Good Habits, Meditation, and Exercise

Success means to be able to handle tasks of high complexity. These abilities aren’t some special gift but a result of self-management. We’ll take a look at some useful apps for smartwatch, QR in Business Card Reader, and relaxation techniques.

iOS Tips: Some Useful Apps for the Apple Watch

Don’t worry, we’re not going to go over the regular apps pre-installed on your device. Instead, we’ll examine three apps which, in our opinion, can help you make your life more organized.

Forming good habits

The first one is Streaks. The purpose if this app is to nudge you into good habits. It can help you ditch bad habits, too. If, for instance, you’ve been planning to learn a new language or give up smoking, you should definitely try Streaks. The only drawback is that you’ll have to fork out $5. On the other hand, you’ll get a personal assistant that will always be at your side.

The interface is simple and uncluttered, so  you won’t be racking your brains about which icon to tap. You simply set yourself a goal and start working towards that goal.

Streaks will automatically sync with Apple Health to measure the miles you’ve walked, calories you’ve burnt, and other health stats. There’s a calendar where you can monitor your progress and identify days when you could have done better. Note that it usually takes three to four weeks to form a new habit, so don’t be too harsh on yourself. Everything will work out in the long run!

You can download the app here.

Recording your thoughts

There must be times when you are inundated with huge amounts of information, which you don’t event have the time to write down or type in, let alone remember. Here’s an app that may help you out. It’s called Just Press Record and it works as a voice recorder that can be activated with a tap of a button. You can use it to record anything from business meetings to your baby’s first words.

Your recordings will be automatically synced across all of your devices and backed up to iCloud. You can also edit or play your recording directly on your Apple Watch.

If you plug in an external mic, you can record at 96 kHz, which may be useful for bloggers and reporters requiring high-quality audio.

You can download the app here.

Monitoring your health

Ever forgotten to take your vitamins or some other health supplements? That will no longer be a problem if you download and install Round Health, a reminder app that will make sure you don’t forget a thing. The app will issue regular persistent reminders until you have performed your scheduled action.

The clear UI will show you how many pills you have taken so far and when you should pop the next one.

The app is fully customizable, allowing you to set the doses and times when you should take your medication, schedule reminders, etc.

The app is so smart that it can even detect when you’ve been taking a medicine for quite some time and ask you if your course is over yet.

You can download Round Health here.

Android Tips: Some Useful Apps for the Samsung Gear

Now for the Android-powered Samsung Gear. The watch comes with lots of useful goodies pre-installed, so it hasn’t been easy for us to find three more apps that can do something that others can’t. Here’s our selection from the Play Store.

Keeping your financial affairs in order

Be your own financial manager with Money Management Pro. The app allows you to jot down your expenses and earnings and put then into various categories.

You can download the app here.

Managing your to-do lists

Modern life may be so hectic that you can easily forget about something you’ve been planning to do or miss a deadline. To never forget a thing, try ToDo Manager, a simple app for your Android watch that will help you keep all your tasks under control.

You can download the app here.

Increasing your word power

To be persuasive, you need a big vocabulary. Word of the Day is a useful little app that will show you a new word every single day, which makes it 365 words a year!

You can download the app here.

ABBYY Tip: Recognizing QR Codes with BCR

Did you know that Business Card Reader could read QR codes? If there’s a QR code on a business card, the app will automatically read that code when you scan the card. The information extracted from the code will be placed into the “Notes” field.

You will know that the app has detected the QR code because the code will be highlighted in green.

App of the Week: Meditating with Calm

Calm is a relaxation app that will help you learn to breathe correctly, meditate, fight depression, and regain your lost sleep patterns.

It’s all about breathing correctly. Breathing in and out the right way will help you relax and clear your mind of worries. Calm includes about 50 meditation accompaniments, i.e. sounds and pictures that you are supposed to focus on while meditating. There’re also special podcasts available designed to help you relax and go to sleep.

Calm is our app of choice for a sound mind in a sound body.

Available on iOS and Android.

First-Hand Experience: Advice From a Colleague

By Anna Boyko, Marketing Manager

 How do I make myself go to the gym?

That’s one of those questions that many of us struggle to answer. I think that “making yourself do things” is not exactly the right approach.

First off, try to give up the idea of forcing yourself to do more sports. Instead, think what you can do to lure yourself into the gym.

When I first started I was not very sporty and all the routines seemed excessively hard. What motivated me then was the desire to become stronger and healthier.

Here’s a list of points to help you along:

1. Set yourself a goal and think of some motivating factors. Examples include socializing with friends, losing weight, becoming healthier, doing something new for a change, switching your minds off your work or daily worries.

2. Decide on a sport or kind of exercise. Some people like cardio workouts, others like pumping iron, and still other prefer team sports. Remember that any physical activity, if performed correctly, will be good for your body. Just be sure that it’s something you like doing.

1. Buy some comfortable gym wear. Many girls will also want to make sure that their sports gear looks good on them. Sport is all about looking good anyway, so starting with cool new garbs may not be a bad idea.
2. Think long-term. Sport is like learning a new language or acquiring a skill. You’re in for some hard work. Good news is that you will notice some first results in about six months. Twelve months on, you’ll be a different person with a very beneficial hobby. And the positive changes that you will definitely see will serve as additional motivation for you to continue.

Good luck!

 

That’s all from us for today. See you next Monday!

P.S. You can find the previous issue of this newsletter here.

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