As a new year begins, we're all inevitably making promises to ourselves, myself included, about our health, our wallets and finally getting around to doing that thing we've been meaning to do for ages.
Here are my top apps for keeping on top of your new year's resolutions!
Health and Fitness
MyFitnessPal
If getting in shape is a major goal of yours in 2012, the MyFitnessPal app is available on Android, iPhone and BlackBerry, and is a longtime favourite app of mine when it comes to health, diet and fitness. It includes an easy to use calorie counter and exercise tracker which sync to MyFitnessPal.com so you can also log your food and exercise when you're on your laptop or desktop computer, too.
Not just an app, MyFitnessPal.com is also a nifty social networking site where users can come together to talk about their goals and encourage each other.
Sleep Cycle
Only available to iOS users, Sleep Cycle is an amazing app and alarm clock which monitors you throughout the night and wakes you up during your lightest phase of sleep. You just place your iPhone or iPod under your pillow so it can keep track of when you toss and turn. Neat, huh? You'll be shocked at how easy it is to wake up with the Sleep Cycle alarm clock, trust me. You simply just tell the app “approximately” what time you'd like to wake up, and it will choose your lighest phase of sleep during that time period, thus not stirring you from a deep sleep cycle.
It's also an great app to keep a record of how much sleep you're getting overall. I use it on my iPod touch, and I find it incredibly useful to take note of whether or not I'm banking enough hours of sleep, particularly during busier and more stressful weeks.
Finance
Mint
Mint is a free app with a easy-to-use interface, unfortunately only currently available in the US and Canada only. I loved using it when I was back in the motherland (Canada), and Mint makes it extremely easy to balance the books and keep on top of your finances on the go - if you're the sort who might have a slight budgeting problem. Not that I do, of course. *cough*
EasyBooks for Android is a runner-up, but this awesome budgeting app gets second place because it's a whopping £5.99.
Productivity
Wunderlist
Wunderlist is simple, well-designed productivity app for Android, iOS, Windows and Mac. It's your “To-Do” list, synced on your desktop and mobile device. You can separate your “to-do” list into categories, give the items deadlines and tick them off as you go along. It's great if you're a “Getting Things Done” type of gal!
Arts and Culture
Yelp
If you didn't consume enough theatre, art or cultural events in 2011, then perhaps you're vowing to get more in touch with your city in 2012. There are various ways to do this, and Yelp is a personal favourite of mine. More than just restaurant reviews, Yelp offers up lots of helpful community-provided content about all the best galleries, theatres, events and hidden secrets in your city.
The TimeOut London app is also currently a pretty darn helpful app for me as I navigate my way around the many delights of my newly adopted home of London. Every major city has some variation on TimeOut that you'll find in the app store of your chosen device
Sex
iKamasutra
There's no shame in admitting that you want 2012 to be a year of more frequent and better sex with your partner. In fact, it's a pretty awesome and healthy new years resolution to have! If you're an Android user and you want to mix things up in 2012... there's an app for that! iKamaSutra will tickle your fancy with tons of great ideas for the bedroom.
Sure, it's an extremely tacky app with cheesy background music, but that's really half the fun, isn't it?