WHEN I realized it was time for Surfer gURL to make New Year’s Web-olutions for 2001, I recalled last year, when I considered keeping my off-line time off line.I romanticized a pre-cyber age of not being in touch with everyone all the time.

But those thoughts flew out the PC window, once a Sprint Web-enabled phone fell into my hot little PC-ready hands.

Over the phone, I bought albums while at concerts, checked election updates during dinner, purchased books while driving to the beach and settled bar bets by looking up info on the Web.

I tried to leave my new toy at home, but as soon as America Online made e-mail available through the phone, I was doomed.

I look for e-messages constantly – from the back of cabs and standing in line at the movies.

Reading messages on the phone is easier than booting up the PC at home after a long day and night, so I take my phone to bed with me and log on before turning out the light. It’s pathetic.

It’s not easy to answer e-mail on the phone, using the tiny touchtone pad to write words, so I have picked up some lingo from my niece (g2g, for “got to go”).

But my e-mail vocabulary is poor. When I remember to reply at all, the messages are abruptly short and sweet (“xo” is so easy to type).

It’s become clear to me, without no intervention necessary, that e-mail has taken over my life, and I need to take control.

So this is my No. 1 New Year’s Resolution: Cut back on e-mail.

Surfer gURL’s going retro – or at least, giving it another try.

That means fewer e-mails and more phone calls.

I’m going to respond only to messages that absolutely call for a response. No more time-consuming chatty e-mails scattered through out the day. No more obsessively moving from one e-mail address to another. The delete key will become my best friend.

“Unsubscribe” will be the word of the day, every day.

I hope the past won’t predict the future. Last year’s resolution was the same as the one the year before.

I’m going to go cold turkey. We’ll see if I need to go into rehab.

I managed to keep two resolutions last year.

I successfully transferred my life to the Palm V and hyperlinked every day. Getting daily news stories for reading material on the subway from AvantGo (avantgo.com) was good incentive for that. This year, I want to find more cool applications for the Palm Pilot computing.

I also used Napster constantly, downloading songs onto an MP3 player. Then, when a firewall blocked me from Napster, I circumvented that by going through Napigator. That finally got snagged by a firewall, too, so now I’m singing the blues.

Another resolution is a big one: Buy a new computer.

I had planned on getting a new Mac, because my old one exploded (fortunately, it was backed up, the result of a 1998 resolution), but then I dropped my beloved PC laptop, a Sony Vaio, and shattered the LCD screen.

So now it’s time for some serious decisions. Do I want to get a new laptop and skip the desktop or fix the old laptop and go for a new desktop Mac?

When Apple CEO Steve Jobs demo’d the gorgeous new Cube this past fall, I was completely seduced. However, my love went south after some thought and some research, and I decided to go for a more practical, less expensive and more powerful Mac G4.

Now it’s all back to square one.

I’m going to be so busy, I just won’t have any time to e-mail.

Will I?

Please e-mail questionsand comments tomhuhn@nypost.com. Shepromises to reply.