A Listicle of Apps that Help me Adult
When you're 22 and living outside of your parents home, your peers and people tend to think you have it all together, when in reality you're kind of a mess that just knows how to contour and realizes that getting your oil changed is more important, albeit sucky, than going to that new club in Newport over the weekend.
And not only do I live out of my parents home, I live 2,000 miles away from my mom's place. See, she's in Northern Illinois and I'm in Southern California. So not only am I "on my own", I'm really out here on my own.
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| me internally everyday |
Before you go accusing me of being a spoiled brat who is supported financially by her parents....I am not that person either. Now, I really don't see anything wrong with being supported financially by your parents. If they're able to do so, that's great and you're lucky. (I know my parents would if they had the means.) I digress, though...there's a reason I work full time and have my own freelance consulting. Let's just put it this way, I really do keep the roof over my head, make sure my phone is always paid for, and know that there's always something in the fridge.
But really, behind the scenes, I still call my mom at least 4 times a day and I still make immature choices. I acknowledge I don't know everything...hell I probably only know .0003% of things.
This is turning into a paragraph based article, let's get to the list, shall we?
- Prosper Daily - Financial - App Store - Free - $6.99 ID Protection Monthly
- Outside of my regular mobile banking app, this app is great for all-in-one finance tracking. It's connected to my bank accounts and cards. It's also connected to my social security number so I can see when new accounts are opened in my name or there's an inquiry on my credit. I'm able to see what's being deposited and withdrawn and trends in spending.
What I love the most about this is what also kinda digs into my anxiety. Every morning I have to swipe and "approve" or "flag" transactions to follow up on. It keeps me accountable for my actions. Almost a double acknowledgement. Once when I actually click or press "approve" and then the next morning.
I pay for the monthly ID protection but might disable that because I just remembered I have ID protection through Legal Shield.
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| Image Via: Prosper Daily |
- This app is a godsend, especially around the holiday season when every single website that you clicked "subscribe to" at some point or another is inundating your inbox with "last minute holiday ideas and sales". They're almost as annoying and frustrating as political ads during elections seasons. But what Unroll.Me does is scan through your inbox and find subscriptions or repeated impersonal/bot sent messages and then presents them to you in an almost "tinder-esque" format. You can swipe to unsubscribe, keep in your inbox, OR have it sent to you in a daily "roll up". instead of having 30 emails to look at (or press "delete/mark as read"), you have one email to scroll through and see if something catches your eye.
- Unroll.Me saved me from the dread and anxiety of opening my email and missing an important message buried under spam or being overwhelmed by the number spam emails.
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| Image Via: geekwire.com |
- Clue - Health - App Store - Free
- Okay, this one is for those who ovulate and have a monthly shedding of your uterine lining!
I've been using Clue for about 3 years now, It's a wonderful app that helps me track my "girl time". Emotional queues, premenstrual symptoms, birth control, fun time *wink*...all that! I actually started using clue just so I can get an idea of when I'd be miserable emotionally and physically rolling on the ground in tears and pain angry at the uterus universe.
Over time, the app's popularity has grown from a simple algorithm based tracker to a full on health research company. So many amazing customizable features as well as monthly information on women's health worldwide. I've gotten a few people in my life to try it out and they love it. Now, even though they have the cycle sharing (yes, you can track your fellow uterine shedder's cycle) I won't be sharing mine anytime soon.
It's also great if you're trying or not trying to get pregnant; use it to track your predicted fertile windows and ovulation day. Getting used to a new birth control and need reminders? set an alarm with the app and see how it affects your symptoms/overall being.
Tip: fill out your estimated analysis in the settings when setting it up. Make sure you input the last 3 cycles you remember and then track 3 cycles on the app for more precise predictions.
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| Image Via: helloclue.com |
- Momentum - Mindfulness/Multitasking - Desktop - Free or Subscription offered ($1.99/month, $19.99/year)
- Staring at a computer all day, whether you're a web consultant who takes her laptop everywhere, a student who is constantly doing research, an admin coordinator who sits at a desk all day....or in my case all three, opening up new tabs is just another reminder of your hectic and stressful multitasking.
I can't remember how I found momentum, I believe I was scrolling through tumblr and saw a post about how wonderful this was or maybe it was talking to one of my best friends (whom I just gifted a 1-year subscription too). Nonetheless, this app is a great homepage that syncs on your chrome browser no matter which computer you're using (as long as you're properly logged in). In one simple homepage you have your local time, weather, notes/to-do list, an inspiring quote, beautiful photography, and a simple question about what you want to accomplish throughout the day....it sounds overwhelming, but it's a great moment to relish and breathe and remind yourself of your current state before continuing on with your various tasks.
I'd personally recommend the "Plus" subscription. There's more customization as well as adding notes, tasks, inbox...etc. It's nice having an all-in-one mobile desktop no matter if I'm logged in at work, at home, at school, or wherever!
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| My Momentum Layout at the moment /a.barbosa |
- It's a google app so it's pretty apparent not much description or background of the company is needed, also the name is pretty straightforward about the purpose and type of app it is.
What I like about the new Google Calendar is the app interface to view as a schedule (as appointments/events are scheduled), upon the usual daily/weekly/monthly views. You can also customize which calendars you're viewing. So if you're like me and have website timelines, school schedules, internship shifts, therapy and doctor appointments...etc. you can view them all together, singularly, mixed up.
And lastly, what I like is the ability to add tasks and to do to dates. I can add "Rent" or "Bill Due" for tasks that need to be done but aren't necessarily events in themselves. They can be set to be recurring and you can also make lists out of them as well.
- Countable - Politics - App Store/Desktop - Free
- If you have me on social media, you probably noticed I was pushing countable hard this past election season, and there's a great reason! This app is like Tinder but for Bills and Politicians. Countable presents you with summaries and available resources to get in depth on bills that are actually on the floor in congress! You can vote "Yay" or "Nay" on the bill, add an optional comment as to why you voted that way, and then your vote and comment is sent to your local rep who has the opportunity to vote on that bill. You're able to see other's opinions, agree or disagree, and see the majority of the vote. There's so much to this app I can't even begin to describe. Keep up to date on the real political news, like what is actually happening. You get notifications literally when a bill is passed or vetoed as well as if and how your reps voted on the bill!
I've gotten actual responses from all my reps on my votes through countable.
Fun Tip: you can take a compatibility quiz and see how your beliefs align with your reps. I'll let you know, I didn't match up to nicely with my ultra-conservative 22+ year sitting rep Ed Royce.
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| Image Via: Countable News/countable.us |
- So as lucky as I am to have an iPhone, I have one with 16gb...which really means 12gb and that goes fast! I'm frugal with my apps on my phone and at one point I was relying on my old iPod for taking pictures and storing music...which in reality, I guess that's what it was intended for anyway.
Anyway, I bought this just so I can continue taking pictures on my phone and freeing up space. But the interface of the app is spectacular. It shows me the storage available on my phone versus the flash drive. When plugged into the phone it backs-up all your photos and videos and files, and I have mine automatically set up to delete once they are safely stored on the flash drive. Phone space once more! But what I love even more is the ability of the app to backup your social media photos. You can backup your facebook photos and Instagram photos. And if that isn't enough, you can just plug the flash drive into a USB port on your computer and instant access like a regular flash drive. No desktop software required because there's no special encoding or files.
- Right now the 16gb is $34.99 at Target. The app is free in the app store.
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| Image Via: Gizmodo |
Here are some honorable mentions:
- Financial: Venmo, Credit Karma
- Fitness/Health: Fitbit, Sleep Better
- Weather/Navigation: Accuweather, Waze, Yelp
- Google: Home, ChromeCast, Photos, Drive, Keep
- Music: Apple Music
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