If proof were needed that we are increasingly addicted to checking our email read this alarming statistic:

A recent RAC survey reported that there has been a 50% increase in the last year in the number of 25 to 44-year-olds using their smartphones to access email, Facebook and Twitter while driving.

Are these people stark raving mad!

Surely we all now recognise that the stimulus to check or respond to an email, text or facebook message is a reptilian response – and when we start putting our own and others lives at risk we need to get back in control.

Think – don’t open the biscuit tin or – look both ways when crossing the road. Simple simple.

Luckily poor email etiquette in the workplace has less dramatic implications than killing someone when driving dangerously – only 16 working days lost every year fiddling with unnecessary email traffic.

Often when I meet people they ask me “if you were to give me your one top tip around using email – what would it be”.

After being involved in training and receiving feedback from hundreds of thousands of email users – my top tip is simple.

TURN IT OFF – your visual email alert, audible alert and the little flashing envelope!

Set suitable times to check your email – for example twice in the morning and twice in the afternoon.

And nothing is that important that you need to put your and others lives at risk.