get sucked into having a quick through what other people have sent.



Morning commute for work, evening commute for life

A really good tip for the commuters amongst you is to pick one of your journeys as dedicated work mail time - ignoring the personal e-mails and getting stuff ready or wrapped up for the day and then reverse things the other way and focus on your personal life. Don't mix up checking both personal and private mails or surf for work and pleasure in the same spell but separate them.



Limit yourself to Threes

Another way of easing your way off of e-mail addiction is to only allow yourself to read three e-mails or if you're an extreme addict, reply to three. If you prioritise then you won't be dragged into sending more than this, and if you succeed, you may well find yourself sending just one!

RSS Feeds

Many people end up using e-mails out of boredom or a need to kill time on a train or journey and suddenly find they are addicted. Take that boredom away by subscribing to some RSS feeds that mean you have a wealth of reading material that doesn't require anything more than your attention. No RSS access? E-mail yourself a couple of lengthy articles and don't be tempted to keep checking you inbox as you read.



Leave it in the office

You work only a certain number of hours a day, and unless you feel in the mood of working out of hours, leaving your BlackBerry locked up in a draw is perhaps the best way to avoid temptation.