Many people seek to start a new habit or tackle a project with the start of a New Year. It makes sense, after all, we often have a bit of a time to reflect between Christmas and New Years and the end of the calendar acts as a good prompt for reflection. As such, here are some recommended apps that will help you tackle taking on a new habit or skill this new year.
Habit Apps
One of the types of apps that can help no matter what area you are looking to improve in, is a habit app. These are based on the “don’t break the streak” idea that Jerry Sinfield made famous. You could use a task management app for this like todoist, but some of the specific habit apps have some benefits.
Spiritual Discipline
Spiritual disciplines are a tricky topic, people often adopt a bad attitude towards one where it could be guilt induced and feeling like a way to win points rather than a positive one. Despite that, spiritual disciplines can lead to greater spiritual life. So here are a few app ideas to help build good spiritual disciplines.
Prayer
Praying is an activity which many people wish they did more and may seem like an odd choice for a tech app to use. After all, prayer is a private matter between you and God. However, prayer apps can help both remind us to pray and provide prompts over what to pray for.
Bible Reading
A good bible app can encourage you to read your regularly and get into God’s word. There are a couple of core aspects that can help here such as a clean reading interface or useful notifications to help prompt you to read.
YouVersion is a great option here which has been updated to have a good reading interface as well as good notifications and reading plans as well. We’ll look more at reading plans in a second though.
An alternative iOS app is NeuBible, it lacks the reading plans of YouVersion but it does include reading reminders to prompt you to read the Bible. However, the real advantages it has a fantastic reading interface with great typography and a great stream of highlights.
A Paper Bible
While digital apps and notifications can be good, a paper bible can actually be a better tool. After all, having a physical object means it takes up space and is more visible than an app icon. Study bibles, bible in a year and devotional bibles are all good option.
Devotionals
Devotionals can help guide your bible reading which can act as a prompt to read your bible as well as provide a way to connect with God.
As previously mentioned, YouVersion has a wide supply of devotionals which you can access for free. These include notifications and the great “catch me up” option which will get you back on track if you miss a day or two.
Reads truth series
We have also covered some devotional apps in the past which you can check out here AND ChurchMag has its own devotionals which you can buy (all of which have a tech or geeky theme).
Bible Verse Memorization
Memorizing Bible verses can be a great tool to help you stay better in touch with God’s word when you or a friend needs it. There are some great apps that can help here including
- Verses (warning this app seems to not being developed)
- Scripture Typer
Health
Health is one of those goals that many people want to improve and yet often do little about. One of the best pieces of advice I’ve heard for health is that it is better to start a small improvement than try something big. So getting a thirty-minute walk at lunch is something that more people are likely to do than going to a gym after signing up.
As such there are some simple apps which can help you start doing a healthy habit in the new year.
- Apple Health app or Google fit (for step tracking)
- 8fit (simple workouts and diet advice)
- Fitbit Coach
- MyFitnessPal (for food tracking)
- Coach to 5k
- Strava
- Runtastic
Learn a Skill
Many people want to learn a new skill in the new year. This might be a practical skill connected with work, such as a new programming language or adjacent skill to your job, or it might be a new hobby such as painting or learning a new language. This makes it tricky to recommend a tool as your needs may vary a lot depending on your goal, there are however some general tools that can help.
- DuoLingo (a good language learning app)
- Memrise (an alternative language learning app)
- Udemy (a wide range of video courses that you can compare)
- LinkedIn Learning (a subscription service with a wide range of different courses)
Finances
Debt can cripple you and hold you hostage. Likewise, poor management of your finances can prevent you from taking opportunities and cause strain on your friends and family.As such, a good budging tool can help you get out of debt and use money as the tool it should be.
Stay Better Connected
Another common resolution people hold onto in the new year is to stay better connected with their friends and family. Personally, I find messaging apps are a better tool than using something like a mass broadcasting social network. As such these messaging apps are all great options (the best one to choose is the one most people use)
- iMessage
- Facebook Messenger
- Skype
- Google Hangouts, Allo and Duo
Get Your Tasks in Order
Getting on top of your task can help you make space for new skills or activities that you’d like to do during the year. If you’re looking for a good recommendation, check out our roundup of the best task management apps.
What new tech are you trying this year?
Are you trying to start a new habit or skill this year? What tech are you using?
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