I've recently snapped out of a long head-hanging-between-the-hands spell. Which was swiftly followed by a eureka moment as I realised how much time I waste moping/worrying/panicking when I could be, well, at peace.

So here I'm sharing the five deadly time-wasting sins that we all engage in at some point or other:

1. Retiring to our caves
Upon returning home from work, we find a dark corner and start rocking back and forth, muttering to ourselves and speaking in nothing more than grunts and nods to the people we care for. I love to think I do this to unwind, but do I?

2. Living in a 'what if we' mode (with apologies to Chiara)
Those nagging doubts that we may not be cut out for the life we're living. They make us mull over the past or the future while scheming a runner: To a new life, a new job. My Plan Bs vary from opening a tiny coffee shop in Valletta, to heading off to an anthropological stay with the Masai in the Serengeti to building wells in some drought-affected village in Sudan. The farewell speeches ("Sod off everyone! I'm off to make the world a better place") are all ready.

3. Chaining ourselves to our work desk
So we've ended up running the show at work but do we have a life, seriously? There is a psychological way of checking the life balance: We have to imagine ourselves aged 80 and looking back on life. Let's face it; no one lies on their death bed thinking: 'Gosh! I wish I had spent more time at the office'.

4. Worrying about material things
The fridge broke down, the shoes don't match. How many hours a day do we spend worrying about material stuff? Is it worth it in the end? These past three years I've moved house six times and each time my load gets smaller and smaller to the extent that my life can now be swiftly packed in three big boxes. Maybe it's high time I stopped being attached to anything.

5. Moralising
Such as, for example, writing fervent letters to The Sunday Times (check out last Sunday's) against sex, promoting abstinence and talking of introducing the Silver Virginity Ring. Jesus! We are fast becoming a nation of prudes.

Here is what we can do instead:

1. Stop being a recluse
Forget the lonely rocking. It's better to spend time laughing - remember we are privileged to be the only mammal who laughs (hyenas don't count, I don't think). Being in good, intimate understanding with another human being is the best and happiest place in the universe, but it takes more than nods and grunts to show that we care.

2. Live in the now (and call a friend)
Scrap all the Plan Bs and live in the now. Yeah, maybe we're not destined to win a Nobel Prize or offer succour to the afflicted of a Third World country but we might be able to make our oldest friend laugh when she's heartbroken. This means something.

3. Unchain your meditation skills
The happiest man in the world did not spend 40,000 hours at his work desk, but meditating. Last week scientists told us that French academic turned Buddhist monk, Matthieu Ricard is "the happiest man in the world" as his brain is more able to produce positive emotions.

4. Want what you have
In a study of happiness published last year, UK Professor Andrew Clark said: "Happiness is not getting what you want; it's wanting what you have." Material stuff is not the only way to leave a mark on the wide world. We can do so in the most unexpected ways: perhaps by cooking a meal with love or by strolling the streets aimlessly while engrossed in good conversation.

6. Make love
And then write to the editor what jolly good fun it was. If you're stuck for words, Sarah Vine, in her brilliant book Backwards in High Heels: The Impossible Art of Being Female, has the perfect summary: "It can comfort and reassure; it can make you feel as if you are queen of the world; it can make you laugh, it can make you gasp... it is entirely wonderful." There. Somebody had to say it.

And last but not the least, just for today, head to Ta' Qali and watch the Hibernians team win the footie league.