Achieve Your New Year’s Resolutions in 2019 with these Apps
By Mike Agerbo
January 01, 2019
Productivity
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As we usher in a new year, many of us spend January 1st reflecting on the past year and resolving to be better or achieve more in the year to come. While those resolutions are well-intentioned, we often give up on them within a matter of a few weeks or months either because we revert back to old habits or because they simply feel overwhelming. To help you stay on track this year, I’ve compiled some of my favourite apps for the most common New Year’s resolutions.
Android, iOS | Free trial
Studies have shown that meditation can improve your health: both mental and physical. It can also help you be more productive. With all of these benefits with our reach, it’s surprising that more of us don’t meditate. If 2019 is the year when you’d like to cash in on all of these benefits and start meditating; you might find it helpful to start with an app that offers guided meditation.
While there are many meditation apps available for both Android and iOS, Headspace has become the gold standard over the years and with good reason. This app offers a free ten-day basics course that really eases you into the practice. After the introductory course, you can purchase a subscription that gives you access to guided meditation for everything from improving focus to minimizing stress and anxiety to helping you sleep.
Android, iOS | Free
It goes without saying that smoking is detrimental to your health but quitting is difficult. While there are a variety of quitting aides available, from nicotine gum to patches, most smokers need all the help they can get, so pairing those aides with an app makes good sense. QuitNow! lets you keep track of how long it’s been since your last cigarette, how many cigarettes you’ve avoided, how much money you’re saving, and the health benefits you’re getting. It’s not going to curb the cravings but it should help you stay motivated to keep going.
Android, iOS | Free
MyFitnessPal is an old favourite. This app does exactly what its name implies: it pairs perfectly with your fitness routine. More specifically, MyFitnessPal enables you to track your calories and food intake and log your workouts. This helps you track calorie intake against calories burned, allowing you to take control of your health and fitness. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or training to build muscle, tracking your calories and exercise gives you more control.
MyFitnessPal is packed with useful features. It connects with a variety of fitness tracking devices and apps. It also allows you to scan UPC codes on food to log it automatically or search for individual ingredients and build recipes manually.
Android, iOS | Free
New Year’s resolutions wouldn’t be complete without a reference to curbing $5 latté habits or setting goals for savings or debt repayment. While these are excellent goals, they often fall by the wayside within a few weeks… At least for me they do!
With contactless credit cards and online shopping easily accessible, it’s easy to lose track of your expenditures and get discouraged but an app like Mint can help. Mint enables you to connect your bank accounts and credit cards, set financial goals, and categorize your expenditures. It even categorizes those expenditures automatically, though you’ll still want to go through them and make sure it has done it properly. With Mint in your pocket, keeping your financial goals on track should be much more achievable.
Android, iOS | Free
Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, the key to success is to find a way to break bad habits and build new ones. Way of life helps you track your progress on all your habits and gives you tools to see patterns in your behaviour. To use this app, you simply input your resolutions and log your progress daily—it just takes a few minutes each time. You can use the app to set reminders to help you stay on track and there’s a diary function where you can jot down what triggered a bad habit. All your progress is visualized in easy to read charts that allow you to spot good and bad trends.
Meditate: Headspace
Android, iOS | Free trial
Studies have shown that meditation can improve your health: both mental and physical. It can also help you be more productive. With all of these benefits with our reach, it’s surprising that more of us don’t meditate. If 2019 is the year when you’d like to cash in on all of these benefits and start meditating; you might find it helpful to start with an app that offers guided meditation.
While there are many meditation apps available for both Android and iOS, Headspace has become the gold standard over the years and with good reason. This app offers a free ten-day basics course that really eases you into the practice. After the introductory course, you can purchase a subscription that gives you access to guided meditation for everything from improving focus to minimizing stress and anxiety to helping you sleep.
Quit Smoking: QuitNow!
Android, iOS | Free
It goes without saying that smoking is detrimental to your health but quitting is difficult. While there are a variety of quitting aides available, from nicotine gum to patches, most smokers need all the help they can get, so pairing those aides with an app makes good sense. QuitNow! lets you keep track of how long it’s been since your last cigarette, how many cigarettes you’ve avoided, how much money you’re saving, and the health benefits you’re getting. It’s not going to curb the cravings but it should help you stay motivated to keep going.
Get Healthy: MyFitnessPal
Android, iOS | Free
MyFitnessPal is an old favourite. This app does exactly what its name implies: it pairs perfectly with your fitness routine. More specifically, MyFitnessPal enables you to track your calories and food intake and log your workouts. This helps you track calorie intake against calories burned, allowing you to take control of your health and fitness. Whether you’re trying to lose weight or training to build muscle, tracking your calories and exercise gives you more control.
MyFitnessPal is packed with useful features. It connects with a variety of fitness tracking devices and apps. It also allows you to scan UPC codes on food to log it automatically or search for individual ingredients and build recipes manually.
Get Your Finances Under Control: Mint
Android, iOS | Free
New Year’s resolutions wouldn’t be complete without a reference to curbing $5 latté habits or setting goals for savings or debt repayment. While these are excellent goals, they often fall by the wayside within a few weeks… At least for me they do!
With contactless credit cards and online shopping easily accessible, it’s easy to lose track of your expenditures and get discouraged but an app like Mint can help. Mint enables you to connect your bank accounts and credit cards, set financial goals, and categorize your expenditures. It even categorizes those expenditures automatically, though you’ll still want to go through them and make sure it has done it properly. With Mint in your pocket, keeping your financial goals on track should be much more achievable.
Keep Track of it All: Way of Life
Android, iOS | Free
Whatever your New Year’s resolutions, the key to success is to find a way to break bad habits and build new ones. Way of life helps you track your progress on all your habits and gives you tools to see patterns in your behaviour. To use this app, you simply input your resolutions and log your progress daily—it just takes a few minutes each time. You can use the app to set reminders to help you stay on track and there’s a diary function where you can jot down what triggered a bad habit. All your progress is visualized in easy to read charts that allow you to spot good and bad trends.