Best Apps for Setting Goals in the New Year

It's a new year full of new resolutions. Now, we all know the likelihood of keeping New Year Resolutions are slight at best, unless we have a strategy in place to attain our goals. Here are some of our tried and true mobile apps that will get you there.

Change Your Life with Habit Maker Habit Breaker

Habits are at first cobwebs, and then cables. -Spanish Proverb
This handy app helps you track your progress towards making changes in your daily habits. Like they say, you are the sum of your habits, and habits are created by doing small things over and over. The process here is simple.
1) define a target action you would like to become a habit
2) input how often you want to perform the action per day, week, or month
3) begin tracking!
The app also allows you to track your success at breaking habits. The process here is similar.
1) define a target habit you would like to break
2) decide your target frequency (you can ween yourself off of the habit gradually, i.e. from five times a week to three, to two and eventually none)
3) begin tracking!
You can track up to three habits in the free version, and allows access to many different app features, such as notifications, level of mastery, and rewards tracking to name a few. It takes 60 days to make a habit stick, download this application to help you get there!


Get Your Workout on with My Fitness Pal

This lovely app is designed to help you reach your fitness goals. It easily allows you to create goals for yourself, and track your progress towards those goals. With My Fitness Pal you can also connect to a network of friends and family who are also using the application. Your home screen lets you share your progress and your success with your 'pals', and also helps motivate you to continue working towards your goals.

What is wonderful about the tracking process is the sheer number of options available to accurately track your nutrition and calorie intake. Options include products from Trader Joe's to ethnic dishes that make this application quick and easy to use. 
You can track your progress on your handheld, or online. Highly recommended, and app that does the job.


Balance Your Budget with Mint.com

Mint is an application that provides a way for you to create savings goals, budget your expenses, and streamline your investments in one place. By connecting to your online accounts, Mint also automatically updates all of your activity, balances, deposits, and changes to your accounts. It provides a real-time snapshot of your financial standing at any given time.
A handy feature is the hints and tips Mint provides. The financial advice is catered to your financial profile, and alerts you to low interest options, or investments that would improve your progress towards your goals and help you save money.
It takes a bit of a time investment to set up (at least a couple of hours) but the clarity that results from using this application is well worth the effort. Just like My Fitness Pal, Mint is available for your handheld and desktop or laptop.
For more information, here's an in-depth review of Mint.