Ok, life-changing might be exaggerating just a little bit. But they are some of my favorite apps. I'm a huge Apple fan, and the apps that I use most often are actually the native iPhone apps. But for this post I'll focus on 5 non-native apps.
1. Asana
Asana is one of the apps that I use every single day. There are a few different pricing tiers, but the free version provides more than enough functionality. To a lot of people I'm known as the list guy. I have a list for most things in the Notes app, such as: exercise routines, names for my future dog, and the size of my furnace air filter. Asana is where I like to keep lists of to-do items, grouped by "Projects." In my personal life I use projects to create action items for trips or for long-term goals. The nice thing about Asana is that you can assign owners and due dates to tasks. And it will automatically follow up with the task owners when due dates are approaching. Check it out!
2. Houzz
Houzz is like Pinterest, but just for houses, furniture, and decor. Pinterest can sometimes get too crowded with ads and confusing pins. But with Houzz you can search by room, filter to different styles, and browse thousands of pictures for inspiration. Another really cool feature is image search. If you have a picture of a piece of furniture or decor that you really like, you can upload the image and it will find similar items for sale online. Since I love going to the home show every year, I like uploading photos I've taken of furniture or light fixtures to see if I can find similar items for my home. I think my profile is public, but I'm not sure if you need an account to view it. Feel free to check it out: https://www.houzz.com/user/taylorips
3. FitOn
I used to be a huge fan of the Peloton app. But over time it got to be so expensive, and the workouts were not very difficult. (I'm not trying to brag here. The weight training and HIIT workouts really weren't that hard, and I was not in that great of shape when I used the app.) Then one of my brother's told me about FitOn! It's a free app with hundreds of amazing workouts! And they're HARD. I did end up paying for the premium features because I use it so much. They give you a pretty good deal if you pay for a year in advance. And it's cheaper than Peloton. I use it almost every morning for HIIT, abs, and full body weight training. Some of my favorite trainers are Danielle Pascente, Kenta Seki, and Cassey Ho. Let me know if you get the app so I can add you as a friend for added motivation!
4. TimerPlus
I've tried a lot of different workout timer apps, and this one is my favorite. It has 3 different timer modes: Tabata, Rounds, and Stopwatch. In each of the modes you can customize your prep time, total work time, interval time, etc. So you could create a custom workout timer with a 20 second prep time, followed by 3 rounds of 1 minute of work and 30 seconds of rest time in between each round. And you can still listen to your music while the timer is running. There are voice prompts to guide you through the time. And your music volume will decrease when the timer is speaking.
5. Libby, by Overdrive
Libby is a fairly new one for me. I set a goal to read more this year, both for pleasure and learning. So to help me accomplish that goal I bought an Amazon Kindle. When I bought the Kindle I didn't want to have to buy digital books all the time, because that can get kind of expensive if you read a lot. But then I read about the Libby app on some Kindle forums. And it has been incredible! If you have a library card, chances are your library works with Libby. You download the app and sign in to your library account through the app. Then, like magic, you instantly get access to thousands of digital books and audiobooks through your library. You still have to check the books out, like at the library. So if all of the copies are being used you can place a hold on the book. But, after you check out a book, there is a prompt that says "Send to Kindle." If you click that button it takes you to Amazon where you can add the book to your Kindle library. It has been a real game changer, and has helped me to read considerably more in the short time I've used it.
I'm always looking for the next best app that will make my life easier or simplify a process in some new way. So send me your app recommendations!
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