Ahhhh technology.

Love it. Hate it. No matter which… because it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.

I’ve found myself going through the ups and downs with it.

At times, I really find it draining and sucking the life out of me. I’ve seen it make me feel less present, more anxious and make me feel like my life wasn’t beautiful enough.

However, I’ve come to reach a new love and high with technology, largely due to the apps I have been adoring on my phone as of late.

It’s taken me years to reach a point where I truly feel enlightened and appreciative of technology to this degree… and I wanted to share with you why.

These are top 5 favorite apps on my phone that are honestly helping me to live out this joyful living practice I preach about here. I hope one or two (or all!) might inspire you to add them to yours.

#1: Roots

Good For: Your Sanity and Phone Usage

If I had to pick one app that has single-handedly had the most impact on my well-being, it would be this one.

Roots is all about putting down your phone so you can experience this marvelous life.

By limiting apps/ the ability to do things on your phone, Roots gives you the permission—and the resulting action—to feel more engaged in your life. Working with it, you can set downtimes for your phone throughout the day, and whenever you need your phone at 100% usage, no worries, there’s the ability to pause the blocking for the whole day or in increments of 5 to 15 minutes.

Truthfully, those first few days were hard for me using this app. To not reach for my phone because I’m bored in the check-out line, to not reach for my phone while I was waiting for someone to come back into the room, to not scroll endlessly right before bed… my brain literally needed to be rewired to not do those things automatically. And that’s exactly what Roots did.

As a result, I’ve found my relationship with my phone improve ten-fold, my mental well-being increase, and my daily phone usage go down by an average of SIX hours…yikes! Now, I have six more hours added to my day… that’s no small amount.

With over 50% of the adult population reporting feeling like their time spent on their phone is too much—by the way, this number increases to 81% with people ages 18-29—this is a great app to consider.

Phones are great in many ways—they do so much for us—but, they don’t need to suck up the precious time we have here on Earth.

It starts with us to change that.

Statistic Source: NPR

#2: Activations

Good For: Needing to Get Clearer

If you have been here for a while, then you know one of my favorite tools in my life toolbox is meditation.

It’s transformed me in so many ways, and I wrote about that in more detail in this blog post.

However, in those two short years since that post, I have found myself relying less on those meditations I mentioned at the end of the post, and more on Mimi Bouchard’s app Activations.

Her app has hundreds of activations, and these are different from meditations… they are not so much there to calm you (although there’s some of those too!), but to up your energy.

I love how future-focused they are. Each one about allowing you to reflect and move towards your future self and their goals.And they are addicting to do, too. In the two short years I’ve had the app, I’ve completed over 800 activations!

One reason I love them so much? They can be done in 2 minutes to multiple hours. While you are cooking or getting ready or right before you fall asleep. And if you still love a good-ol’ fashioned sit-down with your eyes closed… there’s plenty of those too.

This app holds me accountable for my dreams and puts in position to make sure they come true.

I can’t suggest it enough.

#3: Claude

Good For: The Curious Minded

This may be a spicy take, but I love AI.

I know we as a society are going through some growing pains with it (and I totally can understand that), but my experience with AI has been largely wonderful. And much like technology, I don’t feel like it is going anywhere, so let’s use it in a way that benefits.

After using Google’s AI Gemini for months—and being very happy with it—I stumbled across Claude AI, and I haven’t looked back.

While Gemini is great, it does feel like it’s still learning how to communicate in many ways, and Claude feels like its worked through that hurdle largely.

Ask a question, and receive and answer in a matter of seconds.

From asking how to make a plant-based pancake mix using the flours I have in my pantry to asking it to help me understand the complexities of my astrology chart… Claude has been great.

#4: Wordle by NYT Games

Good For: A Quick Brain Puzzle

After listening to Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ podcast, Wiser Than Me (and being persuaded by family friends) I have downloaded Wordle… and I just adore it.

If you aren’t familiar with Wordle… it’s a guessing game where you are trying to figure out the day’s five-letter word. If you’re curious, today’s word—as I type this, so no spoilers here— was SPOIL.

I love how this app really gets my brain thinking and pondering while it also (with the free version) limits me to one game a day. I could easily see myself using it as diversion and doing game after game after game simply because I’m bored. However, with the one-game a day limit, I get to feel the joy of solving the puzzle while also not using it for a distraction.

It’s a powerful example of using technology for good!

#5: Timeshifter

Good For: The Traveling Adventurer

This one needs a bit of a caveat…I have yet to actually try this app out in reality, I’ve simply used it in practice.

And the reason is… I haven’t taken a multiple time-zone flight yet.

Timeshifter is about helping you do jet-lag better.

Anyone who has ever crossed several timezones can attest, those first few days adjusting can be rough. When you move forward time zones, all you want to do is just go right to bed— and its only 1pm there! Or when you are regressing time zones, you find yourself waking up at 5am and wanting to go to bed at 6pm! Talk about tiring.

By plugging in your flight details, this app will prepare a schedule of how to approach the travel day. And, truthfully, it starts a couple of days before in terms of preparation. With an hour-by-hour chart of what to do and when to do it, you can land in your destination adjusted and ready to explore.

I’m so excited to give it a try in a couple months when I jet across the pond for a trip!

That’s a wrap on my 5 favorite apps right now! What apps have you found increase your overall joy?

Photo Credit: paramjeet kumar on Unsplash