January 18

Blue Monday. The third Monday of January.

The idea that there is one single day when we’re most likely to feel down was introduced by British psychologist Cliff Arnall of Cardiff University in 2005. By taking into account a series of factors, including the weather, the payday and the days left until the next one, days since the first New Year resolution was broken and days gone since Christmas, Dr. Arnall came up with the concept of Blue Monday, also known as the most miserable day of the entire year. Of course, not everybody agrees with it, on the premise that the entire month of January can be a period when one is in low spirits.

While on the payroll of a PR firm five years ago Arnall ‘calculated’ that the third Monday in January was the most miserable day of the year. To make this divination, the former Cardiff University lecturer came up with a complicated equation comprising seven variables: (W) weather, (D) debt, (d) monthly salary, (T) time since Christmas, (Q) time since failed quit attempt, (M) low motivational levels and (NA) the need to take action.

And so. What to do?

You laugh with co-workers, draw up some travel plans, make some meatballs, walk the dog, and watch Saturday Night Live clips, like the one with Justin Timberlake and Andy Samberg and that chubby dude acting as Beyonce's backup dancers, or Chris Farley and Patrick Swayze competing to be a Chippendale dancer.

Not much of a travel blog post, but it still beats the Blue Monday blues.