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Okay. Christmas is over. Your hangover is wearing off, and it's time to start thinking about how life is going to be different -- more sparkly, exciting and magical -- in 2015. The first step is a new year's resolution -- research shows that resolutions rarely work, but we've got your back. Here are five resolutions you can keep.
Back Up Everything This one is easy. We won't lecture you on the reasons why you should backup -- you know them already. But getting started is easier than you think. First off, clean up -- plunge into your Documents folder and delete anything you don't actually need. The number one enemy of a good backup system is too much to backup. Then move that folder in its entirety into a
<a style="background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.dropbox.com/">Dropbox</a> or
<a style="background-color: transparent;" href="https://www.google.co.uk/drive/">Google Drive</a> folder. That way all of your most important stuff is always accessible from any web browser.
Step two is to sort out a physical backup system -- on a Mac it's easy, find an external hard drive and configure Time Machine. On Windows you can do almost the same thing -- Control Panel > Backup and Restore. If the external drive isn't connected regularly, then set a calendar reminder to plug it in once a month and let it do its thing.
Finally, you should really get a proper off-site backup. This costs money, but if you've ever lost data you'll know that you'd pay anything to get it back. As far as services go, we like Backblaze, but there are plenty of alternatives. $5 (£3) a month or $50 (£32) a year gets you comprehensive but super-easy-to-set-up protection from house fires, floods or other acts of a vengeful god. With that in place you're set -- and with any luck, 2014 will be the last year you ever lose data.
Learn to Code A perennial WIRED exhortation is that everyone should learn to code. 2015 is the year that you're actually going to do it. It doesn't really matter what language you pick to start with, as it's the principles that you're learning at first rather than the commands themselves, but Python is often recommended as a starting point.
There are hundreds of decent free coding courses online. Reddit's /r/learnprogramming subreddit has a wiki with some good recommendations. Follow a few courses on Sunday afternoons until you're happy with building simple things. Then dive in the deep end -- come up with an idea you want to build -- no matter how complex, and don't stop until you've made it perfect.
When you come out the other side, you'll be a decent coder regardless of whether it was a success or not.
Cut your carbon footprint It's pretty clear at this point that the greatest hope for mitigating mankind's carbon emissions lies in
<a style="background-color: transparent;" href="http://www.meatfreemondays.com/">taking responsibility for your own</a> and doing your best to cut them. The good news is there are plenty of easy ways to do so that'll make you happier and healthier along the way.
Start with walking or taking public transport more often, and think about reducing the number of flights you take -- is it feasible to take a train instead, or just do the whole thing over Skype? In your home, a new boiler, some insulation or a programmable thermostat can work wonders for dropping your heating bill as well as your emissions, and properly sorting and recycling your waste means fewer stinky bags of rubbish hanging around until bin day.
That just leaves food. It's no secret that a vegetarian diet is better for the planet than a meat one -- but from an environmental perspective eating half as much meat is half as good as eating no meat at all, so merely eating a few vegetarian meals a week goes a long way. If you still can't face cutting down, change up your meats -- poultry results in far lower emissions than beef.
Switch to a standing desk One of the <a style="background-color: transparent;" href="http://www.fitdeskjockey.com/wp-content/uploads/Standing-Desks-For-Office-Workers.jpg"> worst things</a> you can do to your body is force it to sit down all day. We've been preaching the benefits of standing desks for years, but getting one has until recently involved shelling out a stack of cash or going the precarious <a style="background-color: transparent;" href="http://www.ikeahackers.net/2012/05/standing-desk-with-utby-legs.html">
DIY route</a>.
Happily, IKEA has spotted an opportunity in the market, and unleashed its economies of scale to drive the price down to something affordable for real people. The Bekant sit-stand desk costs £445 and has a motor that moves it up and down at the press of a button, so you can choose on an hourly basis whether you want to work from on high or not. Best of all, it's totally modular -- so it works nicely with the rest of the Bekant range.
Quantify your life If that all sounds a bit much for you, then perhaps the best resolution you can make for 2015 is simply to track your life so you know what needs improvement when 2016 rolls around.
The <a style="background-color: transparent;" href="http://quantifiedself.com/">Quantified Self</a> movement is all about monitoring your behaviour and spotting problems to fix.
The easiest place to start is an activity tracker of some sort. The Jawbone Up, Fitbit Flex and Garmin Vivofit are all solid, affordable options. Pair them with your smartphone and you'll get daily activity reports in your pocket, as well as lots of longer-term graphs to pore over. But fitness is just one aspect of the quantified self, and you don't need to stop there.
You can also monitor your finances, your sleep, your movement, your diet, your happiness and thousands of other variables. Once you're hooked on one, it's easy to apply those principles to other areas of your life. Just remember not to let it take over your life completely. Be data-informed, not data-driven.
Those are our new year's resolutions here at WIRED, but we want to hear yours. Share what's going to make you a better human in 2015 with other readers in the comments section below.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
