At Iconic Solutions, we know the value that good apps can bring to both businesses and to casual users. Today, then, just to lighten the mood during the holidays, we’re going to take a look at something different:
The best apps out there for helping you stick to your new year’s resolutions!
Fitness and health
Are you planning to get fitter and shed some pounds in the new year? Maybe you simply want to feel a bit healthier after all the turkey!
If those are your plans, it’s well worth checking out MyFitnessPal.
The app is remarkably simple and – importantly – free! It’s an easy way to keep track of how many calories you’ve taken in, as well as how many you’ve burned – so you can make sure you stick to your calorie goal.
MyFitnessPal is very easy to use. You set your height, weight and what your goals are, and then simply input what you eat each day. The app does all the calculating for you!
In terms of food tracking and hitting calorie goals, MyFitnessPal is the best around.
If, on the other, hand, you fancy making 2019 the year that you finally take up jogging, the Couch to 5K app is definitely the best around. It’s a specific, detailed training program designed to take you from being a beginner runner right the way up to running your first 5k race.
Half an hour a day for nine weeks. That’s all the time you need to sacrifice to reach running a 5k. So if that’s your goal for the next twelve months, we definitely recommend Couch to 5k: it’s a real no-brainer!
What about mental health?
If you’re looking to improve your mental health over the next year, meditation is a great way to go. More and more people are coming out and extolling the virtues of taking even just a minute or two of shutting out the world.
But, of course, meditation’s not the easiest thing to get started on if you’ve never done it before. That’s why we’d recommend Headspace, which – if you follow the instructions – will take you from beginner right the way through to seasoned meditation practitioner.
All you need to do is follow the instructions. Think of Headspace like a meditation course on your phone or tablet. Even a couple of minutes a day during your daily commute could make a big difference to your mental wellbeing by the end of the year, and that can’t be a bad thing!
On a slightly different note – but still linked to mental health – we’d recommend taking a look at the Moment Screen Time Tracker.
Put simply, most of us spend a little bit too much time staring at our phones, tablets and other screens! The Moment Screen Time Tracker does exactly what the name suggests – it keeps a record of just how long you’ve had your screen open each day.
Needless to say, there’s the initial rude awakening to deal with! But once you’ve got past that, you can also use the app to set daily limits on how long you can use your devices each day, ensuring you get out into the real world a bit more.
Money and budgeting
Let’s say that your big goal for 2019 is to be better with money. (Or simply that you’ve overspent at Christmas and want to make up what’s gone!)
We’d recommend taking a look at You Need a Budget (YNAB), which takes what can be a boring task – budgeting! – and makes it simple.
The secret behind YNAB is that it makes you account for every dollar you earn. Whatever you earn, it gets given a ‘job’, whether that job is going into your savings account, being invested or simply paying for your morning coffee.
This process means you’re less likely to simply fritter away money on little things. Use YNAB for a couple of months, and you might be amazed just how much less you waste.
Habit making and breaking
Building new habits is a huge part of making changes to your life. And, fortunately, there’s an app for that!
The truth is that a big part of building new habits is simply remembering to do them (or to NOT do them).
Momentum is a great app for prodding you into action. Whether you want to make sure you take a daily walk, drink more water or get your guitar practice done, you can set Momentum up so that it offers you a reminder each day, and then you can use the app to keep track of whether you’ve been hitting your goals.
If you want to take the effort out of tracking your new habits, Momentum is well worth taking a look at.
Quit That! Might well have the best name on this list, and it’s an ideal app for when you simply need to give something up. Whether that be your daily coffee(s), smoking, drinking after work or even just how much time you spend streaming shows!
The app’s free, and very simple to use. You set your goal, then you check off each day you stick to it. The aim, of course, is to build up the longest streak of successful days you can.
The other positive is that you can input what a positive impact quitting your habit has had on your life, and the app will remember. So, for instance, let’s say you’ve quit smoking – the app will remind you every day just how much money you’re saving by not succumbing to temptation.
If you want to remove that killer habit, Quit That! Is a great option.
Sleeping
If there’s one thing you can do to improve your life in 2019, it’s getting more sleep. Fortunately, there are multiple apps designed to help you do exactly that!
Relax Melodies is the app that does exactly what the name suggests – it plays a range of relaxing sounds all designed to help you relax and drift off. Relax Melodies also gives you the option of playing one of a selection of mindfulness meditations alongside the sounds themselves.
Another excellent app along the same lines is Noisli, which enables you to create your own mix from a number of sounds, including rain, wind, waves crashing against the beach and even the click-clack of an old train track!
If, of course, you want to take a more scientific approach, it’s worth looking at Sleep Cycle. One of the keys to feeling rested in the morning is to wake up at the right point of your sleep cycle (hence the name).
The app is, again, simple: using your phone’s microphone, the app will analyze whether you’re in light sleep, deep sleep or dream sleep. Then, if you set your alarm to go off during a certain period (6.30-7am, for instance) the app will wake you at the optimal time.
In terms of getting the biggest well-being benefit for a single, free app, Sleep Cycle could well be the best download you make for the whole of 2019!
Get in touch today
If you’re a business looking to build a new app in 2019, give Iconic Solutions a call today. We’re specialists in business app development, and we’d love to work with you.
