January is the perfect time to start fresh and commit to your New Year’s resolutions. But no matter how beneficial they are, half of them will likely end up being forgotten before the month even ends. Sometimes, the problem with this lies in the lack of structure. Sure, you have the willpower to accomplish your goal, but it becomes harder to follow through if you don’t know exactly what to do next or how to track your progress.
This is where apps come in handy. Instead of manually setting up reminders, juggling progress logs, and taking notes on your phone, just set up an app, and you’ll be good to go. Apps handle these tasks for you and give you a clearer picture of the plan and its execution. This makes it easier to start and keep going.
If you ever need help sticking to your New Year’s resolutions, we’ll share with you some essential apps to stop procrastination and stay consistent. These can support you with some of the most common resolutions, including exercising more, eating healthier, and saving money. The best part is that they’re all available on both Android and iOS, so you can install them right away regardless of device.
Savvy Goals
Every year, you tell yourself that you want to save more, and every year, you fail to stick to that New Year’s resolution. No judgment, though, because saving is indeed easy to start but hard to finish. To boost your chances of reaching your goal, use a savings challenge app like Savvy Goals (available on Play Store and App Store).
Savvy Goals gamifies saving using savings challenges. These are essentially savings plans with a clear goal and deadline. But they’re designed to feel more like a game, making them more motivating to do than just saving at random. Each challenge also breaks down the large and daunting target amount into more manageable contributions to help you follow through.
With Savvy Goals, you can try two of the most popular savings challenges: the 52-week challenge and the 100-envelope challenge. For the 52-week challenge, you’re asked to save a different amount every week. The same concept goes for the 100-envelope challenge, but this time, you need to save every day for 100 days to fill the envelopes. The amounts can be arranged in three ways: highest to lowest, lowest to highest, or shuffled. Just pick your preferred order and save whatever figure is assigned for that day/week.
Savvy Goals is pretty intuitive and easy to set up, with options to customize the name and color for each challenge. But the downside is that the app locks basic functionality behind a subscription. For instance, you can’t customize the target amount or add more than two challenges at a time. A third type of savings challenge — custom challenge — is also a Pro-exclusive feature.
WallHabit
It’s the same old cycle over again: one minute, you’re laser-focused on finishing your work report, and the next minute, you’re on your phone doomscrolling the time away. If this happens more often than you’d like and you want to cut down on your social media time, an app blocker like WallHabit can help.
WallHabit is a productivity app for iPhones and Android devices. It lets you choose which apps to block, and once selected, you can no longer access them just as easily. You’ll need to go through a challenge — say, tap the screen 600 times or long-press for 60 seconds — before you can unlock the blocked app. This way, you’re less likely to open it if you don’t really need to. To help you stay off the blocked apps, WallHabit comes with an app limit. This customizable duration sets the amount of time you have on the app before it locks itself again.
Other than blocking apps, WallHabit can also remove distracting content without fully disabling access to the app. You can set it to strip away YouTube Shorts, Facebook Reels, the Instagram feed, and even Snapchat Spotlight.
WallHabit is completely free to use on iOS, with unlimited app and content blocking. But it has fewer features compared to the Android version. On Android, you can find options to schedule what hours WallHabit is on, set cheat days when to disable the app completely, and block content on more apps like TikTok. However, WallHabit on Android requires a subscription to get unlimited app and content blocking. You can only block three apps and two content types on the free account.
Eat This Much
Probably the toughest part about sticking to a healthy diet is looking for a recipe that supports your goals. Sure, there are thousands of healthy foods out there, but it takes effort to find ones that match your needs exactly. To make your meal planning less stressful for the new year, check out Eat This Much.
Eat This Much (on App Store and Play Store) is a meal plan generator that tailors what you eat to a specific calorie target. You can set a specific calorie count for the app to follow. But if you’re unsure how much is a suitable amount, let the app recommend one. When suggesting a calorie limit, Eat This Much will take into account your health goal (e.g., build muscle, reach a certain weight), activity level (e.g., sedentary, moderately active), diet type (e.g., keto, vegan), allergies, and macro and micronutrient target.
After generating a daily meal plan, you can freely modify it based on your preferences. You can move the meal options to a different time of day, pick an alternative meal, or even add meal types — maybe you want two snacks a day. Each of the meals comes with customizable settings too. For instance, you can choose how long the prep time is or whether or not you want to cook. There’s also an option to set a macronutrient focus, such as more protein or less carbs. Other than the built-in meals in the app, you can add your own recipe, an online recipe, or a food item to the mix. Eat This Much can help you eat healthier for the new year, but keep in mind that you need an account to use most of its features.
MyRoutine
Good habits can come a long way in keeping you productive, improving your general health, and building a better version of yourself. That’s why one of the everyday essential apps for Android and iOS users is a habit tracker. If you’re on the hunt for one on the Play Store and App Store, a highly-rated choice is MyRoutine. MyRoutine keeps habit tracking straightforward with a visually appealing list of your habits for the day. It comes complete with the habit’s scheduled time, a representative emoji for each one, and a checkbox to mark it complete. This can help you stay on top of your habits without feeling overwhelmed.
When building your habit list on MyRoutine, you can customize each habit with a reminder, schedule, tag, and emoji as the checkmark. If you’re unsure what habit to start, though, simply choose one of the preset habits from categories like self-improvement, health, and morning habits. These pre-made habits are designed to help you get started right away, so you’re not stuck at the first step. After creating your habit list, you can then rearrange them in the order you complete them throughout the day. You can also filter them by the time of day (morning, afternoon, and night) for better focus. To make things even easier for you, MyRoutine includes a widget for your home screen. This lets you view and mark your routines without having to launch the app.
MyRoutine offers a free account forever. You don’t have to pay a subscription after using it for a few days, unlike most other habit trackers. However, the app is limited to ten habits only. You can only use unlimited habits (and other features like advanced statistics and to-do list) if you pay for a premium account.
Nike Training Club
One quick Google search, and you’ll find hundreds of different workout videos to help you stay in shape. The problem, though, is curating, organizing, and saving all of them. Yes, you can always add them to a playlist. But if you don’t want to end up sifting through dozens of playlists just to find that one video for your arm day, you can use a more convenient alternative: a dedicated exercise app like Nike Training Club.
Nike Training Club (for Android and iOS) features over 600 workout videos. You can quickly filter the available workouts by duration, difficulty level, and intensity. And after browsing through the list, feel free to save the ones you want, so they’re easier to access later. There’s also an option to directly schedule a certain workout to your preferred time and day. On the scheduled day, Nike Training Club will send you a reminder.
If picking a daily workout takes too much effort, you can start one of the in-app programs instead. These plans vary in duration and workout style, ranging from the one-week Yoga for Every Day to the five-week Total Strength Builder. To encourage you to keep going, Nike Training Club rewards you with trophies and badges for every achievement you reach — say, you finished five Yoga workouts or did four workouts in a week. Other than workout videos, the app includes some helpful health-related articles too.
Nike Training Club can be used completely free of charge. Unfortunately, it doesn’t provide a personalized workout plan based on your goals. This can make it feel too generic to advanced users. The app can’t work without an internet connection too.
Why we picked these apps
You are more likely to use and commit to an app — and consequently, achieve your New Year’s resolutions — when there’s less friction. So in selecting these apps, we made sure they’re all compatible with both iPhones and Android devices. They should also be free to use for the most part to further lower the barrier to entry. Other than being cross-platform and free of charge, all these apps are well-rated on the Google Play Store or Apple App Store.
