Consider these four productivity and health and wellness apps to make 2018 your best year ever!

 

We are just a few days into 2018 and the excitement of a New Year is probably already wearing a bit thin as we grapple with reality and responsibilities of our daily lives. It might also mean that some of the goals we had hoped to achieve this year, are already being put on the backburner.

Fear not, there is still time to get things back on track. Here we highlight four tools/applications (apps) that are geared towards improving your productivity or your health and wellbeing this year.

1.  Strict Workflow

Based on the Pomodoro technique, Strict Workflow is both a time management and productivity that encourages users to work in 30-minute sessions: 25 minutes of distraction-free work, followed by 5 minutes of break. During the period in which you are supposed to be working, the app blocks distraction, such from ‘blacklisted websites”, thus allowing you to truly focus on the work at hand.

Platforms:  Google Chrome

Price:  Free

 

2.  Habitica

Habits are born out of consistent behavior executed over time. Habitica is a habit-building and productivity app that treats your life as a game. It tracks your habits and goals (which can be categorized with respect to health, to-dos, dailies, to name a few), and rewards you (or punishes you) depending on whether you are consistent in your habits and achieving your goals. The graphics are not as sophisticated as many of the popular games on the market, but its objective is to make completing tasks fun whilst incentivizing you through gaming principles.

Platforms:  Online; app (Android and iOS)

Price:  Free; Paid group plans available

 

3.  My Fitness Pal

Created by sporting goods manufacturer, Under Armor, My Fitness Pal is one of the most widely used health and wellness app that tracks your fitness, nutrition and caloric intake. Its food database has over 5 million entries, which provides not only calorie counts, but also nutritional information on the foods consumed. However, to achieve long-term success it is important to document the journey. My Fitness Pal allows you to add recipes, add personal notes and set goals. It also successfully connects with a number other apps and devices, such as Fitbit, Garmin, MapMyFitness and Runkeeper, to name a few.

Platforms:  Online; Android; iOS

Price:  Free; Premium (USD 9.99/month; USD 49.99/year)

 

4.  Calm

As the name suggests, Calm helps users achieve more mindfulness through a focus on four areas: meditation, breathing, sleep and relaxing. It has numerous features, such as guided meditation sessions for newbies, breathing exercises to help you relax, sleep stories to get you ready for sleep at the end of the day. For those of us who lead stressful lives, and want to better manage our stress levels and lead calmer lives, Calm may be the answer.

Platforms: Android; iOS

Price:  Free

 

 

Image credits: USA-Reiseblogger (Pixabay)  Google; Wikipedia;  Yakima CrossFit;  Twitter  

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