As some of you already know, I’ve been trying to change up some of my habits and create better, healthier habits. It can be difficult though, since once you get used to doing something one way, it’s incredibly hard to change that. I can’t comment on my “success” thus far, since I’ve been taking incredibly small baby steps, but I do feel as though I am moving in the right direction. So here are some cool things that I use to help me with my habit forming (or removing!)
- If you’re a nerd, Habitica is a really cool way to work on habit building or productivity. It gamifies doing daily tasks, checking off checklist items, and goal setting. You create your own little character, and you gain levels by completing daily tasks, to-do’s, and accomplishing long-term goals. You can join guilds and even build parties and fight bosses. I’ve actually set mine up so that if I want to eat a slice of cake/pie or buy some really cool makeup, I have to have enough in-game gold to do so. It’s both a website and an app, but I personally prefer the website.
- MyFitnessPal is a great way to track what you eat. You can set weight goals and the app will help you figure out how much you should be eating to reach your goal. It’ll help you track your calories, macros, exercise… and it connects to my FitBit and will automatically sync up so I don’t have to enter my food or my exercise on two different apps. It’s amazing how much you can learn about yourself when you start to actively track what you’re eating every day I’ve only been using this app to track my food, but I believe you can use it for a whole lot more than just that. They have articles on fitness and health, there’s a community you can join, and they have different challenges as well if you need that extra push..
- If you already have a FitBit, FitStar is a good add-on app for fitness. They have a few free workouts that you can start out with, but the paid is really the one you’d want. They have a lot of different fitness programs that you can follow, or just freestyle exercises as well. It really takes you through every exercise, explains how to do it, and shows you. After each exercise, they also have a little survey asking you how you felt. Depending on how you answer, they’ll adjust future exercises to fit your fitness level. There’s no equipment required, so you can do it in your own living room! And it will even sync up to FitBit, MyFitnessPal, and other fitness apps so you can connect your exercise to your daily steps to your food and get a more comprehensive readout.
- Switching gears slightly, if you’re looking for something to help you manage your finances and money, Mint and You Need A Budget (YNAB) are two excellent budgeting tools. Mint is free, which is even better, and YNAB is $50 a year, which isn’t too bad. Both will connect directly to your bank accounts and help you monitor how much money you’re spending and on what. Mint is a little bit more the set a budget, allocate money to each section, and then see how much you’re spending, whereas YNAB is more of the “every dollar has a purpose” approach where you have a total amount “to be budgeted” that you can spread amongst different categories. Mint is probably a bit more big picture while YNAB is more smaller details. I, personally, use both. But you really can’t go wrong either way.
- Did you know you could download audiobooks from libraries? I’ve only just recently learned this, and it’s opened a whole new world of listening to books. Apps like OverDrive can connect to your library and automatically manage audiobooks for you. You can download straight onto your phone/tablet, and once your time is up, the app will return the book for you. All you need is a library membership! If OverDrive doesn’t work with your local library, it may be worth it to ask a librarian next time you go if there is something similar that works with them. I’ve probably “read” more books this year than I have since graduating college. (That’s a little sad, actually… but as an adult, you really don’t have the time to go to the library all the time or actually sit down and read a physical book.)
There are some really cool apps that I’ve been using. What about you guys? Are there any cool apps, websites, features, or special things that you use daily to help you maintain good habits?
Pi-chi