Whether you’re trying to exercise more or you want to stop smoking, it can be tough to reach your goals without a system. Thankfully, there are smartphone apps that can help you track your progress and give you incentives to get things done. Here is our list of the best apps to help you track your New Year’s resolutions and achieve any other goals you might have.
Strides: The Best Goal Tracking App
- Price: Free (or upgrade for $4.99 a month)
Strides is one of the best goal tracking apps because it lets you completely customize your goals, set up personalized routines, and schedule when you get notifications to keep you motivated. This free app has lots of charts and graphs to track your habits over time, check your progress toward your goals, and more.
Strides doesn’t work with Android devices, but you can use it on your iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch, making it one of the best apps for Apple users. The free version of the app doesn’t have ads, but you will need a Strides Plus membership to set more than 3 goals, see progress reports, and use other premium features.
Download: Apple App Store
Habitica: A Goal Tracking App for Gamers
- Price: Free (or upgrade for $4.99 a month)
If you’ve ever stayed up late playing video games instead of working, Habatica can be one of the best apps to help motivate you. This free app turns your goals into an RPG, and you can level up your character by achieving your goals in real life.
Your friends and family can also join in and help you battle bosses and win rewards. These rewards can be used to buy new equipment for your character, or you can set custom rewards that you actually want to earn, like buying a new video game on Steam. With a paid subscription, you will only get additional gems and other accessories for your 8-bit avatar.
Download: Apple App Store / Google Play Store
Pedometer++: Best App for Walking More
- Price: Free
Pedometer++ is a minimalistic app that just tracks how many steps you take each day and how close you get to your daily, weekly, and monthly goals. And, since it uses your iPhone’s built-in motion tracking capabilities, you don’t have Fitbit or smartwatch to find out if you’re getting your 10,000 steps a day.
This free app also works with an Apple Watch, and it syncs with the Health app on your iPhone. You can quickly see your progress from the home screen of your iPhone with several colorful widgets. To match the style of your home screen, you can also change the color of your widgets and in the app itself.
Read More: How to customize your iPhone with widgets
Download: Apple App Store
MyFitnessPal: Best App for Tracking Your Diet
- Price: Free (or upgrade for $19.99 a month)
MyFitnessPal is a free app that helps you track your diet, exercise, weight, and more. To track your diet, MyFitnessPal has a vast food database of over 11 million meals to choose from, or you can create your own meals to log them regularly. A food item can be added by name, or you can scan a bar code to instantly record the calories and other information about what you’re eating.
Then you can manually log any physical activities and sync the app to your Apple Watch, FitBit, or other fitness trackers. With a Premium subscription, you won’t see any ads, you’ll get tips on how to choose better eating habits, and you can log a meal just by taking a picture of it.
Download: Apple App Store / Google Play Store
Smoke Free: Best App to Stop Smoking
- Price: Free (or upgrade for $0.99 a week or $9.99 for life)
Quitting smoking is one of the most difficult goals anyone can achieve. That’s why the Smoke Free app was designed to motivate you by tracking your health improvements, the money you have saved, and how many days of your life you have regained since you smoked your last cigarette.
The free app uses over 40 different techniques to help manage your cravings. With the free app, you can get tips from experts, connect with other users in chatrooms, or chat with real advisers 24/7. The paid version of the app lets you keep a record of your cravings, analyze your triggers, and get one-on-one help from a professional coach.
Download: Apple App Store / Google Play Store