Be like Beyonce. Image: Getty.

I’ve never really been in to self-help books, save for a brief flick through an old copy of Men Are From Mars, Women are from Venus I discovered on the family bookshelf. Bridget Jones, I was not.

Then I stumbled upon The Life-Changing Magic of Not Giving a F*ck by Sarah Knight. It’s the anti-self help bible for people who hate self-help books. And it’s become my new life motto.

It promises to teach you “how to stop spending time you don’t have doing things you don’t want to do with people you don’t like.” BAM.

Watch: Life advice from Jessica Rowe. (Post continues after video.)

Knight, a self-described overachiever and perfectionist, did the whole Marie Kondo thing (author of cult de-cluttering book The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying) before deciding to take it one step further.

Yes, a tidy house made her feel better, but after quitting a job that she didn’t really like she experienced the taste of true liberation.

She realised the problem wasn’t in a disorganised sock drawer; it was in a cluttered, frazzled and stressed-out mind that spent 24/7 worrying about anything and everything.

So she stopped giving a fu*k.

"Little by little after the next several years, I stopped giving a fu*k about the small things that annoyed me. I RSVPd 'no' to a couple of after-work mixers. I unfriended some truly irritating people on Facebook. I refused to suffer through another 'reading' of your 'play'," she writes.

"And little by little, I started feeling better. Less burdened. More peaceful. I hung up on telemarketers; I said no to a weekend trip with toddlers; I stopped watching Season Two of True Detective after only one episode. I was becoming my true self, able to focus more on people and things that actually, as Marie Kondo might say, 'sparked joy'."

It sounded glorious and I wanted in. Thanks to my proper English upbringing, I'd often felt like my politeness was both a blessing and a curse, compelling me to say yes to things I really didn't want to do and to people I really didn't like. It was time for a change. (Post continues after gallery.)

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Knight's "Not Sorry" method is simple. First, decide what you don't give a fuck about and then don't give a fuck about them. Genius.

But while it sounds straightforward, actually getting to that frame of mind and attitude is what I found too difficult. What if I offended or upset someone?

According to Knight, this is the number one problem. Guilt, anxiety and obligation push us to give fucks we don't always want to. She argues that our fucks are in fact a precious commodity, and giving them away to things that don't bring you joy is a waste of time, energy and money.

Instead, take care of yourself first, allow yourself to say no