I’ve been reading so many fantastic tips on the BEST way to get yourself ready for the New Year and I thought I would share some of my favourites with you. Hope you love them:

1. De-clutter your digital life

I don’t consider myself a super active user of Facebook but when I look through my list of Facebook ‘friends’, I realised that I had many people in there that I hadn’t spoken to in like 10 years! Rather than feeling guilty de-friending some of those people, I just did it. I love keeping up to date with my real friends on facebook but I don’t really need to know what these not-really friends, friends, ate/saw/did every day. Do the same with Twitter and your other social media platforms – sometimes less is more.

I try to keep up to date with my emails most of the time too – it’s the efficient me that likes things cleared away. But I didn’t realise really how much time I was wasting reading all of those emails that I had subscribed/signed up to many years ago but just wasn’t interested in anymore. Even if I just flicked through some before deleting them, it still took up precious moments and distracted me from doing something a whole lot more useful. Unsubscribe time. Do you know I had signed up myself up to so many things that it took me an hour to unsubscribe. Today I got only 5 emails in my inbox instead of the usual 50!!

2. Clean up your space

Now this one is really a whole lot of fun. Take everything out of the wardrobe and throw it on the bed. Then invite over some of your bestest friends (the really brutally honest ones) to tell you what looks good and what doesn’t. I did this yesterday and my little sister helped me throw out some of those really, really worn but really, really loved items that I could never (but should) part with. And even those orange shorts that I just got in Thailand that didn’t look quite right went. It was ruthless but just what I needed.

Those other things that I was unsure about went into a space bag which now fits under my bed. Super easy! Although, apparently if they are still unworn in one year, they are going to end up in the charity clothes bin – ekk. I can now see everything in my wardrobe. And found some dresses I had forgotten about. Bonus.

But it doesn’t stop at the wardrobe. I cleaned up my makeup. Yep, I am one of those people that have makeup in use for way too many months. Out they went. Same for shoes, random papers and other things I just had lying around. My favourite thing that I updated was my inspiration cork board. I cut out new pictures from my favourite mags already for fresh new ideas for 2013.

3. Take a risk

I’ve found out recently through this fantastic tool called The Hogan Development Survey – The Dark Side (sounds scary but it’s not really) – that I am very cautious person. Yes, you wouldn’t think that someone that has resigned without having another job could also be super cautious. But I started to think about it and it’s true. I usually have to ask multiple people before I decide on anything. The other day I realised the extent of this when I surveyed my friends to see what colour bag I should get before I could buy it.

Well, no longer. It’s time to take a risk. And make mistakes. And then take more risks. I’ve decided that in 2013, I’m going to take a risk. Or two. Or maybe more. And take full responsibility for it. Yeah. Just deciding that feels so good.

4. Think about what makes you happy and then just DO IT.

As you know I’ve been travelling around and chilling out for a few months now. Ahhh. Life is good isn’t it. But instead of making the most of each day, I find myself wasting time and using the day for things like clearing out my junk mail from my inbox. BORING.

So what I did was make a list of things on pretty post-it notes of the things that I like doing which looked something like this – yoga, cook, hang out with the boys in my life (my nephews and boyfriend), learn, exercise, see new things, meditate, brunch and blog. And when I worked out how much of the day I was doing any of these things – it was less than 10%. Of course, there are times where you have to do the washing up and grocery shopping but even taking these into consideration I was wasting a whole lot of my time fuddy duddling around.

Those post-it notes are now around my light switch so I’m reminded about them each day. You think that even though I love doing them, that would be enough. It’s not, sometimes we need reminding. Even about the fun things.

5. Appreciate the small things

It’s not always the big things in life that make you happy. Sure if you win the lottery that might make you happy for a little while but by itself that’s not enough to make you happy for ever and ever. As we are less than 12 hours away from the big event, I’ve already started thinking about the best moments of this year. Funnily enough, a lot of them are pretty darn small but oh so meaningful.

• Brunch club
• Sneaking off to the gym at lunch times with the girls at work – I felt so naughty but lunch time yoga is the best thing ever
• Celebrations
• Waking up next to Sam each morning – living together is pretty awesome
• The day we became British
• Having fun training for a half marathon – yes, it can be fun
• Weekends away at the Cotswolds with good friends
• Traveling (and being spontaneous) – there’s a first for everything
• Arriving in Brisbane – constant happy feeling
• Seeing my nephew’s smile when he sees me
• Surprising Joy on her birthday
• Unpacking my juicer (which made it all the way from London)

Have a very happy New Year everyone. Can’t wait to see you all next year.

Eva x

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Things I Love: So Far This Year The Week without Facebook Pull the plug on Ugly Thoughts Life Changes: Mixing it up in your Thirties?