Apps that helped me get my life together

As #millennials we use our phones for everything, from staying connected to friends in distant lands to getting food delivered and ignoring voicemails.  Since you already use it to organize your life, why not take advantage of some of apps that can help you pull it together?  I’ve compiled a list, and tried a few out. 

Last Pass

I have probably reset approx nine thousand passwords in my life.  I don’t have to tell you how frustrating it is that all the different sites have different requirements for passwords, and how often do you even log in to most of them and sometimes they even make you create a username and it’s a whole big hassle.  I first tried to solve this problem by writing all my passwords down, but then my mom saw it sitting in my living room and said she would steal all my money, so I locked it in my safe.  But THEN I never had the passwords when I needed them, because I was often not at home, and I would reset them and my sheet would be wrong.  Enter LastPass.  I chose it over the many other password keeping apps because it was free and also seemed to be pretty legit after some googling.  The app itself is password protected and has adjustable security settings and it holds all your accounts and allows you to sort them into files.  It will also generate an extra secure (aka impossible to remember) password for you of any length, then you can just save it right in there.  I think it also has some kind of feature where you use it to log you on to websites automatically, but I don’t use that because it confuses me.  Other than that though, it’s straightforward and helpful and now I can pay my bills in half the time.

Plant Nanny

Okay so we all know were supposed to drink probably more water than we do.  This app is meant to make it fun by allowing you to plant various little plants and “water” them when you drink a glass of water.  To keep your plants in good health, you need to drink an amount of water it calculates when you input some of your info.  The plants are very cute, and you can get various little pots for them and backgrounds and stuff.  I had to delete this app because it was negatively impacting my real life.  For many of the plants you have to spread the water out of over the course of the day, so if you’re say, living your actual life and not on Plant Nanny and you drink a bunch of water then put in several cups at the end of the day your plant will get mad at you.  Also it told me to drink a LOT of water, so I was making myself drink when I wasn’t thirsty, because the plants can die and they were so cute.  And you can’t just lie to the app and say you drank water because then the whole system breaks down. 

Habitica

This game rocks.  You create a little avatar of yourself (admittedly limited options unless you buy gems with real money) and then you fill in stuff that you have to do.  When you do your tasks, you get gold and XP and you can level up and buy armor and stuff.  What I like most is the system for keeping track of what you need to do.  There’s a section of things you have to do every day (if you don’t do them you lose HP) and they roll over each day.  Mine are take vitamins, take meds, be on time to work, and floss.  You can put in as many as you want any anything you are trying to get or stay in the habit of, and it keeps track of your streak.  You even select a difficulty level for each task, with harder ones getting you more loot.  Then there’s a to do section where you can put in to do list items, and it allows you to make a checklist of all the steps. You can fill in everything you have to do in your life or just the stuff you might forget, so you can use this app as much or as little as you like and it’s still fun.  You also find items, eggs and potions that can get you pets (which eventually become mounts).  When you play with friends is when the real fun begins, because you can create a party and do quests and slay monsters and win loot.  You can join my party!  The app is good, but the website is better.

Mint

Mint is the best personal finance app/ website in the game.  You can link up bank accounts, student loans, credit cards, everything and get a full picture of your financial situation in one place.  You’re able to see all your stuff summarized in one spot, and it will make you some cool graphs if you want.  I like that I can log in each month and see my student loans going down and my savings going up. It will also update periodically with your credit score it and shows you your net worth.  You can put in your budget and it will automatically sort your purchases by category and you can have it notify you when you’re getting close to your max or overspending.  It provides a great breakdown of the variables that impact your credit score and a lot of advice for saving, goal setting, credit improving, etc.  It will try to sell you financial products though.  They’re perfectly legit, just keep in mind that that type of advice is sponsored and you should still be doing some research on your own.

Google Calendar

If you’re still trying to remember all of the plans you make in your brain, you probably miss a lot of things and overbook yourself all the time.  Stop the madness.  We all already know Google calendar is great, you can share with friends, import facebook events, set reminders color code things, make a task list etc.  Google is the one I use, but other folks swear by some other service.  Just get a calendar app, keep track of where you’re supposed to be, I promise you will not regret it.