At the turn of the calendar year it’s only natural to reevaluate your life based on the previous year’s review. During these darkest days, we to reflect on how we can do things differently going forward by planting seeds to achieve everything we imagine. But studies show that 80% of people fail at New Year’s Resolutions and give up by mid-February.
Having hopes and dreams and even setting firm intentions can lead to huge disappointments if action is not taken to make them a reality.
What prevents us from following through on New Year’s resolutions?
“Goals are good for setting a direction but systems are best for making progress.” James Clear, author of Atomic Habits
Oftentimes, the goals we set are way to big to take on and we give up. Goals need to be broken down into smaller, measurable units with a system set in place to facilitate creating new habits and beliefs that will get us there.
Apps are an excellent system to track and measure your behavior. In this article, you’ll learn about the best apps to achieve your New Year’s Resolutions whether it is finances, mental health, physical fitness, diet, or organization.
Habitbull
Free (up to five habits), or Premium ($4.99/year)
There are a ton of habit tracking apps out there, but Habitbull comes in strong with the tagline “Smash Through Your Goals.” I prefer Habitbull to other similar apps because each habit can be isolated in it’s own calendar and the parameters for goal-setting are very customizable. It also comes with cloud data, multi-devce syncing, reminders, community, and the ability to export data into a spreadsheet or graph. The developer, AppForge, offers it for free to track 5 habits, but I really think the premium yearly subscription is worth the $4.99 as an investment toward your New Year’s resolutions.
Streaks
One-time purchase of $4.99
Like the name implies, Streaks is all about motivating you to stay consistent with your habits by celebrating streaks—when you break a habit, your streak is reset to zero. Winner of the Apple Design Award, Streaks integrates with the Apple Health app, and works well for acheiving fitness-related goals such as exercise, blood pressure, diet, and steps but it can be used to track any goal you name. I imagine the app developers are a fun team with a name like Crunchy Bagel, plus they’ve made the Streaks app super accessible with a low cost one time purchase.
Cozi
Free, option for premium upgrades
Need to manage multiple schedules in your household? Cozi, a family-planning app, is great for becoming a better parent in 2023. Named a “must-have app” by The Today Show, Cozi helps cut back on unnecessary texts and other communications by having all agendas aggregated in one place with color coding.
Flora
Free, option for premium upgrades
WIth the Flora app, personal motivation is tied into external changes and we love this at OWC, since our mission is to be a sustainable, green business. Flora encourages users to focus on what is important to them outside of their phones and uses a tree or plant as a symbol of success—the tree grows when you succeed, the plant withers when you falter in you goal execution. Watch your tree grow and flourish when you complete a goal or watch your tree wither and die when you fail to stick to your commitments. There is an accountability component to help keep you on track. If both you and a friend achieve the same goal to focus away from your smart phone, you both grow an additional tree. Perhaps the idea is to create a forest in 2023.
Strava
Free, option for premium upgrades
I see many of my friends posting their challenging hikes on Facebook and it makes sense how dedicated social network for people with specific goals is a need Stava is fulfilling. Strava’s tagline is “The Social Network for Athletes,” and the name of the app, Strava, cleverly evokes the word “strive.” The app is a community-building platform for runners, hikers, and riders to track and share their progress in order to increase accountability, motivation and the likelihood for success.
New Year’s Resolution Tracker
One-time purchase of $0.99
This app can be used all year long but they have a unique focus on counting down the New Year in preparation for all of your new goals, sort of a pre-goal setting motivation. I can see myself using it to countdown to a solstice, change of semester or other milestones. Unlike other apps, it does not focus on specific goals such as diet, exercise, or finances, but it allows you to create goals in any area of your life. It might work well in tandem with Streaks or HabitBull to get more specific about how those goals will be attained through habit-forming. And it is extremely affordable with a one-time purchase of 99 cents.
Mint
Free
My guilty pleasure is language learning apps—I forget I’m paying for them and forget to make use of them all. Do you even know how many channels, apps, and services you are subscribed to? Well, Mint’s mission is to help you consolidate the number of apps and websites you visit to manage your money, help you track where your money is going, and notify you about bills due. Your personal dashboard, cleverly called, Mintsights, helps you track your net worth and figure out where you can cut costs. It’s America’s #1 personal finance app with over 30M users and it’s free.
Summary
I hope you found an app to help you achieve your best life in 2023! And I’ll leave you with one more James Clear quote, “You do not rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems.” Let us know what you think of this app list and tell about any other iPhone apps you love for achieving success.
