So, a month in, how are you faring on your New Year’s pledges? This year I only made one resolution – to give up resolutions. It’s taken a lot of self-control and determination, but in the last few days, I’ve even managed to give up not drinking!

It’s time to give up time-wasting worries that are getting in the way of having more fun. Credit: ISTOCK

Why do we women begin each year with a grim list of things to give up, namely all the fun stuff like wine, chocolate, gossip, lazy Sunday lie-ins… And with what do we replace these pleasures? Low-calorie chocolate, diets, spin classes, hot-water-and-lemon drinks… A bacchanalian fun-fest. Not.

Well, this year all I’m giving up are those time-wasting worries getting in the way of me having more fun. And I suggest you follow practical suit.

First off, stop buying vitamins you never take and only discover again when they are three years out of date. Just eat a bit more fruit and veg. Wine is from a grape, so that definitely counts as one of your five-a-day, right?

Stop curling your eyelashes with that weird medieval contraption that nearly takes your eye out every time. If you’re still having to bat your lashes to get noticed by a bloke, you need to work on your bons mots.

Stop freezing leftovers; you are never going to eat them. All you’re doing is momentarily alleviating your guilt gland about food waste. Those frozen morsels will just reproach you every time you reach for an ice cube for your gin and tonic.

Stop hoarding clothes in the hope that one day you’ll be thin enough to fit into them again. This is never going to happen. Shove them into a bag and take them straight to the charity store. Embrace the elasticated trouser. You know you want to.

Give up on friendships that don’t spark joy. Tippex those names off your birthday invitation list. You are allowed to make new friends and discard the old.

Throw out all those single socks, too. Nobody knows what happens to missing socks. It’s one of life’s great mysteries, like the Bermuda Triangle, the female orgasm and the continuing career success of Donald J. Trump. You are never, ever going to find the missing sock to make a pair. Wise advice? Sock-ratic, to be precise.