We’re living in an age where technology and smartphones are everywhere. Because of this, our phones often get a bad rap for being time consuming and distracting. But in reality, we are also very lucky to have so many resources at our fingertips that can actually help improve our lives. Why not fill your smartphone with apps designed to help you practice self-care? To get you started, here are 6 apps designed to help you feel better, sleep better, or motivate you to do something kind for yourself.
If you need some hydration motivation: Plant Nanny
Drinking enough water each day is one of the easiest ways to take care of your body. It’s also one of the easiest things to forget to do. Plant Nanny is an app that helps motivate you to drink enough H2O by taking care of a virtual plant. When you first open the app it asks for your body weight and how physically active you are to help it estimate how much water your body needs each day. Each time you finish drinking water, open up the app and water your plant! The more water you drink, the faster your plant will grow. But be careful- not drinking enough water will actually cause your plant to die. Once your plant is fully grown, you can pick a new seed to grow and build a virtual plant collection.
When you need a mood-boost: Moodrise
This app calls itself “digital nutrition.” Using curated visuals and sounds, Moodrise offers daily “treatments” to help boost your mood. When you initially open the app, it asks you to indicate how you’re currently feeling and has you place a “target.” This helps you track how you’re feeling overtime. Then, you can choose from seven different treatments including confidence, calm, imagination, happiness, energy, connection, and focus.
If you want to sleep better: Sleep Cycle
If you ever wake up in the morning feeling extra groggy, it’s probably because your alarm woke you while you were in a deep part of your sleep cycle! This app helps make waking up easier by tracking your sleep cycle using your phone’s microphone and waking you while you’re in light sleep. Before heading to bed, set an alarm on the app for the latest time you need to wake up. This gives the app a 30 minute time period within which it will wait for the best time to gently wake you.
When you want to focus: Offscreen
Okay, so we may be talking about apps and ways using your phone can improve your self-care, but it’s also undeniable that our smartphones often serve as huge distractions. Whether you need to focus on studying, want to spend uninterrupted quality time with friends or family, or want to cut back on your total daily screen-time, Offscreen can help you do that. This app has you set a goal for your daily total screen-time and keeps track of it for you. It also collects stats on how many times you pick up your phone, and how often you check it. You can even set a timer with a goal for how long you need to focus phone-free.
When you want to train your brain: Lumosity
Lumosity is an app created by scientists that gives you daily brain-training mini-games designed to improve your cognition, math skills, and language skills. As you complete the daily workouts, the app tracks your scores to show how you improve over time. Plus, there’s more than 50 different games to play so every day’s training is different!
For keeping track of healthy habits: Done
If you’re someone who likes crossing things off your to-do list, Done is the app for you! This habit-tracker allows you to set goals for tasks you want to complete daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly like working out, going to bed on time, or eating breakfast! Once you complete a task, enter it in the app and watch it turn into a habit! For an extra dose of motivation, Done keeps track of your habit streaks and how many times you’ve met your goals. Done comes with a free version that allows you to track up to 3 habits, but unlimited habits are available with a one time upgrade.
