New Year's resolutions are one of those things that we often feel we should make even if we're not sure why. They are usually to do with self-improvement and come from a build-up over the previous months of dissatisfaction about some aspect of life. Consequently the resolve is one of two types, either to do something that improves your lifestyle, or to not do something that is regarded as detrimental.

So for example, on the dieting front, the pairing would probably be along the lines of giving up chocolates, cakes and biscuits and starting to eat lower calorie foods while introducing more exercise. All well and good as long as it lasts. But how long does it last? One of the difficulties is the time that New Year arrives. January is such an awful month in which to start to do (or not do) anything. It's winter, it's dark and it's usually cold. The butt end of Christmas, all the jolly decorations have been taken down, the presents are all open and are no longer a surprise yet to happen and, oh dear yes, the credit card bills start to flood in to remind you of how spendthrift December was.

Plus, January is such a long month. Invariably, payday is about the longest gap it can be since the previous one. And it hardly helps that February is ridiculously short, since that's still cold and dark and anyway you've already started to falter on your resolutions which makes you feel worse still.

How much better then to have New Year resolutions in say, July? Long, sunny (hopefully) days, no ghastly yuletide bills to catch-up on, plenty of opportunity to eat healthily, exercise hard and enjoy the possibility of succeeding. Good in theory but as the calendar is clearly against it, there seems little hope of the idea becoming adopted. Unless of course we call them Mid-Year resolutions in which case we have the tiresome job of explaining it to people not in the know.

One of the other snags with declarations of this sort is actually remembering them. A year is just long enough to forget. Which ever month you're reading this in, think back one year and see what you can recall. What was the weather really like? What was your favourite television show? Who were you best friends with at the practice? Chances are you have a fairly hazy recollection, as indeed you have of whatever it was that was bugging you sufficiently to make you resolve to do something about it.

Of course it may be that you have all such things efficiently stored on a computer, or a palm-pilot (am I alone in thinking that really is the naffest name for a device ever invented?) or some other such bit of whizzy kit. In which case you could look it up instantly to remind yourself. I think there is a bit of drawback here too though, since if you are that super-human you probably need to make a resolution for 2006 not to be quite such a sad-o of an IT geek.

Telling other people can either be a great help or an awful mistake. Family and friends can be marvellously supportive in theory but fall at the first fence when it comes to practical cooperation. “What? You want me to come swimming with you? Do you know how cold it is out there? For goodness sake, have another jammy dodger and get over yourself”, might be one familiar cry.

The irony is that you really can't avoid New Year resolutions. Even if you say “I don't believe in all that malarkey, I'm not going to make any”, by definition, you've just made one, that is, a resolution not to make any resolutions, which is tantamount to actually doing so. If you see what I mean? Resolve that one and let me know in a twelvemonth how you get on.