How to get through January

How are you getting on with your resolutions?

Hopefully, by now, you will have junked them. I have.

There’s no point trying to be a new you, it will never last.

Here is my advice for getting through January:

1. Throw that e-cigarette away. It makes you look like a pratt. If you must give up smoking then there is a better way. Give up smoking.

2. Don‘t bother sticking to a “dry” January. It is idiotic to stop drinking altogether in January only to go back on the juice again with a vengeance in February. This is worse for your health than if you’d never stopped in the first place. If you drink too much, you need to cut down for good. Sorry, not the most fun advice.

3. Whatever you do, avoid HR right now. In January, HR starts coming up with all sorts of ideas for “revitalising” the workplace. And in February they start putting these ridiculous ideas into practice. Don’t get sucked into their schemes.

4. Everyone hates their job when they go back to their desks after the Christmas/new year break, but if you still hate yours at the end of January perhaps you should do something about it. But please don’t send your CV to our agency, we aren’t recruiting (fingers crossed things pick up later in the year).

5. Never ever go back to work without having your next holiday planned. Book your summer holiday now. Us parents need to get our holidays sorted early if we want to go away in school holiday times.

6. Give up those dreams of getting fit. January is definitely too miserable to start going running. I reckon the weather will be too unpleasant until June. And then it will be too hot.

7. Show me the money. One tedious part of a new year is sorting out accounts. Clients are particularly reluctant to cough up cash in January. Make sure they don’t get away with fobbing you off in February too.