For most of us, last week was the dreaded and dismal first one back to work after Christmas.

This often leads to plenty of cheery chat with colleagues, bus drivers and anyone who’ll stand still, about how we miss eating, drinking and generally being merry.

Presumably, because we’re now fasting, abstaining and being decidedly unmerry, this chat quickly turns to lamentation that every day isn’t Christmas.

It was during one of these exchanges that a colleague and I bemoaned the fact that the annual two-week relax had now passed.

Worse: we now had a whole 11.5 months before we could feel that relaxed again.

Of course, we will have other holidays. We will enjoy bank holidays. We will live for the weekend on more than one occasion.

But there’s something particular about the Christmas fortnight – mainly because the rest of the world is on holiday too so you don’t return to a gazillion emails, or sit at home with the perpetual sense that everyone else is busy sending you tasks.

Because, at Christmas nobody cares. Everybody’s too busy rummaging in the Quality Street tin or glazing parsnips with honey to give a toss that you haven’t sent your meeting request to them yet.

It’s a special time you prepare well in advance for – everyone’s presents are taken care of and wrapped up ready to be delivered and household bills can be forgotten about because at Christmas time such things simply don’t exist.

Thanks to this, time has the wonderful sense of barely existing.

So, over our lattes, we decided that we must try to harness the power of Christmas in some small way every month of the year. No, this does not mean we want to feel half a stone heavier and five times over the recommended alcohol limit, all while slurring the Wizzard ditty.

It means we want to shush the brain chatter about all the deadlines and deeds we’re missing and be able to focus on our actual jobs. The main problem is that life is in full swing. Nobody else is on holiday. Bills need paying.

So we decided that although we can’t halt our workload – emails will stack up and colleagues won’t be happy if we ignore their ever-increasingly frantic requests – we can perhaps quieten our extra stuff.

So, here’s the plan: the first few days – and possibly the first week – of each month will be dedicated to getting everything taken care of for that month.

So birthday presents for the entire month will be bought, wrapped and either delivered to the recipient or placed somewhere safe ready for delivery.

The main bulk of food will be bought, with only the need for the freshest of foods to be got halfway through the month.

Bills will be paid, nail varnish remover, toilet roll, tights, toothpaste – little things that send us running round town on a lunchbreak – will be stocked up on.

Week one of each month is Clean Slate Week.

This is all with the view of freeing up the final three weeks of each month – when we can focus on our jobs, hobbies and relationships.

Join us. Wipe the slate clean and swab the decks every month and free your mind. Or at least stop procrastinating and pay that dastardly council tax bill.

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