Forget New Year Resolutions: We Need Apps That Help Us Progress

This holiday season, many of us will have a long list of resolutions: go to the gym, eat healthy, be more kind, improve our judgment, appreciate family, control anger, learn a new language or write a book.

All our resolutions represent our dreams but also our shortcomings. We can’t learn a new language because we have poor time management skills. We easily get annoyed because we don’t take time to think and take a breath. Our phones became our digital companions; the apps became part of our everyday routine: we wake up with an alarm, FaceTime our parents, buy groceries, check the weather, and book an evening yoga class. 

But what if apps could help us become better versions of ourselves?

New Year or not, what if we could do better every day, not waiting for a big breakthrough but taking little steps towards progress. Here are the top four apps I wish we had that could help us be and do better:

How many of you know the feeling of going shopping for the sake of shopping? We browse in the store, until we see something pretty and we decide to buy it. Then we come home and realize we already have a very similar item in possession. For moments like these, I wish I had an app that would keep a record of everything I have and would send me a notification to check against it once I step into a store. 

We are creatures of habit, and it pains me to say, not the good kind of habits. What if we had an app that tracks when we fall into bad habits, analyzes the data and helps us identify our triggers? We could set goals and the app could congratulate us each time we go more and more days without biting our nails or smoking. It is like a sports app, but a person you are competing with is yourself. 

How certain are you about changing a job? Getting married? Offering your client a marketing strategy? Proposing a medical treatment over a surgery? No matter how many diplomas and degrees you have, uncertainty is something that will always be hovering over you.  “Wherever there is uncertainty, there is judgement, and wherever there is judgement there is an opportunity for human fallibility,” Donald A. Redelmeier, Senior Scientist, Sunnybrook Health Sciences, Toronto. 

An app that helps assign numbers and value to outcomes of our decisions could be a great asset to any person of any age and profession. An app that asks us to double-check our thinking by offering to answer a few questions can be a game-changer for most of us who are so eager to jump to conclusions and make the facts fit a neat theory we want to be true. 

Do you know that everyone one of us could use a help of a psychologist? If you were offered a free session, you would surely know what to talk about. But here is a secret, books are much cheaper and more effective medicine sometimes. Have you heard of bibliotherapy? It is when a licensed therapist suggests what books you should read to get over your anxiety or any other issues you might have.

Bibliotherapy is expensive, but what if you had an app? You input your symptoms, your fears, and worries, and the app gives you a list of books you should read. The best thing about the app is even if you are not sure what worries you and get a wrong suggestion: reading is always therapeutic. 

Here you have it: top four apps I wish we had. They would make us shop consciously, check our thinking like we double-check our math, celebrate our progress, make steps towards our goals, feel and get better.

Happy Holidays and sharp coding skills to all!