The beginning of every new year has us reassessing our lives, which likely includes the realization that we need to get ourselves together. We start making plans to workout every day, get straight As, and eat healthier, completely convinced that this is the year we do away with all of our unhealthy habits.
However, this staggering burst of energy and motivation seems to fizzle out faster than the New Years Day firework displays. But, with a little help from some fun, encouraging apps, you can keep that enthusiasm alive to accomplish all your new year’s goals.
Apps like Walkr and Fantasy Hike allow you to track your steps while completing engaging games.
For example, Walkr takes your steps and converts it into fuel for your rocket so you can discover new planets and complete missions. It also keeps record of how many calories you’ve burned and recommends new goals based on your fitness level.
With Fantasy Hike, each step helps your avatar on their adventure to Mount Fire as they compete with other characters. This app displays how far you’ve walked since you began your journey as a way of exhibiting your progress.
As the semester goes on, we tend to leave even the small things, like drinking water, by the wayside as we develop tunnel vision about grades and schoolwork. Nonetheless, there are apps that actually track your water consumption, sending you reminders to stay hydrated.
Plant Nanny is an encouraging app that uses every glass of water you track to help you grow plants and build up your collection. Its water-drinking reminders help you and your plants stay hydrated together.
Waterllama breaks down the water content of different drinks and sets up daily goals with cute animal characters. The app includes fun, healthy challenges to complete with its animals, like “Tea-Rex,” “Lose Lactose Playpus,” and “Sober Bear.”
Other apps, such as Finch and Medito, promote mental wellness.
Finch is a self-care app that enables you to take care of your pet the way you would take care of yourself. You can choose from a multitude of mindful exercises— mood check-ins, daily goal tracking, journaling, breathing exercises, stretches, and short guided meditations.
Medito facilitates guided and unguided meditations, as well as breathing exercises, that are easy to fit into your schedule. The app promotes mindful routines and finding positivity through gratitude.
Ariana Rayes-Connelly, a sophomore psychology student, added, “I really enjoy Medito because it has meditations with varying lengths, including a five minute one that’s easy to fit into my day.”
Many people’s new year’s goals are to read more outside of school. Whether this is for general enjoyment or to enhance your knowledge on a certain topic, Goodreads and StoryGraph are two amazing apps that track your reads and show your progress.
Goodreads gives users the option of creating different bookshelves that organize which books you want to read, are currently reading, or have read. While you are reading a book, the app has a feature that allows you to update your progress and see what percentage of the book you have read, which motivates a reader to make it to the end!
Within the Goodreads one can also follow friends to see what they’re reading or how they rated different books; it creates a community that encourages one another to keep reading.
At the end of the year, Goodreads gives you your reading year in review where you can see how many books you’ve read, along with your total number of pages read and your highest and lowest ranked reads.
StoryGraph is more statistical in nature as it gives you insight into your reading habits. The app tracks how many books and pages you’ve read, in addition to some general stats, such as mood, pace, average page number, average rating, genre, format, languages, and most read authors. At the end of the year, you can go through and look at your yearly stats.
Apps like Study Bunny and Flora help you to stay focused with your academics by timing your studying and completing focus sessions.
Study Bunny gives you a bunny friend that does your studying with you. Within the app, you can make to-do lists and flash cards to earn coins and, ultimately, customize your bunny. You can also view your study stats to track your progress.
Einat Shayer, a sophomore marine and environmental biology student, expressed, “I like StudyBunny because it’s an adorable app that motivates me to study. I could see a difference in my study habits in only a week.”
Flora helps you eliminate distractions from your phone by blocking app notifications. While you work, the Flora app plants a seed that grows the longer you focus. If you leave the app during your focus session as your tree is growing, the tree will die; if you can stay focused, you’ll unlock new tress to expand your garden.
While it is far easier to fall back into old, unproductive habits, these apps make it easier to maintain your resolutions. Before throwing in the towel, give these apps a try to become the best, healthiest version of yourself.
