Back in the dark ages of the 1970s (quite literally, if you remember power cuts and the three day week), teachers could happily run with a child’s natural curiosity and set open-ended projects as valid educational experiences. My passion of the moment was wild flowers and plants, whilst my desk neighbours were big into beef cattle and rugby. (It was rural Wales, after all). I spent every spare minute for six weeks roaming the lanes and fields, collecting flowers, pressing them, sketching and photographing them on my Kodak Instamatic camera.

As well as the obvious benefits of being able to do independent research on something I loved I remember those weeks in Spring as being a golden time. Was it a case of looking back through rose-tinted spectacles or was something bigger at work there? I’m still a researcher and so I did what comes naturally and found out. It turns out I’m onto something.

The Spring Equinox – day and night, light and dark in equilibrium – brings first a calmness and then a burst of energy. There’s a time for everything. Why fight it? Resolutions and good intentions to start projects are doomed to failure in the dead of winter when, surely, we are meant to hunker down inside, reflect and go slow? If you want to start a project, a good habit or make a change, now is the right time. You won’t want to fight it. Just go with the flow, the surge of energy and you’ll be pulled along.

So here are six simple ways to celebrate the season and establish good habits – one for every day of the week and a day off to just ‘be’.