Happy New Year! Now that the oliebollen are gone and normal life is starting again, there is work to be done. It’s high time to start with your New Year’s resolutions. These iOS apps will get you started.
Apps for your New Year’s resolutions
Spending less, exercising more often, calling a good friend every week: New Year’s resolutions come in all shapes and sizes. Ultimately, you’ll have to perform the associated tasks yourself, but your iPhone can support it. These are the best iOS apps for your New Year’s resolutions.
Make your good intentions come true
1. Choose a target
The first step in the right direction is setting a goal. The Coach.me app helps you perfectly with that. In this app you will find thousands of New Year’s resolutions and you can track your daily progress and share it with others with the same goal. There are countless goals to choose from: running five kilometers every day, learning four new words of a foreign language every day, or reading a book every week. There is a suitable community for every purpose. In addition, for some goals you can also call in the help of a professional coach for a fee.
2. Get finances in order
Do you have a hole in your hand, or do you just want to put money aside for that one dream trip? Then a budget app comes in handy. Such a program is also useful if you have no financial objectives in principle. You become more aware of your expenses, and that is never wrong. Good budget apps are the Dutch Spendo and Financieel.
→ Read more: Hole in your hand? With these 5 budget apps you keep a financial overview
3. Working on your body
You can of course work on your physical condition in the gym, but an excellent app is already installed on your iPhone. The Activities app keeps track of exactly how much you move per day, provided you have an Apple Watch. You can also challenge friends, set goals and register workouts.
Do you prefer to be active in the fresh air? Then try running, for example with Runkeeper. The program motivates you in an accessible way to regularly go for a walk. Are you going to work with weights this year? Then install GymBook. This fitness app is packed with good workouts to build muscle mass.
→ Also of interest: The best running apps for iPhone and Apple Watch
→ Read more: The 8 best iOS apps to get fitter and more muscular
4. Eat healthier
Exercise is important, but so is healthy eating. However, putting together a good diet is still quite a job. Fortunately, there are several apps that provide insight into what you eat, and how you can eat even healthier. Our favorite is Lifesum, an incredibly comprehensive calorie counter.
The great thing about the app is that you can choose from multiple goals, including losing weight, building muscle mass or gaining weight. Next, Lifesum encourages you with nutritious recipes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. In addition, the app contains a wealth of information, such as the specific nutritional value of a product.
→ Also check: The 5 best free iOS apps to count your calories
5. More relaxed
Do you want to focus more on mindfulness this year? Then Apple’s Breathing app can help you with that. This app is standard on every Apple Watch and helps you to bring a moment of peace into your day.
No Apple Watch? No worries. There are also all kinds of other relaxation and meditation apps such as Headspace and the VGZ Mindfulness Coach. Both apps guide you through a relaxation exercise in a calm and accessible way.
→ Read also: 3 mindfulness apps to get more peace in your head
4. Tackling Smartphone Addiction
You probably spend too much time on your iPhone. However, solving this addiction is easier said than done, I know from experience. Fortunately, you can already go a long way with Screen Time on your iPhone. The ‘app’ keeps track of how much time you spend on your phone and tries to prevent addiction.
In addition, there are countless apps in the App Store that try to limit your smartphone use. A nice option is Forest. This app makes it a game to use your iPhone less. In the ‘game’ you are given the task of growing a tree. As soon as you reach for your iPhone, you’ll have to start over. That way you will automatically focus more on really useful tasks.
→ Read also: Test: This is the best app to stay focused
6. Become more productive
No matter how rich or poor you are, no one can buy time anymore. It is therefore important to think about the way you organize your life. A good starting point is to use a calendar app. We recommend Google Calendar and the standard Apple Calendar app, among others. Both look well-arranged, have a beautiful design and are packed with smart functions.
In addition, it is important to write down notes and tasks in an orderly manner. We recommend Things 3 for this, a versatile to-do app. The program not only looks great, it also remains well-organized, even if you create dozens of tasks and folders. It’s also nice that Things 3 works on all your Apple devices.
→ Also of interest: Overview: The 6 best calendar apps for iPhone
→ Read more: This is the best note-taking app for iOS and macOS
7. More sustainable living
In recent years we hear more and more sustainable good intentions. Being better for the environment doesn’t have to be difficult at all. A useful starting point is to throw away less good food. Apps such as Too Good To Go ensure that you can get high-quality food for next to nothing. This is not only good for the environment, but also saves you money on your groceries.
You can probably live a lot more sustainably when it comes to clothing. Whether you’re looking for a unique item, or you just suffer from a bulging walk-in closet: buying or selling second-hand clothing is easier than you think. Again, this is a lot better for the environment and cheaper. A good app for second-hand clothes is Vinted.
→ Also check: 4 apps to prevent food waste
→ Read more: Marketplace for fashionistas: 3 apps with which you can buy or sell second-hand clothes
8. Learning new skills
A person is never finished learning. In fact, how boring would life be if you had already mastered everything? One of the most frequently heard resolutions is to learn a new language. Don’t have any inspiration? Then try Chinese. This language is by no means easy, but probably (economically) interesting. A good app to learn Chinese is Chineasy.
Is learning a new language not for you, but are you creative? Who knows, there may be a good artist in you! Fine drawing apps for iPhone and iPad are Procreate and Abobe Photoshop. Or do you want to learn programming? Then take a look at our overview of the best programming apps. And do you want to start a relationship again in 2020? Then consulting our dating app guide is definitely worth your while.
→ Also interesting: The 5 best apps to learn to read and write Chinese
→ Read also: The 7 best drawing apps for your iPad (with or without Apple Pencil)
9. Sleep better
Do you sometimes wake up more tired than when you went to bed? Then Sleep Cycle is recommended. This is by far the most popular app among the sleep apps for iPhone. Sleep Cycle registers the sounds you make while you sleep. These sounds are related to the sleep phase at that moment. In this way, the app analyzes your sleeping behavior and chooses the best moment to wake you up. The result? You wake up refreshed and can start your day with more energy. Say goodbye to that snooze button.
→ Also read: The smartest alarm clock app also stops snoring
10. Capture memories
2020 flew by for many people. Blink twice and the month of March jumped to December. Do you want to enjoy and capture the little moments more? Perhaps the Momento app will help you with this New Year’s resolution.
The app automatically pulls all your posts from Facebook, Instagram and other social media, so all you have to do is write some short notes. You can also save photos and create an archive. This way you don’t forget what you’ve done, who you were with and where you’ve been.
Also read: The 4 best bullet journal apps for your iPhone