With the start of a New Year comes the dreaded New Year’s resolutions – you promise to change all sorts of bad habits, start new projects, or set new goals…
According to examiner.com, the top 10 resolutions include losing weight, getting organised, spending less and saving more, enjoying life to the fullest, staying fit and healthy, learning something exciting, quitting smoking, helping others in their dreams, falling in love, and spending more time with the family.
Find yourself slowly deviating away from your 2013 hopes and dreams? Not to worry, statistics show that of the 62% of people who make New Years resolutions, only 8% are successful, 19% achieve resolutions every other year, 49% have infrequent success, and 24% NEVER succeed and have failed on EVERY resolution EVERY year! That’s 1 in 4 people who fail each and every time they make a resolution!
Fear not! With our ever-evolving technological world that we live in, you could probably find an app to help make sure that you’re part of that successful 8%! Here are the apps that will help you defeat and conquer any of the top 10 – and the best part: they’re all free…
1. Lose weight
According to Reuters, “the number one mechanism through which people lost weight is self-monitoring, just watching what you eat and keeping a record of it.” With that said, Nutrisystem have a great app that helps you keep track of the food you eat and number of glasses of water you drink.
There’s an exercise log book, weight and measurements log book, personal journal, meal plans to help suggest how to improve your eating habits, and a gallery of meals to choose from on those nights when you have no idea what to cook!
2. Get organised
Wunderlist is a great cloud app which allows you to create your to-do lists from your desktop app or the web application and then sync them to any devices that the app is also on. You can also share lists with friends through the cloud so that all parties involved can be reminded of what needs to be done.
3. Spend less and save more
Need to start managing those personal finances better? Why not try Moneysmart – the online and mobile personal finance management platform which helps you set up budgets, track your spending, and set goals to save or pay off debt! The application analyses your transactions and puts them into spending categories, making it easy to see where your money goes and then goes one step further by suggesting helpful tips on how you can improve your spending!
4. Enjoy life to the fullest
What better way to enjoy life to the fullest than making the effort to travel more? TripIt is a great app which helps organise all your flight, hotel, restaurants, and rental car confirmation emails into one travel itinerary! You can get maps, directions, and the weather forecast all included, and you have the option to book any entertainment extras like theatre tickets as well as check-in online for your flights!
5. Stay fit and healthy
When it comes to getting fit, there’s no better app than the Nike+ running app! Available for iPhone or Android, this app has GPS tracking so it can track exactly how far, how fast, and where you go. It keeps track of your progress and the amount of calories that you burn! Post the start of your run to Facebook and hear real-time cheers for each like or comment you receive! What more could you ask for?
6. Learn something exciting
Why not become the life of the party and learn how to mix cocktails? Or what about learning to make a couple Michelin-star rated recipes from Epicurious? Still trying to tick off the ‘learn a new language’ resolution? LearnApp teaches you hundreds of common phrases – no internet connection needed!
7. Quit smoking
Don’t think there’s an app for this? Well there is! Since iQuit is an app which keeps track of how many days you have stopped for and then calculates how much money you have saved since day one! You can then share you progress via Twitter and Facebook!
8. Help others in their dreams
What better way to do this other than downloading Reach for a Dream’s app and getting involved with the children there! The app enables a one touch calling and navigation service, provides a volunteering button, enables registering for events, sponsoring, as well as connecting to their Twitter and Facebook profiles!
9. Fall in love
Down with love? Unable to find Mr. Right? Not to worry, Zoosk has your back! Zoosk is a social network with one goal in mind – to help you find love anytime and anywhere! Members from all over the world can create and then share there romantic journeys with the world … TMI perhaps?
10. Spend more time with the family
Battle to come up with things to do when with the family? Why not download Ster-Kinekor’s app and make the ‘movie-deciding’ process a lot easier – for everyone! Not sure how to raise saints for children or not sure how to pay your family members compliments?! Yes, that’s correct – ‘Focus on the Family’ has an app for that…
So whatever your 2013 resolution is, just remember that where there’s a will, there is definitely an app for it too! Want to feel part of the bigger picture? Why not add them to Google’s world-wide map of New Year’s Resolutions and feel inspired at the same time!
