What is everyone talking about this week: January is the worst month of the year. Here's 15 ways to make it fun

Bridget Jones once declared, with typical chutzpah, that New Year resolutions should begin on January 2. To which I raise her right now — coming up to the middle of the month.

There’s a lot to be said, I think, for taking it easy in the first two weeks of the year and trialling your resolutions to see which are more likely to stick and which you ought to retire. It’s also helpful for those of us in denial about it being January at all — or who celebrate Twelfth Night on January 5 (or 6th…).

Forget those who tell you that February is the bleakest month: the days are longer and sunnier and awards season usually kicks off with a bang. That’s without even mentioning skiing. No: January takes the biscuit. How to make it bearable, then?

Received wisdom would suggest sobriety or keeping a journal. I know we all want to use that leather-bound notebook ‘regifted’ by Aunt Agatha for something, but here’s another idea, just for balance: bin it.

There are far better ways to deal with the situation, whether you take a gung-ho or ease-into-it approach. At the ripe old age of 27, I consider myself something of a January expert, having survived 12 Januaries more than Edward VI and four more than River Phoenix. Without further ado, here’s my survival guide. Happy New Year, dear reader: you’ve earned it.

1. Throw a party, even if you already did so for New Year’s Eve. The good times shouldn’t stop rolling merely because someone in Islington said January was for R&R
2. Head to the Lakes or the Yorkshire Dales if you wish for snow. It’s never guaranteed, of course, but the landscapes are so breathtaking you’ll find that, once there, you almost don’t need it
3. Now is the perfect time to host a Traitors weekend in the country. Choose a range of friends who don’t know each other too well (they’ll sniff out the Traitors immediately otherwise) and plan indoor games, such as sardines, competitive charades and the one where you have to lift a cardboard box off the ground using only your teeth
4. The gym is overrated. Go for long, bracing walks instead
5. Agatha Christie’s The Seven Dials Mystery has been turned into a new, three-episode series (Netflix, from January 15). Put the kettle on and pass the popcorn. And the chocolate. And the wine
6. January doesn’t typically inspire outdoor activities except with hound or gun; buck the trend and head to Avington House, Hampshire, to swim at one of the lakeside shepherds’ huts. Sorry, I should have said — not in the lake itself. There are heated pools that overlook it. Small laps, small laps
7. Join two giants of modern literature, Julian Barnes and Ian McEwan, in conversation at Union Chapel, London, on January 20. The evening will mark Julian's 80th birthday and the publication of his new novel, Departure(s)
8. If you planted hyacinths or white daffodils in pots last autumn, the time to enjoy them sprouting begins now
9. Dust off your reeling shoes and join one of the many ceilidhs taking place on Burns Night, January 25
10. Get ahead of the game and head to Dorset Museum & Art Gallery in Dorchester on January 31 for the unveiling of ‘People Watching’, featuring works by Bridget Riley and Dame Barbara Hepworth
11. Maggie Jones’s, a restaurant named after the pseudonym used by the late Princess Margaret to book a table, has reopened, at No 6 Old Court Place, London, after a fire forced it to close in 2023. Go and order the shepherd’s pie
12. It’s peak galanthophile season: join snow-drop hunters in the Cotswolds one weekend to admire the fleeting flowers
13. Banyas are having a moment. Unwind with a parenie, a Turkish soap massage and a cold plunge at Belgravia’s The Bath House
14. The Fife Arms in Aberdeenshire is offering a ‘Highland Healing experience’ from £1,160 for two nights. Head to Braemar for night walks beneath the stars with hot chocolate — or whisky
15. Do not drone on about your New Year’s resolutions. It has been scientifically proven that people only ever register those you fail to keep and will call you out on them in four or five months’ time