It seems like everyone has a smartphone these days, and they check it constantly throughout the day. Why not put it to use to help you grow, learn, set and achieve goals? Check out these self help apps. They can help you improve your life in big and small ways.
1. Unstuck
Unstuck is an app that helps you get out of a rut, take action, and live a better life. When you first download and open it, the app asks you to select three emotions in response to “How are you feeling in this stuck moment?” Some of your choices include hazy, high and dry, tired, unprepared, uninformed, and indecisive, to name a few. Then, you get to rate how strongly you feel each emotion. Next, you decide which type of stuck you’re in (personal, professional, or both) and who’s stuck with you (alone, you + another person, or you + other people). Then You get to answer why you’re stuck and see examples of what others have written.
Then you start working on the problem by first sorting through your thoughts using some cool thought cards that you drag and drop into two categories: So Me and Not Me. One example card says, “I don’t know why this is not working”. In this way, the app makes you to think about the nuances of why things are not going the way you want them to. Then, you wait a second or two and Unstuck diagnoses your problem.
After that, you select a tool to help you fix the problem, and you also receive encouragement. It makes you think things through and gives you several tools to solve the issues at hand. It also connects your results and tools with a community so you can see other’s experiences, similarities, etc.
Cost: Free
Available on: Android
2. Day One Journal
This app is a handy journal that you can use to keep track of your thoughts, feelings, moods, goals, and accomplishments. Science has shown many positive effects from keeping a daily journal. There is increasing evidence to support the notion that journaling has a positive impact on physical well-being. University of Texas at Austin psychologist and researcher James Pennebaker contends that regular journaling strengthens immune cells. Other research indicates that journaling decreases the symptoms of asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Pennebaker believes that writing about stressful events helps you come to terms with them, thus reducing the impact of these stressors on your physical health (see The Health Benefits of Journaling).
Day One Journal allows you to add pictures to your entry and you can also include your location via a map. It has reminders to keep you writing regularly. You can even export your entries in pdf format, post them to a webpage, or share them via email, texting, or social media. You can browse the photos from your journal like a photo gallery, and even see a post you made on this day a year ago. It’s a good way to keep track of where you’ve been and where you’re going.
Cost: $4.99
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and Mac
3. Happier
Happier is an app that helps you record and keep track of all the happy events in your life so you can focus on the good and develop an attitude of gratitude. Time listed it as one of the best apps of 2013. More than 11,000 scientific studies show that developing a gratitude habit helps you feel more optimistic, sleep better, be more creative, productive, and less stressed.
You can choose to keep your journal private, or you can share your happy moments with the community to get feedback.
Cost: Free
Available on: iPhone, iPad, Android
4. Loop – Habit Tracker
This app is designed to help you develop and track your habits. You input the habits you want to have (e.g., Wake up early, meditate, exercise, etc), and you set the frequency. You could set a goal to do them daily, 3 times a week, monthly, etc. You keep track of your habits when you do them, and there are graphs and statistics to show you how well you’re doing over time. There are also reminders to keep you on track. This app has no no annoying ads, either.
Cost: Free
Available on: Android
5. Buddhify
Buddhify is a meditation app that includes over 11 hours of custom meditations designed for you to listen to from 15 different locations (e.g., work break, waiting around, etc.). The nice thing about this app is that there’s no recurring monthly subscription fees. You buy the app once and you’re done. The meditation tracks range from 5-30 minutes long. If you want to just meditate on your own, you can set a timer to remind yourself when the time is up. The app will even keep track of your habits and show you stats based on the amount of time you meditate, which types of meditation you use, and so on.
The benefits of practicing meditation regularly are many. Science has shown it lowers stress, enhances creativity, helps heal the body, improves focus and self-control, and makes you less worried and anxious, to name but a few. If you’d like to start a meditation routine or if you already have, Buddhify will help you out quite a bit.
Cost: iPhone: $4.99, Android: $2.99
Available on: iPhone and Android
6. Coach.me
Sometimes in life it helps to have a powerful coach by your side. A coach can ask powerful questions that you might not think of by yourself. The best questions open yourself up to new possibilities and options, and that’s one of the things coaches do. They also serve to keep you motivated and on track, and they hold you accountable. Coach.me is an app that offers some features for free, or you can hire a coach starting at $14.99. Want to build new habits? A coach can help. Don’t know how to start your own business? A coach can help.
Coaching yourself using the app is free. You can track your progress and get rewards when you succeed. You can also ask questions to the community to get answers, and that’s also free. Hiring a coach costs money, but you can read reviews on your coach before you choose one.
Cost: Free
Available on: iPhone and Android
7. Office Yoga Pro
No one denies all the positive benefits of doing yoga, but what if you just don’t have the time or motivation to incorporate a half hour of yoga practice into your already-busy life? That’s where Office Yoga Pro by Dawnsun Technologies comes in. This app guides you through various yoga stretches and poses that you can do anytime, even while sitting in your office. All of the yoga poses and exercises are detailed with HD videos, “How to do it?” instructions, and information on benefits and precautions.
The app allows you to design your own daily fitness routine and can send you reminders to do it. It also has a BMI and weight tracker. The various exercises and yoga poses are categorized by different areas of the body, so you can easily determine what is best for improving the weak areas of your body. There are over 50 yoga moves with male & female model videos.
Cost: $2.99
Available on: iPhone and iPad
8. Worry Watch
If you’re a worrier, this is the app for you. Oftentimes we worry and get anxious about a lot of things but then later realize most of those worries were unnecessary. Yet, we worry again next time for something else. And this pattern repeats over and over again.
Worry Watch is a unique journal app designed to capture and reflect on those momentary self-realizations. By logging ‘what might happen’ worries and then tracking it to ‘what did happen’ in reality, we may get a deeper understanding of our worry / anxiety patterns. Such an understanding may help us challenge our perceptions and subsequently may help change our future thought patterns in a positive way.
To use the app, first you write down what is bothering you. Then, after it has passed, write down whether or not it turned out to be as bad as you worried about. You can then view the patterns and trends in your anxiety with the help of charts generated by the app based on the data you entered. Based on your own statistics, realize that your worries may be mostly unfounded. Finally, reflect on your chart to see how you might handle things differently in the future.
Cost: $1.99
Available on: iPhone and iPad
9. Beeminder
Beeminder is an app that holds you accountable. You set any goal that you can track, and you put money on it (yes, real money). For example, you could say, “I’m going to reduce credit card balance to zero by January”. You set the amount of money you’ll pay if you go off track (the first time is free). The app tracks your progress on a graph, you need to stay on the “yellow brick road” if you don’t want it to cost you money. If you derail, the road resets at your current value and you get a week’s respite before being back on the hook at a higher pledge amount.
It’s free to create up to 3 goals with a Yellow Brick Road and start following them — no credit card required. If you want to track more than 3 goals, then you’ll need to sign up for a plan which costs $4 a month. The first time you veer off the road, it’s free. However, if you really meant to stay on the road, and you want to try again, you do so by committing to pay something — initially $5 — if you go off track a second time.
Losing money is a good motivation for some people, so this app is a way to force you to stick with the plan and achieve your goals.
Cost: Free to start
Available on: iPhone and iPad and Android
10. Sociidot
Sociidot is a goal-setting app that lets you set goals, then break them down into small, manageable steps, or “dots”. All the small steps make up your roadmap. You are asked to take one small action each day on your roadmap. Other users can agree to be your “advisors” and offer help when you’re stuck. You can also buy “roadmaps” that break down goals for you.
Cost: Free
Available on: iPhone and iPad
What apps do you use that help you in your daily life? Tell us in the comments below.