While I don’t really have New Year resolutions I have got in the habit of giving myself some loose objectives looking at the year ahead. No targets or unrealistic objectives — I don’t join gyms for example!

Last year I probably managed about half the things on the list and substituted a couple of the others for things that were pretty great so I was pretty pleased with how it went. I didn’t manage a year sober but did do 101 days and I did change my relationship with booze seemingly permanently.

In 2015 I turn 42 which I am pretty sure means I am supposed to get

the answer to life the universe and everything

But just in case that doesn’t work out I thought I out to think about what I’d like to do with my year.

Work was pretty intense this year and there is every sign that 2015 is going to look back at 2014 and accuse it of not pulling its weight. In light of this the theme of 2015 is going to be ‘wellbeing’. I didn’t do a great job of taking care of myself when the work piled up this year — I got obsessed and my health suffered and I could do with avoiding that.

So with no specific targets in mind I am going to take some time off drinking again, try and eat more healthily and get back to doing my 10,000 (or more) steps a day.

I’m also going to try and take one day a week offline completely — no social media, no Netflix, nothing. This is actually probably going to be the hardest thing of the lot!

Another big change for me is I am going to try and refrain from buying any new technology* this year. I’ve got way too many gadgets cluttering up my flat and it is time to scale back from that.

Something I have been thinking about a lot is how little I really know the UK. I’ve done a fair bit of travelling now but not really at home so I’d like to remedy that this year. So this year I intend to visit Cornwall (for the 1st time!), spend some time (graffiti spotting mainly) in London, Brighton, Manchester and Glasgow and also finally visit Bletchley Park.

Apart from Govcamp I am also going to avoid attending anything work/profession related at weekends but there are a few geeky events I want to try and attend — London Sci-Fi Film Festival, Crimefest, Nineworlds and Thoughtbubble for sure. Maybe one of the big London comic-cons. On a less geeky note there is also the Rugby World Cup which is providing the opportunity for a couple of additional trips out and about.

The exception to the work events thing is obviously going to SXSW in Austin in March. This is a real bucket list moment for me — I know the event has ‘jumped the shark’ a bit now but I’m still very excited. Currently my plan is to not to do any other long haul travel until the very end of 2015 when I hope to resurrect my plan to go to Tokyo.

Project wise I am planning to launch a podcast. Never one to miss the opportunity to jump on the tail end of a trend I’ve been thinking about doing some kind of digital government / civic tech monthly show — format to be decided! Given how much I HATE the way my voice sounds when I hear it recorded this has every chance of being one of those ‘fail fast’ moments ☺

I always like to give myself a bit of a challenge as well and this year I am going to try and do stand-up comedy! I’m not quite sure how to go about this and I’m really not sure that I am funny enough but I guess there is only one way to find out.

*only exceptions are if my TV blows up or/when I smash my phone I’ll buy replacements!