2024 New Year’s Tech Resolutions You Need To Make

Tis the season for resolutions. You can find plenty of sites that will tout fitness resolutions, diet resolutions, and relationship resolutions. At HomeTechHacker, we pride ourselves on helping you make the most of your home tech. So of course we bring you the tech resolutions that you should make for 2024!

Improve your personal cybersecurity

Protecting your accounts, identity, and finances from cybercriminals increases in importance every year. If you haven’t been taking specific steps to protect yourself, resolve to do so this year. Here are a few things I recommend you do if you haven’t already:

• Use a password manager — Strong, unique passwords are important to protect all your accounts. Who has time to remember so many passwords? That’s where a password manager comes in.
• Use multi-factor authentication (MFA, sometimes referred to as two-factor authentication or 2FA) — I know many find any form of MFA to be an inconvenience, but it is extremely effective at keeping hackers out of your accounts. I strongly recommend turning on MFA for all accounts that have the ability, and using a 2FA key if possible.
• Read a cybersecurity book, or take a cybersecurity course — When it comes to personal cybersecurity, there is no substitute for education. Find a good book or course to improve your protection. Our top-rated best-selling book, The Personal Cybersecurity Manual, will give you everything you need to protect yourself from cybercriminals. And if you’re looking for a course instead of a book, check out our Personal Cybersecurity Protection course.

We also have plenty of articles that can help with your personal cybersecurity, including:

• Top 10 Personal Cybersecurity Threats and How to Defend Yourself
• Family Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Loved Ones Online
• Recognizing Phishing Attacks: Don’t Take The Bait
• 4 Reasons Good Personal Cybersecurity Practices Are Important
• 5 Ways To Protect Yourself From Data Breaches
• 7 Ways To Secure Your Home Network
• Start Using A Two-Factor Authentication (2FA) Key

Simplify your tech life

The proliferation of tech in our lives can sometimes feel overwhelming. We’re always getting tons of emails and notifications. We have to keep all of our devices and software updated. It’s exhausting.

The sense of being overwhelmed can be even worse for those who have smart homes and/or serve as their home’s primary tech person. They’ve got to keep devices updated, change batteries, fix things when they break, reboot routers, etc.

One of the best things you can do to handle this is to simplify your tech life. Here are some suggestions:

• Increase and improve your home automation — Remote control of devices in your home is great. However, you need to automate things to truly have a smart home saving you time and working for you. Things you do every day can be automated. Here are 19 Home Automation Ideas For Your Smarthome.
• Reduce the number of smart home ecosystems and protocols you maintain — Do you have a mix of ecosystems (e.g., Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Z-Wave, Zigbee, Wi-Fi, etc.)? Make a plan to move to the ecosystem or two that works best for you by replacing some devices and being mindful of the devices you buy.

Alternatively, you could get one hub that can easily bring them all together which leads us to the next resolution.

Give Home Assistant a try

Here’s a tech resolution that won’t come as a shock if you’ve been reading this blog. This is the year to give Home Assistant a try. I’ve explained why I love Home Assistant many different times. It really does put the “smart” in my smart home, and it can do the same for you. If you find the number of your smart home devices and desires growing, this could be the solution you’re looking for. Here are some articles that may give you some Home Assistant inspiration:

• My 8 Favorite Home Assistant Integrations
• 5 Home Assistant Automations That I Love (2023)
• The Best Choices For Home Assistant Hardware

Add some custom LEDs to your life

One of the things that brings joy to every day in my home is the LED decorations that I have inside and outside my home. I change the colors and patterns to match different themes throughout the year (4th of July, Autumn, Spring, Easter, Christmas, our favorite sports teams, etc.). It is surprisingly easy to use a WLED controller. Here are some articles that detail my use of LED lights with examples, instructions, images, and videos.

• Improving My Year-Round Holiday LED Display
• Finalizing My Year-Round LEDs and Holiday Lights
• Shelly RGBW2 Review – Easy to Use LED Controller

If you want some LEDs that work without being a DIY project, check out this article about the best LED strips and strings, and/or use our LED Technology Advisor for personalized recommendations.

Use your mobile devices less

As a species, we are made for interaction with other humans. I think it is important to be present with those around you to build and nurture positive relationships. Often mobile devices impede this.

It is good to take breaks from many things that constantly demand our attention, or can be addictive in nature. Our mobile devices are no different. Set times when you aren’t always carrying around your phone or won’t use it. Think about how and how much using social media and playing games on your phone affects you. Reduce your usage if you see or feel negative effects. It may be hard at first, but it will be worth it.

Final thoughts

I know now is an overwhelming time for resolutions. However, If you follow even a few of these tech resolutions, your home technology and digital life will be much better.

What other tech resolutions are you following or recommending this year? Let me know in the comments or X (Twitter).