Collaborative Post
It’s quite amazing to see just how our smartphones help us organize our lives compared to how things were even fifteen years ago. In the early 90s, having a device in your pocket able to access the world wide web immediately, organize almost all aspects of your life, become reachable to anyone anywhere in the world and even make a career completely online would have been seen a little far-fetched, and yet we really do take it for granted today. Why is that?
Well, for the most part, our use of said items is not always as broad as it could be. For a device that gives us such access to the recorded sum of human history, it’s quite funny in retrospect how we use it to view cute cat pictures. But of course, that’s not an indictment of anyone reading this, or ourselves, as if you couldn’t do that, what else would a smartphone be good for?
Yet it can be that when setting up a new phone you hope to get the most out of it. We know the feeling. For that reason, here are a list of important apps you may wish to keep on your phone for a wide and valuable plethora of reasons.
Please, consider:
Money Management Apps
It can be very worthwhile to ensure you’re able to financial maintain your accounts, be that income, outgoings, and savings management. Of course, for some, this may also include free bet resources. Reading into the privacy policy of certain payment providers or cash acceptance apps and using them at your convenience can be quite handy from time to time. For instance, managing your PayPal account with a fingerprint login is very effective in 2020, as is downloading and fully registering your mobile banking app from the jump.
Some people also choose to set up Venmo or personal Paypal links making it easier to receive payments for certain services, which may be very useful if you freelance in any capacity. But that’s not all. Money management resources such as You Need A Budget and others in this inspired category can help you keep track of your spending with metadata and automatically crafted graphs, allowing you to better understand just what portion of your expenditure you may wish to further balance. Money management has never been easier with these apps to guide you, and to us, that spells a positive sign for many looking to maintain their affairs more easily.
Survival Apps
Of course, the chances of you finding yourself in a survival situation is very low indeed, but it could be that downloading a few free apps ‘just in case’ can help your peace of mind. For instance, an SOS flashlight tool may be useful if you’re hoping to go boating, or an offline survival guide may grant you a few handy tips provided you have the time to read it. A small guide helping you see which berries are edible or poisonous may get you out of a tight spot, or a simple, first aid practical guide may also aid you.
This, for most people, can add up to nothing more than a little bit of fun, but there’s no reason why you shouldn’t have them on your phone, as the majority of them are free or very low cost, and they may even save your life one day.
Health Tracking Apps
Of course, most people are more concerned with routine self-care than regular survival techniques, and it’s lucky there are apps for this as well. For instance, apps that track your sleep cycles can help you realize just how healthy or regular your sleep patterns are, indicating the need to better keep a bedtime or to avoid eating snacks later at night. Tracking apps, such as MyFitnessPal, also allow you to scan certain food items and count calories on top of nutrient macro information to ensure you’re hitting your daily quotas of certain nutrients, vitamins and minerals. This can help anyone no matter if they’re looking to lose or gain weight and muscle.
There are also simple apps, such as pedometers you may wish to use if you enjoy walking. It’s also worth checking out if your phone has integrated health management software built into the operating system, because that can be very handy, and it may integrate with a range of important tech devices. For instance, the apple watch will integrate with your iPhone, helpiing you better measure your heartbeat-per-minute and a range of other metrics. The same goes for Android and Samsung Health, famed to be one of the better health tracking suites out there. Suites like this can even measure your stress if you use it correctly, and it’s not hard to see how this can be a boon.
Entertainment Apps
It can be worthwhile to schedule just a little entertainment from time to time. When you’re in a queue at the car authority, for instance, or when you’re sitting on the train to commute to work. It’s important to keep your mind active during these segments, otherwise you can slip into boredom pretty easily. For instance, Audible is a great platform, connected to Amazon, in which you can purchase audiobooks to listen to for a monthly recurring fee. If you’re not into the idea of paying right now, you can also enjoy apps such as Google Podcasts, Spotify (and the podcast section), Podcast Addict or Pocketcasts to catch up with, you guessed it, podcasts.
Some of the best podcasts such as Radiolab, The Joe Rogan Experience, Marc Maron, news-company specific podcasts, and even short audio dramas such as those offered by Marvel and Stitcher can give you countless hours of recurring entertainment, allowing you to more easily spend that ‘dead time’ being entertained or educated, no matter if that’s waiting in line or cleaning your dishes and home at the weekend.
Communicative Apps
It’s good to stay in touch. Apps such as Slack are often integrated as part of corporate culture, and so registering for that or ensuring your employees/project candidates are part of it could be important. Yet registering for certain apps such as Skype, Discord, Whatsapp, Signal, and social media with direct messaging functionalities can help you keep in touch with family, friends or professional contacts all around the globe.
It’s very much the case that you may only sign up for one or all of these, so just ensure that your profiles are protected with two-factor authentication and that you verify your profiles accordingly. This way, you can be sure that your most private correspondence is cared for as should be appropriate.
Counters & Trackers
We have already discussed the true and important convenience of fitness and health trackers, but there’s much more to easy convenience and daily planning than that. Sometimes it can be nice to have day counters that remind you of upcoming dates, no matter if that’s specifically curated habit trackers or calendar apps such as Google Calendar.
Of course, some people enjoy planning their entire schedules through their phones, others just wish to count down the days until they can enjoy their cruise. Whatever works for you is appropriate, so don’t feel pressured to download a bunch of tracking and personal maintenance apps if you’re simply not going to use them. After all, this is supposed to be a convenience for you and only you, as a smartphone’s arrangement is perhaps as personal as a device can be.
Professional Note-Takers
It can be very useful to have somewhere special to both jot down quick notes in a dash, and curate long-form project ideas when necessary. Evernote is one of the most popular apps for this, while more lightweight options such as Google Keep are also useful. Whatever you use, be sure it’s backed up with cloud functionalities, because the days of losing all of your notes due to their offline status is so very prior-2015.
Discussion Forum Apps
It can be nice to contribute to a community from time to time and be part of a discussion. The Reddit app is a great place to start for this, as subreddits, that is categorized communities, are there for almost everything you wish to take part in, be that cooking discussion or finding the best tips for skincare.
Yet it’s also the case that, for convenience’s sake, more and more online forums are developing apps for easy access, featuring easy notifications, access to your private messages, and thread after thread of insight. While social media and more popular sites like Reddit can be worthwhile to contribute to from time to time, it can also be very nice to contribute to a smaller community filled with people who also have the niche interests you do, no matter how nerdy or silly it may seem to others.
With this advice, we hope you can better arrange your smartphone to guide you through all hours of your daily lived experience. To this end it can become more than just another accessory, instead, it can become a useful tool.