Top 10 Things To Do On New Year's Day

Looking for things to do on New Year’s Day? We often spend all of our time planning for New Year’s Eve, but the first day of the new year is just as important. Here are 10 fun and practical New Year’s Day 2012 activities.

New Year’s Day is a big day for College Football! Check out ESPN.com for the most up to date schedule.

Yoga is well known for it’s healing, cleansing and renewal effects. What better day for cleansing and renewal than on New Year’s Day! Hot Yoga classes are taught in a heated room, with temperatures ranging from 90 degrees to 104 degrees. The heat promotes muscle flexibility and sweating, which helps get the toxins (ex. bottle of champagne on New Year’s Eve) out of your body. If you are new to yoga, almost any class can be adjusted for students at all levels, from beginner to expert

The beginning of a new year is a fresh start and a great time to think about what you want to accomplish in your personal and professional life in 2012. The most common New Year’s resolutions include to: lose weight, exercise more, eat better, stop smoking, spend more time with family and friends, volunteer and save money and/or get out of debt.

Here are some tips to writing meaningful personal goals and New Year’s resolutions. Move to quiet area away from family and friends. Bring your laptop or a pad of paper and a writing implement. Think about what’s working in your life and what changes you would like to see and start jotting down ideas for 2012 goals. When you’ve exhausted all the ideas, look at the list and prioritize what’s most important, ranking your ideas from high to low.Take the top five ideas and expand on them.

For example, you may have written down “lose weight”. How much weight? How quickly do you want to lose the weight? How will you lose the weight? The more specific you are and the more planful you are, the more likely you will achieve your goals. The end result may be: Lose 25 pounds by June 30, 2012 by joining Gold’s Gym, purchasing sessions with a personal trainer and bringing my lunch to work at least twice per week. The re-written goal is very specific and measurable.

There area a variety of published statistics on the percentage of the population who takes the time to set and achieve goals. Although the stats vary, it’s estimated that less than 10% of the population takes the time to formally define their goals. When you compare people who set goals versus those who did not, no surprise, the individuals who defined their goals were much more likely to achieve their goals. For 2012, you can be part of the 10% of achievers!!

Invite your friends and family over for a New Year’s Day brunch. Keep it relaxed by using an “open house” format where attendees can come and go as they please. More and more people are staying at home on New Year’s Eve, and would look forward to an event the next day.

The Entertaining section of About.com has a great article on how to host a New Year’s Day brunch which can be accessed by clicking here.

You can never have too many friends and New Year’s Day is the perfect day of the year to reach out to those who you haven’t spoken to in awhile. We all get so busy, especially around the holidays.

Also, in this economy with more layoffs announced daily, keeping in touch with friends, extended family and colleagues is very important. When it’s time to change employers, having an inside contact can make a significant difference, considering all the competition. They can help get your resume directly to the hiring manager.So, grab the telephone and make some quick New Year’s Day greeting phone calls. Perhaps, send a brief email, sharing some personal, professional or family updates, wishing recipients a Happy New Year and inviting responses.Creating or updating your Face Book, Linked In or other social networking site profile is a great idea on New Years. Find friends, family members or key contacts on the site and send them invitations to connect.

Have you ever prepared a salad, added the dressing, taken a bite and then stopped chewing because you could taste that something was wrong? Then, when you looked at the salad dressing bottle your read that the “best used by” date was from the prior year? We tend to be so busy in our day to day lives, we don't take the time to remove the outdated items.

On New Year’s Day, set aside an hour and do some expiration date cleaning. Take a look in your refrigerator door and toss everything with expired dates. Look in your freezer and toss the items that are no longer recognizable and are likely infused with freezer burn. Also, look inside your medicine cabinet and toss the old medications and ointments as well as older make-up items, like mascara, that should be replaced on a regular basis.

Seeing a newly released movie with family and friends is a New Year’s Day tradition for many. This New Year’s Day you have a choice of many, highly anticipated new releases- to be announced shortly!

There are some home owners who keep their Christmas lights and holiday decorations out for all to see far past New Year’s Day. Most don’t, so what better day for de-holidaydizing (yes, it’s a word) than January 1, 2012? Gather up the red & green, pack up the blue and white, take down the Christmas tree and roll-up the holiday lights.

Many retailers need to move excess holiday inventory and hold fantastic “After Christmas” sales.

If you prefer to shop online, use Google or Yahoo to search for specific products or head directly to the website for the retailer of your choice. Visit my sister Hub on “Never Pay Full Price Online” for additional online shopping tips.If you don’t mind the challenge of finding a parking space in a mall and prefer shopping at the “brick and mortar” stores, FIRST search Google or Yahoo for “printable coupons for “insert retail store name”. Many offer additional discounts with coupons and the extra five minutes of preparation could save you hundreds of dollars at the cash register.

Get up as late as possible, lounge around in comfy sweatpants and your favorite tee shirt, drink mimosas, down an entire bag of potato chips or plate of home made cookies, order in Chinese Food or Pizza, watch a Law and Order marathon, cuddle etc. etc. etc.

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