Please note: I am in no way affiliated with any of these apps. I just got them recently and have been using them, and thought they were fairly interesting for people who like to think about data or in a systematic fashion. In other words, I get no money for this.

One of the lovelier parts of living in 2018 is the ability to Google solutions to any problem. Recently I’ve been doing a lot of poking around for apps that might keep me organized in a few different areas, and these are some good ones I’ve found. To the shock of no one, all of them are pretty checklist or data driven. Since I suspect many readers of this blog probably think similarly to me, I thought I’d throw the suggestions out there just in case they would be helpful to others.

Cleaning:

While I have no idea how to pronounce the title of the Tody app, I love how it works. Basically, you select a list of rooms you have in your house, then the app recommends various cleaning activities that should be done for each. You add the ones that make sense to your list, set what type of cleaner you are (relaxed, standard or proactive) and it generates a list for you of what you should be doing.

The fun part is that each task has a status, so it’s sorted by importance. Tasks you should be doing often (like a quick tidy up of the living room) get overdue faster, so they go to the top of the list. Tasks that are due less often (like cleaning out the closets) get overdue more slowly. Basically “overdue” works by percentage, not just the number of days. I knocked off all the basic tasks yesterday, so now my list looked like this:

Note: I downloaded the app 7 days ago, and set a bunch of things up as “due” which is why they are all identical.

Anyway, I like this because if I have a few minutes to clean, this helps me spread out my efforts. I generally fall in to a bit of a pattern with cleaning, hitting some things frequently and other things only when I think “oh gosh, that looks really gross”. Once you check something off it goes to the back of the line, but then reminds you again once it comes due. You can do this for both cleaning tasks and various “replace” type tasks. As you can see, it suggested I set a reminder for changing my toothbrush (I go to the dentist on Monday) and I have it set up for my water filter as well.

My favorite part though is that you can create a family account. Both my husband and I downloaded it, and we now share the list. We haven’t used it, but you can also assign tasks to people, and compare effort. I’d imagine this would be good for assigning chores to kids.

There’s a couple other fun features: you can see which room collectively needs the most attention, you can sort by room, you can add your own tasks with frequency as you think of them, and you can add outdoor or car related things as well. Pretty fun, and good for those of us who have no memory/sense of when housework should be done and instead are just sort of careening. Also, you can run reports and checking a box is just satisfying. Good stuff.

Price-wise, it’s a one time cost of $6.99 for each person who downloads it.

Workouts:

I’m still playing with this one, but Freeletics seems pretty fun. It’s a workout app (mostly high intensity interval workouts) that uses an AI coach to give you a personalized workout plan. Every week you record how you did on the previous workouts and how much time you have next week, and it generates you a new plan. While this seems kind of basic, it’s actually nice not to have to put any thought in to it.

I think using your own basic data (I have limited free time this week, last week’s workouts were too easy) to drive what should be assigned is nice and a good use of feedback loops. It ensures you’re taking a break when needed, and pushing when you can.

The subscription price is a little high: $35 for 3 months. However, paying that price gives you access to three different apps: the running one, the bodyweight workouts one, and a gym program. I look forward to playing with this more often.

Eating:

I don’t really like apps that give you a meal plan, but I do get a kick out of checklists. Dr Michael Greger’s Daily Dozen Checklist  is based on the book “How Not to Die” by Michael Greger, and lets you check off each serving of the recommended foods you’ve had that day.

The only issues with this one is that Dr Greger is vegan based, so it’s probably not fun for anyone who’s not in to that.

Overall: I think the number one thing I’m getting out of these apps is a lot of data about what a creature of habit I am. I clean the same few things over and over, am at a loss for how to adjust when my workouts don’t go according to plan, and focus on the same few healthy foods. Having somewhere to track what I’m focusing on and (by default) point out what I may be missing is helpful. If anyone has any other apps they like, I’d be interested in hearing them!