Quick disclaimer: I wish I was sponsored. I haven’t been paid by any of these apps to promote their product but if you’re like me, you love sharing what you love with other people. These are a few apps that I use all the time that make a huge difference in my daily life, even before the pandemic. Some are paid, while some are free, so this is not a recommendation to purchase something without investigating it first, although all the apps included here have free trials or free versions.
EveryDollar
If you haven’t heard of the app, you’ve definitely heard of the guy behind it: Dave Ramsey. I haven’t gotten into his methods or more aggressive financial habits (yet) but this app absolutely changed how I viewed what I was spending. The flexibility of it as well as the simple ability to see just how much I’m actually spending in various categories is a game-changer. The free version is perfect for me specifically because it’s not linked to my bank account; every transaction I have to manually input is a reminder about the money I’m spending. The upgraded version offers account integration, which is great if you’re more responsible than I am and don’t need to reflect as much.
The ability to quickly see how close I am to my budget for a certain category is so helpful and because the app (like the name suggests) is about planning for every dollar you have, there’s no guessing, no “close enough”, no sneaking past your budget for a category. In order to maintain balance, if you go over budget in one area, you have to adjust your budgets for other categories. It’s also a huge eye-opener when it came to how much I was really spending. The different apps and subscriptions I was paying for monthly were much higher than what I thought and I was buying new pieces of clothing a few times a month. Working at a fashion retailer is hard when you love clothes. Once I reigned in my fashion budget and understood how much I was spending across all my subscriptions, it became much clearer where my money should be going.
On top of all of this, my favorite aspect is how truly simple the app is. I get strangely overwhelmed when apps try to do too much, so apps like Mint turn me off big time. EveryDollar does one thing. I create a budget each month and put in transactions. The simplicity means it always works how it’s supposed to and I never feel lost in all the ads, credit card offers, and different frames and widgets.
Fabulous
Habit trackers are a dime a dozen. This Paris-based startup is totally different: it’s a habit developer. It uses science to understand and explain how we form habits and what parts of certain habits are the important bits. I’m currently engaged in morning routine building, better sleep, and recently better workflow. It starts with baby steps to build you up to a fuller routine because they understand people don’t change habits in one day. It feels like a bunch of mini-graduations and accomplishments – I drank water first thing in the morning three days in a row to I drank water, ate a healthy breakfast, and worked out before 11 am. That’s a big deal for me; before getting into this app, I was a noon-at-the-earliest five-cans-of-soda-a-day kinda person. But with each little success (drinking water just one day!) it congratulates you, sets you up to create a streak of doing it, and gives you motivational articles to read, challenges, and full-day goals to complete.
One of the big features is their “Fabulous moment” – an idle screen with soothing sounds to help you get in the mindset of whatever you’re trying to do. If that’s something like drinking a glass of water, it may not seem like much. But with some of the more focused and time-consuming tasks like exercise, meditation, or deep work states, these “Fabulous moments” are amazing tools to help you focus and get in the right mindset. The only downside to this app? It has a pretty big price tag: $50 a year.The good news is that it starts with a free month trial and there’s tons of different options for what kind of habits you want to engage in developing.
Productive
Okay, this one is a habit tracker. I like using this in conjunction with Fabulous because they serve two different purposes even if there is some overlap. This one is much simpler (and we know I love a simple app!) so it’s been something I’ve been using for over a year now. It’s almost like a habit to-do list; you create habits, set what days they appear and during what times of the day, and go! From drinking water (I really want to drink water, guys) to chores to one-time events, it’s very helpful giving a simple way to track how often you’re accomplishing something.
The best part for me is the “x times per week/month” feature. There are some tasks I want to do every day, some I only want to do on One day, and some that I want to make sure I get done but it doesn’t matter when. Things in that category are mostly chores – dishes, laundry, work development. I can plan to do the dishes on Tuesday and Friday, but what if there aren’t dishes on those days? What if there’s a lot of dishes on Monday? It takes the tediousness of remembering to mark it off on whatever day it pops up. I simply set it to twice a week and mark it off as I get them done. It bases it’s motivation on streaks and perfect days, showing you how many times in a row you’ve completed a tasks and how many days you’ve completed all of your tasks! This one is not quite as pricey at only $40 a year. It’s a good investment during this time if you’re struggling to maintain your schedule, habits, or chores.
Canva
I just got into Canva but I already decided I can’t live without it if I’m going to try to run any sort of creative outlet. Canva is a graphic design program that allows you to quickly – and I mean quickly – put together things from flyers, brochures, and posters to animated Instagram posts and header photos for all your social media sites. One of the coolest features I’ve seen is there background remover feature. One click and it auto-removes whatever is behind the subject of the photo. I know, I thought the same thing – I’m going to have to do some tedious masking job if I want it to come out decently. Nope. One click. They also have a huge library of graphics, backgrounds, fonts, and features so it never feels like it runs out of things you can create.
The most useful feature for me relates to branding – you can create a design and simply resize it from one format to another. Using the same header for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, whatever, is as simple as making your design and hit “resize to Facebook Header.” It’s seriously that easy. They have tons of different common sizes for social media and printed material so it’s super simple to transfer from one format to another. They also have a huge library of graphics, backgrounds, fonts, and features so it never feels like it runs out of things you can create. Unfortunately, this is part of their paid plan, but that only runs $13 if you pay monthly. It’s a pretty great deal for all the different features they offer to their paid customers but there’s always a free version that has so many great ways to design, and like always, there’s a free trial!
What apps are your faves? Which ones take up the best real estate on your phone for easy access and are always running? Are there any on this list that you’ve tried? Did they not make the cut? Let me know what apps I need to try to change my life and I’ll try them out!
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