Are you a Crackberry?

Managing Work-Life Balance on Holiday...
Helen's Tips for a Relaxed and Technology-Free Holiday

Email and mobile phones are addictive. They feed our basic need to be needed. You can see this on plane journeys were people have to have their phones almost prized out of their hands in order to allow the plane to fly safely. At the end of the journey they are desperate to turn it back on despite all the air stewards' requests about 'do not turn your mobile on until you are well inside the terminal building'. The assumption is that you are such a significant and important person that "surely someone must have wanted to contact me!"

Of course it is appropriate for Tony Blair and Margaret Beckett to be equipped with the latest technology when they go on holiday so that they can stay in touch with world affairs. Blair is head of state. But for the rest of us it probably isn't necessary and perhaps we have to accept that some people can live without us for a few weeks - which can sometimes be difficult to accept!

• As you leave the office put your papers in order and trust the person who may be overseeing your work to do a good job. They are probably perfectly capable and your fear is just that they may be more capable than you!

• As you close the office door begin to slow your mind down, relax your shoulders and start to feel in that holiday mood. Take control of your brain and move it away from the 'busyness' of working life.

• Enter your home in a positive and optimistic mood determined that you will be able to take time off and relax properly.

• Accept that spending time with partners and families can often be a less 'tidy' and frequently more demanding experience than dealing with your workplace. Decide to enjoy it and have fun.

• Unless you are in the middle of some major project or role that requires you to be on call LEAVE YOUR LAPTOP BEHIND! If you take it you have too much temptation to open it. Being without it gives you a completely different holiday experience that is truly refreshing.

• If you have a Blackberry or similar email-capable mobile phone turn off the automatic receive setting so that you can only pick up emails if you choose to log on. Hearing the beep alert telling you that there is an email waiting annoys other people too, and only makes you guilty that you should be looking at it 'in case it is urgent'.

• If something is urgent people will track you down so stop imagining the worst and just relax.

• Leave your Blackberry and mobile phone in your hotel or villa room. You really don't need it by the pool. You probably have those you most love with you and the office can wait.

• If, like Tony Blair, you are in the middle of some urgent situation back home make your own decision about what time of day you will choose to log in or be available. Then make the rest of the day free for those with whom you are sharing your holiday.

• Keep control of your mind - don't let it wander back to that budget you didn't complete, the target you didn't reach, or the presentation you have to make on your return. You've paid all this money so let go of the anxieties and just enjoy it.

• Focus on those you are with. Don't be physically with your partner, kids or friends but mentally back in the office. You will get much more out of the quality of each moment and your relationships if you are mentally, emotionally and physically with them.

• Trust that you are good enough at your job that you will not be sidelined during the course of your two weeks. You will be much more effective on your return if you have allowed your mind and body to refresh and re-energise.

• If your partner is a workaholic book your holiday somewhere where there is no mobile coverage – then you will achieve a wonderful peace that you probably haven’t experienced for a while. Your partner will huff and puff for a day or two but after that they will thank you for a truly tranquil holiday!

• Download our 7 step programme to achieving work-life balance Help Yourself to a Better Life. This is packed with tips and strategies that will help you gain quality of life as well as quality of work.