Life
For New Year’s resolution season and beyond.
Every now and again, the self-reflection mood strikes — where are you now, where have you been, and where do you want to go? Maybe your fantasies are about where you're heading in your career, or maybe they're about waking up earlier, or drinking a comical amount of water every day, downloading a goal-setting app can help keep you accountable.
Imagine the unbridled joy of crossing off a completed task from an IRL notepad. With bonus features like colorful visuals, reminders, and charts to see your progress over time, goal apps multiply that feeling of accomplishment exponentially. The best goal-setting apps don’t just record your progress, they’re also satisfying to use.
Creating goals has psychological benefits whether you're trying to keep your indoor plant collection alive or making a major career move. According to executive coach Kaylin Aarts, keeping track of little successes makes you more likely to reach your larger, long-term targets. “When you use an app to break down your goals into action items and keep track of every little accomplishment, you’re more efficiently working towards the goal because you’re more engaged with the process,” Aarts says.
According to a 2016 study published in the journal Psychology Bulletin, keeping track of little successes is much more sustainable than always (and only) focusing on an endgame that seems so far off. In other words, set goals, write them down, track your progress, and you'll position yourself to be far more successful in reaching those milestones than if you were to skip those first three steps.
While journaling your goals is an excellent way to connect with yourself and be mindful of your intentions, adding a goal app to your arsenal offers a more interactive way to engage with your objectives. Whether you're honoring those 2022 resolutions or want a better way to record your achievements starting today, these 14 goal apps can help.
1
Coach.me Habit Tracker
Coach.me's habit tracker is designed to help you create and sustain personal, career, and physical health goals. It allows you to measure your progress so you know how to improve upon it, set targets and reminders, celebrate milestones, and view your journey across the weeks and months. The app is free for Android and iPhone.
2
Strides
Strides helps you get organized when it comes to tracking your goals and habits. It offers four unique tracker types and includes step-by-step goal-setting. The helpful, easily customizable progress charts let you track literally anything you want. Download it for free on the App Store.
3
GoalsOnTrack
If you want to be a high achiever, GoalsOnTrack is the app for you. It guides you in creating SMART goals (meaning specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound) as well as subgoals, and includes goal templates for easy use. You can manage your tasks, track your time and habits, keep a calendar, build a vision board, manage a goal journal, and view reports and charts customized based on your progress. It's got a web-based app and an iPhone app, and will ring in at $68/year.
4
Way Of Life
Way of Life makes setting goals and hitting them simple. It allows you to track your routines using a color-coded system in just a few seconds each day. The app will also send you reminders that'll help you form strong habits and shake up the ones you’d rather not use. Plus, you can jot down quick notes in the diary section and view your customized charts. You can download the app for free on your iPhone or Android.
5
Toodledo
Aside from being fun to say, Toodledo offers a good deal of variety and flexibility, making it an efficient task manager to set and reach your personal goals. You can customize the app's productivity system to fit your needs, set reminders and due dates, and put tasks on repeat. This one can be used for free on your computer, Android, or iPhone.
6
ATracker
ATracker is designed to help you manage your time, which is crucial when it comes to reaching your goals. Time your tasks so that you can stay on track, view your reports, and monitor where your time is going every day, so you can be sure to prioritize what matters most in hitting your milestones. You can use the basic version for free on the web, iPhone, or Android, or upgrade for a one-time $4.99 fee.
7
Habitica
Habitica turns habit-building and productivity into a game. It offers rewards (and punishments!) to keep you motivated and even comes with its own social network. You can keep track of and manage your habits and daily goals, use the app's to-do list, and fight monsters with other Habitica users. Whether you've got an iPhone or Android, you can gamify your goals for free.
8
Transno
If you're a visual thinker, Transno is designed to create mind maps out of even your most disorganized to-do lists. The free beta version lets you transform your thoughts into four different mind map structures (think, different kinds of webs and family-tree type organizing). You can also include photos and edit offline on either your iPhone or Android.
9
Streaks
Streaks is simple and engaging, and you might just get hooked on it. You can choose up to 12 tasks that you want to make into habits, like brushing your teeth or walking your pup. Set their schedules, and every time you complete a task, your streak is extended — don't let it break! The platform is $4.99 on the App Store.
10
HabitBull
Break less-helpful habits and create new ones using HabitBull. You can track up to 100 habits (each with its own calendar). It'll share motivational images, quotes, and advice with you, and you can add comments to each day. You'll also be able to view your progress over time to ensure you're still on the best path to achieving your goals. Download it for free on Android or iPhone.
11
Productive
Ready to build a routine of life-changing habits? Productive can help. Plan your days with its flexible scheduling features, track your winning streaks, get reminders, and keep notes of your journey, progress, and struggles. You can get started for free on your Android or iPhone.
12
Habit Tracker
Download the free Habit Tracker in the App Store and breeze through the onboarding to set up your interface and start working towards your goals ASAP. This app will suggest habits for you — like reading, stretching, or cleaning your room— but you can add whatever habits you want to your home page. Once you’re set up you’ll start getting uber-persistent reminders to work towards your goals that won’t go away until you mark that you’ve done the task. Over time, the app will create charts and visuals to show you your progress.
13
Notion
If taking the time to customize and organize your goal-setting app sounds like fun, Notion will speak to you. This platform is flexible — you can set it up like a diary, a spreadsheet, or a public blog. But it also comes with dozens of templates, so you can have as much or as little guidance as you need. You can download the app from the App Store or Google Play Store, or opt for the desktop version.
14
Today
If an aesthetic interface is going to make you more likely to engage with an app, you’ll appreciate the custom display options of Today, available free from the App Store. Today lets you give each of your goals specialized attention by allowing you to use your own photos to represent each goal. For example, if you’d like to be better about cooking at home, you might use a picture of a recipe you’d like to try. The user experience is very smooth and intuitive — paired with the Pinterst-y vibes, you might find that it’s actually fun to use.
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