HOW is your week going?

The reason I ask is that the opening days of January – marking the return to some semblance of post-festive season normality for many folks – can feel like the equivalent of doing a tuck-and-roll out of a moving car, somersaulting across three lanes of traffic and ending up in a vat of wet cement. In short, it is painful, discombobulating and, well, grey.

While December is filled with a giddying abundance of twinkling lights and merriment, January is akin to the post-apocalyptic wasteland that Viggo Mortensen trudges through pushing his trusty shopping trolley in The Road.

And, in this case, the trolley – to continue with this laboured analogy – contains the standard January starter pack: a mountain of leafy greens, a set of dumbbells from the middle aisle at Lidl, vitamin D supplements and a SAD lamp.

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Everyone is skint. It’s dark. The weather is freezing. The contents of the fridge are lacklustre at best. You feel perpetually grumpy. Not helped by having to forgo wolfing down the final remnants of the cheeseboard because you’re already dicing with gout.

But here’s the question: have we unfairly been giving January a bad rap all these years? Sure, the first page of the calendar is a bit of a killjoy with grim dates such as Quitters Day (January 13) and Blue Monday (January 16). Yet maybe – just maybe – we have been looking at it all wrong?

Bear with me. Could it actually be that the slower pace, temperance and frugality of January is something to be embraced rather than scorned? Well, it all depends on your outlook, I suppose. Think of it this way: if December is a time for extroverts to thrive, then January is bliss for introverts.

For a start, there is no one nagging you to go out and socialise (because no one is going out and socialising). It is perfectly acceptable to sit by the fire and read a book, commandeer the coffee table to do a jigsaw puzzle or binge-watch old episodes of Murder, She Wrote.

Technically, I am an “extroverted introvert” which is how a friend of similar disposition and I describe the way in which we can be gregarious and outgoing as the occasion suits, but our default setting is to happily exist largely in hermit mode.

If this isn’t your natural state, then let me impart some top tips to embody that essence. Buckle up.

1) Get pants drunk

Give “kalsarikannit” a whirl. Coined in Finland, it is defined as “drinking at home alone in your underwear with no intention of going out”. From the words kalsari and kanni – meaning “underpants” and “state of inebriation” – kalsarikannit is literally “pantsdrunk”.

Picture Homer Simpson in his Y-fronts chugging a can of Duff Beer. That is the vibe we are going for. If you don’t drink alcohol, a variety pack of Monster Munch works a treat too.

2) Cut yourself some slack

There is a tendency to see January as a time to kickstart the whole “new year, new you” shebang. Now is not the time. No matter how much you have been conditioned to think it is.

While it is great to be making plans and ruminating on future goals, trying to tackle too many things at once will inevitably feel overwhelming and, ultimately, you end up changing diddly squat. Aim for two parts R&R to one-part existential crisis/life-changing prowess. You will thank me later.

3) Spend time in nature

Before you complain that January is a cold/wet/muddy/windy/icy hell, visualise naturalist Chris Packham trussed up like the Michelin man on Springwatch a few years back and channel that big-layers energy.

Even on the most dreich and gloomy days, getting outdoors is a balm for the soul. I’ve nothing against gyms but 20 minutes wandering around some woods, gazing at the silhouettes of trees and listening to bird song will always, hands down, beat 20 minutes running on a dreadmill.