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Blue Monday: how to beat the January gloom

Getting back into the daily routine after the Christmas holidays can be an uphill struggle. All that January misery comes to a head on the most depressing day of the year. Here are some solutions for that Blue Monday gloom.

Once the festive season is over, all that feasting and extra expenditure take their toll. And in no uncertain manner. The month of January is a non-stop assault-course thanks to the combination of the return to work, empty bank accounts and the freezing cold.

The ordeal is now upon us, and the stiffest challenge is Blue Monday (i.e., the third Monday in January), now considered to be the most depressing day of the year since a couple of advertising executives invented it in 2005.

 

What exactly is Blue Monday?

In 2005 a travel agency decided to use a formula devised by British psychologist Cliff Arnall to launch an advertising campaign. Although the formula has changed from time to time, it first started with the following equation. The aim was to show that the third Monday in January was the most depressing day of the year:

[Cold weather + Debts + Salary] multiplied by:

the number of days after Christmas raised to the power of the number of days your New Year’s resolutions lasted,

all divided by: motivation x the obligation to get things done. The result is the most depressing day of the year = the third Monday in every January.

Hidden behind this apparent complexity is a very simple idea. This is basically that returning to work with no money left in the bank, with a heavy cold and totally unmotivated is a frequent cause of depression.

What can you do to beat Blue Monday?

The third Monday in January can be the most depressing day in the year, or it can be just a day like any other. That’s up to you to decide. What is undeniable is that January is an uphill struggle.

So here we give you some winning ideas for taking on the different parts of the dreaded formula:

  • Cold weather

There’s an easy answer to this one: keep yourself warm. In order to do so, all you have to do is follow our tips for keeping your boiler in tip-top condition.

  • Debts

After a period of expenditure you need a strict clampdown based on five tips to save electricity after the holidays.

  • Salary

Unfortunately, we can’t give you a pay rise. What we can do is help you to find out exactly how much you’re going to have to pay for your next electricity bill. In the following video you will find out how to calculate this long before the bank transfers the money:

  • As time goes by...

The days will follow on one after the other, you’ll soon forget Christmas and also all those resolutions you made for 2018. That’s only normal. But there’s also a way to beat the passage of time, at least as far as your electricity bill is concerned. In the following video we explain how to check your electricity consumption from your smartphone:

  • Motivation

Apathy and slackness are typical at this time, especially when you think you’ve seen it all and you don’t have many new tricks to learn. In the “most depressing period of the year” we can’t expect you to take on big challenges. It’s not the right time for it. You can stay on the couch and do nothing. Let your house do everything for you. Yes, your house can be smart and you can be its boss giving him all kinds of orders with the voice. And you thought you had seen it all...

 

The truth after Blue Monday has passed

Once you’ve got your Blue Monday sorted out, we have an even better piece of news: there is no scientific evidence to prove that Blue Monday really exists.

It’s nothing more than an equation invented to get people to travel at a quiet time of the year, which means that it’ll only affect your life if you allow it to.

“There’s absolutely no scientific evidence at all to back up the idea that there’s one day in the year that’s particularly depressing.”

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