Advertising

1 Essential App for Every Day of The Week

Alexandra Uren

Read full profile

1 Essential App for Every Day of The Week

We all need that little extra something now and again to give our day a boost, and with over 2.5 million apps available on the App Store alone, we really are spoiled for choice when it comes to improving our day the techie way. We’ve compiled a list of apps for every day of the week. Whether you struggle with focus, productivity or Saturday morning avocado withdrawals, these apps will help you through no matter how far away the weekend.

Monday

For some, Monday is a day for fresh starts, a new mindset, and another to-do list to smash. It really doesn’t matter that this productivity only lasts until 2pm. For others, Mondays are a dread, a bore, and by far―the worst day of the week. For those of you who struggle to motivate yourselves at 9am on a Monday morning, Wunderlist (free) is the app for you.

A to-do list and project organiser in one, Wunderlist provides tasks reminders, notes, and keeps your to-do list up to date and synchronised across all devices. It is simple to use so even those who have been hit hard with Monday morning grogginess can begin organising with ease. The premium feature includes file uploads, task delegation and unlimited subtasks, but we are happy with the free version (there’s only so much our Monday morning brains can endure).

Advertising

Tuesday

Congratulations for making it through Monday. Your reward? Tuesday, the second worst day of the week.

Yes, Monday might be over, but last weekend is now a distant memory and there’s still 3 whole days to endure until Friday

If there’s ever a day where a spot of retail therapy is needed, it’s the ever-mundane Tuesday. Combat your bad mood and London’s high prices in one with Vouchercloud (free) ―the app that ensures you can treat yourself without having to live off of porridge and pasta until payday.

Advertising

Vouchercloud offers great discounts for a huge number of brands, ranging from Topshop to B&Q to Pizza Express. Whether it’s a Tuesday evening pint, pizza, or…holiday, Vouchercloud is an easy way to spend money you don’t have but still feel good about it.

Wednesday

By Wednesday, the midweek slump is starting to take hold. Your productivity reserves are starting to dwindle and it’s hard to focus when the weekend is beginning to appear on the horizon. For days like these, Calm (free) is our go-to. It’s a mindfulness meditation app which has the potential to not only turn your day around, but also your week. A huge number of companies are now encouraging mindfulness meditation, due to the huge number of benefits to both mental and physical health.

Calm is free to download and beautifully designed. It includes 7 days of guided meditation and for £7.99 a month, users can unlock a whole host of other meditations focusing on other areas of life, whether it’s concentration, gratitude, happiness, or deep sleep. These short, guided meditations can be done at any time of the day.

Advertising

The app also includes relaxing sounds such as fire crackling, waves breaking onto a beach or the sound of the pouring rain. It’s perfect for soothing a sore head on a stressful day.

Thursday

It’s never too early to start planning the weekend. Our favourite app to ensure we experience maximum fun with minimum crowds is Dojo (free). Dojo’s motto is that if it’s worth going to, they will know about it. Their researchers handpick the best things to do, see, eat and drink throughout the week, and believe us when we say, the list is endless. Dojo also includes recommendations for things you wouldn’t even think about, such as ‘5 Curated Vintage Shops’ and ‘Date Friendly Food Joints’.

Your days of Netflix and Chill-in are over.

Advertising

Friday

So Friday night has arrived and the drinks are flowing, perhaps a little too easily. For this, we give you DrinkCoach (free), one of The Observer’s Top 10 Health Apps. The app allows you to track your drinking over time, set goals, see how many calories you’re consuming in alcohol and how much you are spending. Whilst we all enjoy a night out, it’s easy to overdo it, and with DrinkCoach you are far better equipped to stay on top of your alcohol consumption. Yes, it may seem boring, but you’ll be thanking us in the morning!

Saturday

Saturday mornings can be filled with productivity, spring cleans and gentle jogs around the local park, or (if you ignored our app for Friday) they can be an emblem of regret, headaches, and the distant taste of Sambuca. Whatever your physical state on a Saturday morning, I’m sure we can all agree that sometimes all we really need is a decent brunch.

Deliveroo (free) delivers restaurant food, and it delivers it fast. Have a look at their best of London breakfasts and enjoy your Saturday how it’s meant to be enjoyed, with overpriced and pretentious avocado on toast.

Sunday

Sunday mornings are made for coffee and catch ups, and if you’re struggling to find a good coffee shop then look no further than London Coffee Network (free). Supporting local, independent coffee shops that sell high quality coffee in a great environment. London Coffee Network also rewards users with points depending on how much they spend in store. The app claims to be a ‘digital loyalty card for drinking better coffee’ and lists over 200 coffee shops. You’ll be spoilt for choice when it comes to your Sunday morning caffeine fix.

Featured photo credit: William Iven via albumarium.com

Advertising

Last Updated on February 15, 2019

7 Tools to Help Keep Track of Goals and Habits Effectively

CM Smith

A technologist and writer who shares advice on personal productivity, creativity and how to use technology to get things done. Read full profile

7 Tools to Help Keep Track of Goals and Habits Effectively

Now that 2011 is well underway and most people have fallen off the bandwagon when it comes to their New Year’s resolutions (myself included), it’s a good time to step back and take an honest look at our habits and the goals that we want to achieve.

Something that I have learned over the past few years is that if you track something, be it your eating habits, exercise, writing time, work time, etc. you become aware of the reality of the situation. This is why most diet gurus tell you to track what you eat for a week so you have an awareness of the of how you really eat before you start your diet and exercise regimen.

Tracking daily habits and progress towards goals is another way to see reality and create a way for you clearly review what you have accomplished over a set period of time. Tracking helps motivate you too; if I can make a change in my life and do it once a day for a period of time it makes me more apt to keep doing it.

So, if you have some goals and habits in mind that need tracked, all you need is a tracking tool. Today we’ll look at 7 different tools to help you keep track of your habits and goals.

Joe’s Goals

Advertising

Joe’s Goals is a web-based tool that allows users to track their habits and goals in an easy to use interface. Users can add as many goals/habits as they want and also check multiple times per day for those “extra productive days”. Something that is unique about Joe’s Goals is the way that you can keep track of negative habits such as eating out, smoking, etc. This can help you visualize the good things that you are doing as well as the negative things that you are doing in your life.

Joe’s Goals is free with a subscription version giving you no ads and the “latest version” for $12 a year.

Daytum

is an in depth way of counting things that you do during the day and then presenting them to you in many different reports and groups. With Daytum you can add several different items to different custom categories such as work, school, home, etc. to keep track of your habits in each focus area of your life.

Advertising

Daytum is extremely in depth and there are a ton of settings for users to tweak. There is a free version that is pretty standard, but if you want more features and unlimited items and categories you’ll need Daytum Plus which is $4 a month.

Excel or Numbers

If you are the spreadsheet number cruncher type and the thought of using someone else’s idea of how you should track your habits turns you off, then creating your own Excel/Numbers/Google spreadsheet is the way to go. Not only do you have pretty much limitless ways to view, enter, and manipulate your goal and habit data, but you have complete control over your stuff and can make it private.

What’s nice about spreadsheets is you can create reports and can customize your views in any way you see fit. Also, by using Dropbox, you can keep your tracker sheets anywhere you have a connection.

Evernote

Advertising

I must admit, I am an Evernote junky, mostly because this tool is so ubiquitous. There are several ways you can implement habit/goal tracking with Evernote. You won’t be able to get nifty reports and graphs and such, but you will be able to access your goal tracking anywhere your are, be it iPhone, Android, Mac, PC, or web. With Evernote you pretty much have no excuse for not entering your daily habit and goal information as it is available anywhere.

Evernote is free with a premium version available.

Access or Bento

If you like the idea of creating your own tracker via Excel or Numbers, you may be compelled to get even more creative with database tools like Access for Windows or Bento for Mac. These tools allow you to set up relational databases and even give you the option of setting up custom interfaces to interact with your data. Access is pretty powerful for personal database applications, and using it with other MS products, you can come up with some pretty awesome, in depth analysis and tracking of your habits and goals.

Bento is extremely powerful and user friendly. Also with Bento you can get the iPhone and iPad app to keep your data anywhere you go.

Advertising

You can check out Access and the Office Suite here and Bento here.

Analog Bonus: Pen and Paper

All these digital tools are pretty nifty and have all sorts of bells and whistles, but there are some people out there that still swear by a notebook and pen. Just like using spreadsheets or personal databases, pen and paper gives you ultimate freedom and control when it comes to your set up. It also doesn’t lock you into anyone else’s idea of just how you should track your habits.

Conclusion

I can’t necessarily recommend which tool is the best for tracking your personal habits and goals, as all of them have their quirks. What I can do however (yes, it’s a bit of a cop-out) is tell you that the tool to use is whatever works best for you. I personally keep track of my daily habits and personal goals with a combo Evernote for input and then a Google spreadsheet for long-term tracking.

What this all comes down to is not how or what tool you use, but finding what you are comfortable with and then getting busy with creating lasting habits and accomplishing short- and long-term goals.

1 Essential App for Every Day of The Week

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Read Next

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

More by this author

Trending in App

Read Next

7 Tools to Help Keep Track of Goals and Habits Effectively

Joe’s Goals

Daytum

Excel or Numbers

Read Next

Evernote

Access or Bento

Analog Bonus: Pen and Paper

Conclusion

Read Next