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tools to achieve your goal

Tools to Achieve Your Goals


A good friend of ours here at Many of Many, Marco Volpato, recently wrote a gargantuan guide on how you can be more productive in your life. And it got us thinking. It’s all well and good to be at your best day-to-day, but what about striving to achieve those longer-term goals and keep those new years resolutions. So we’ve put together 32 tools for you below on to help you do just that and make the most of the new year.

While the tools below are all apps or websites we can personally recommend, if you’re looking for some more detailed advice on goal setting or keeping your new years resolutions, make sure to check out Chris’ New Year’s Resolutions Guidebook and ensure you’re not one of the 92% who fail at keeping their habits. The free book is broken down into three parts: (1) How to Choose Your Resolutions; (2) How to Make a Plan to keep them; and (3) Tips to Carry Out That Plan. So, on to the tools:

coachme to form better habit

1. To Form Better Habits

Everyone knows the importance of forming good habits, and in order to succeed it usually comes down to repetition. It’s how Jerry Seinfeld forced himself to write a new joke each and every day by “not breaking the chain”. These apps will do just that by tracking your progress each day to motivate you to form as long a ‘chain’ of habits as you can. We’ve tried a few of these but the one we recommend the most, and one that comes with Tim Ferriss’ endorsement, is Coach.me (formerly Lift).

Other apps include Wonderful DayChains.cc or Habit Streak. Or better yet, throw your money on the line with Stickk.

App: Coach.me
Features: habit tracking
Category: Productivity
Developer: Lift Worldwide

App: Habit Streak
Features: create and track habits and goals daily; goals for exercise, diet, etc
Category: Productivity
Developer: Complex View Ltd

App: stickK
Features: set goals; invite; track progress
Category: Lifestyle
Developer: stickK.com, LLC

App: Way of Life
Features: powerful reminders; charts; note-taking; organisation with customisable tags
Category: Productivity
Developer: Way of Life ApS

better manage your task

2. To Better Manage Your Tasks

A task list isn’t just something you should keep on a post-it note. If done correctly, it can be the secret to achieving your long-term goals in putting together actionable and broken-down steps. This is also something Marco also spoke about in his article in keeping them as a detailed “next physical action”. To do this ourselves at Man of Many, while it may not be the sexiest of the bunch, we use Google Tasks stand-alone tasks manager which you can access directly at this link here. It allows for separate lists, indenting tasks, URLs, links to further detail and for drag and drops functionality. Best yet, it’s simple and it works, which is why we like it.

Your Google Tasks can even be synced up with a myriad of other apps like Google Calendar, Any.Do or Tasks. Other great task management platforms include Evernote (absolutely packed full of features. Listen to Tim Ferriss’ podcast interview with Evernote founder Phil Libin, Wunderlist or for the more adventurous who like to gamify their tasks, Habit RPG.

App: Any.Do
Features: simple to-do list app; set reminders; daily planner; advanced calendar
Category: Productivity
Developer: Any.DO

App: Evernote
Features: sync and organise; web clipper; document scanning; app integratiosn
Category: Productivity
Developer: Evernote Corporation
Price: offers In-App Purchases

App: Habitica
Features: gamified tasks; habits; daily goals; to-do lists
Category: Productivity
Developer: HabitRPG, Inc.
Price: Offers In-App Purchases

relax more & meditate

3. To Relax More & Meditate

This is certainly one of my personal goals for this year, to Meditate. It’s been mentioned on practically every single podcast that I listened to throughout the year and something many people attribute to their success. Meditation is something that is quite confronting to approach at first being left along with your thoughts but nowadays with apps it doesn’t have to be. There’s great introductory apps that will guide you through the process like Headspace (our recommendation), The Mindfulness App, Calm or Sattva.

App: Headspace
Features: meditation
Price: from $12.99/month

App: The Mindfulness App
Features: guided meditation; over 10 different languages; personalised reminders
Developer: MindApps

App: Sattva
Features: guided meditation, chants, mantras; meditation timer; meditation community

human exercise

4. To Exercise More

This is on everyone’s list, and if it’s not, it should be! There are some simple changes you can make to your lifestyle that can go a long way to achieving this goal like walking home from work, leaving your running shoes by the door as a constant reminder. The secret to succeeding in your fitness and exercise goals, however, is tracking your progress and there are some great tools below to do just that. An app I fell in love with in 2015 was Run Keeper which helps to measure your pace, distance, elevation or even race against your friends on your running routes.

Other fitness apps to check out are the Johnson & Johnson Official 7 Minute Workout, Pact, Human and Lose It!. or why not have a look at this list of activity trackers worth strapping to your wrist.

If you’re just looking to be a tiny bit more active while you’re at the workplace, you should also see this stand up reminder.

App: Runkeeper
Features: tracks fitness activities (running, walking, biking, hiking); in-app challeges
Category: Health & Fitness
Developer: ASICS Digital, Inc.
Price: offers in-app purchases

App: J&J Official 7 Minute Workout
Features: science-based; 22 preset workouts
Category: Health & Fitness
Developer: Johnson & Johnson Health and Wellness Solutions, Inc.
Price: offers in-app purchases

App: Lose It!
Features: barcode scanner; track nutrients; fitness app syncing
Category: Health & Fitness
Developer: FitNow, Inc.
Price: offers in-app purchases

sleep better

5. To Sleep Better

Sleep is one of our favourite things starting with “S” (along with showers, sex, sun, surf and snow), so it’s a wonder why we all seem to have a lack of it. Getting a good nights rest should be a number one priority for your health so here are a few tools and tips to help you:

Put your phone on silent before you go to bed with this IFTTT recipe (thanks to Marco).

Wake up to Natural Light with this alarm clock.

Cure your insomnia with this calming NightWave sleep assistant light.

Track your sleep patterns with Samsung’s Sleepsense.

Or block out loud noises with the Snooz Sleep conditioner.

App: IFTTT
Features: works with over 600 apps
Category: Productivity
Developer: IFTTT, Inc
Price: offers in-app purchases

Product: Philips SmartSleep Wake-up Light
Features: personalisation; smart features (FM radio, tap to snooze; dimmable display)
Price: $99.99

Product: Nightwave Sleep Assistant
Features: silent; non-invasive; natural
Price: AU$79.95

to save money

6. To Save Money

We’d all like to have a little bit more cash in our pockets this year, and again it’s some minor small changes that can make all the difference and add up in the long-term. One app we use is Pocketbook which tracks your spending habits to ensure you remain within your allocated budget. It works with all major Australian banks but for our US readers, there’s also the ever-popular Mint app. For this website, we also use Xero to track our business expenses.

Before you even start with those apps though You Need A Budget (yes that’s the name of the app). Also, check out Spendee and Wally.

App: Mint
Features: monitor cash flow; tracks budgets, transactions, expenses, subscriptions
Category: Finance
Developer: Intuit Inc
Price: offers in-app purchases

App: Xero
Features: tracks and pay bills; bank connections; online payroll software

App: YNAB – You Need A Budget
Features: real-time information; goal tracking; secure date

App: Wally
Features: track all accounts; set budgets
Category: Finance
Developer: Wally Global Inc.
Price: free; offers in-app purchases

duolingo

7. To Learn a Language

This one came from my housemate and he absolutely swears by it. As he explains it, with Duolingo, you learn a language without even thinking about it. Simply follow the in-app games and before you know it you’ll be waxing lyrical in French to a beautiful mademoiselle. Best yet, it’s 100% free.

Features: gamification in lessons; fun; progress tracking
Category: Education
Developer: Duolingo
Price: offers in-app purchases