Month: January 2026

1. Horticulture Studies – this is a course I picked up around August last year, but I have not found the time to work on (lots of building projects going on last year!). I’m working through the first few modules now, and am hoping to get my first assignment in shortly. Learning and working on horticulture projects is a great way for me to learn about the gardening things I love to do – and hope to do for many years to come.
   
2. AZ-204 Developing Solutions for Microsoft Azure – Microsoft certification. This will become increasingly important as my workplace is now shifting significantly to the cloud. I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to it. Time to blow the dust of my Azure subscription.
   
3. GH-900 GitHub Foundations Certification – useful for personal projects I’m working on, but even more so as it’s clear that Microsoft are ploughing dollars into GitHub. I’m betting that Azure DevOps will get morphed into GitHub Enterprise in the next few years. This looks like a fun little qualification, and will almost certainly help me bring a few Git skills up to date.

Happy New Year!

I had a wonderful Christmas and New Year break. The home looked great, we had wonderful food, drink and company, walked our nutter Springer Spaniel at the beach and the park, and I read loads. The perfect Christmas holiday, can’t wait for the next one.

Unfortunately (I’m kidding, it’s all good), there are 50 weeks in the way before the next Christmas break, so I’d better get my act together and fill in the gaps with the best life I can make.

I’ve got a few things I want to do. Whatever it is, I want to see it through, and be relentless and steadfast in getting stuff done. Tenacious, yup, that’s the word.

Aside from the usual “lose weight” goal for every year (modestly budgeted for this year, despite having a ton of weight to lose), I’ve got some key things I want to achieve, based on my life “pockets”:

Purpose: I will refine my productivity system to work better for me. I reintroduced paper into my system last year – I love it – and I’m going to make it work better for me in 2026. I’m also toying with the idea of starting a YouTube channel – something fun and possibly even the launchpad for a side hustle into and beyond my retirement. I’ll be getting the planning paper out in January!

Health: More dog-walking needed! Good for me, good for Marley. Better food choices and exercise. Simples!

Money: Less is more – better financial decisions, savings strategies and investing for retirement.

Home: There were huge expenses last year getting things done inside and outside. We’re getting the exterior of the house painted this year, and we’re refining and improving inside the house. Minimalism will be key this year, stripping out what’s not needed and focusing on quality for what remains.

Work: The biggest item on my list is to say No. I don’t do it enough and consequently fall behind on other, more important projects.

Leisure: Read better. I read around 30 books last year, I want to read more paper books,  and use my new awesome Christmas gift – the Kindle Paperwhite signature edition.  Bigger screen, awesome battery life, wireless charging.  My garden is so important to my physical and mental health. I want to get better at what I do, there’s lots of infrastructure things to get right – a good year for getting stuck in. Oh, and completing my Horticulture course.

Learning: I’m studying Azure this year, as well as my Horticulture course. I’ll also be continuing with DevOps and testing learning this year for my job.

Relationships:  Listen deeper and talk less! Cultivate my relationships with my best mates (we call ourselves The 4 Old Gits), family, and our wonderful Springer spaniel, Marley.  I’ll be proud to welcome my grandson Bobby into the world next month too!

Right. Let’s get this party started.

This year’s watchword is TENACITY.