When we have strong personal development habits, our mind expands, our capacity extends and we often feel a different kind of balance than we have before.

I am all for convenience and believe personal development habits need to be accessible in order for them be something you want to keep up with. It is like working out, if your gym is half an hour across town, you are less likely to go, but if your gym is in your basement and your partner is your workout buddy, you might be more motivated to go work out.

I want to share five apps that have been game-changers for my clients to build personal development habits using their phones that serve them in various areas of their lives. You are on your phone anyway, you might as well engage in some development!

Libby

Libby is an amazing app that connects to your library card and allows you to take out e-books or audiobooks for free, as you would in a library. There are times in my development journey when I felt I did not have the time to read, and Libby did the trick to allow me to listen to meaningful books between meetings or on walks. Plus, it is eco-friendly!

Pro tip: the wait times might seem super long, but they actually normally come quicker because folks will pass on books and skip them, so don’t be discouraged.

Here are some great things you can do after reading that great self-help book!

Loop

I encourage all of my clients to set big goals that will contribute to their success in a meaningful way. It can be hard to keep habits going when they seem out of sight or out of mind, which is why I always recommend a habit tracker. If a paper habit tracker doesn’t work for you, Loop is a great app for you to track everything online.

Keep it on your main screen and find a consistent time in the day to reconnect with the app by tracking some of your accomplishments towards your goals!

See related: How to create accountability appointments for your goals.

Headspace

Our world is so busy and creating a meditation habit seems like the last thing anyone has time for, but for many of my clients, meditating has been a game-changer for attitude adjustment and making space for development in many areas of life. Headspace is a great tool (and has a free trial!) to learn how to meditate and have on-going meditations sent straight to your phone!

Learning to meditate does not need to be an all-day affair. There are meditations that can be five minutes and even some that are intended for right before you go to sleep. You can learn at your own pace and engage in it as you need to!

7 Minute Workout

Just like meditating, sometimes the idea of working out can be so daunting when we feel strapped for time. Working out does not need to be a one-hour event every time, or even half an hour. Sometimes we can work out in smaller bursts when we feel we have some time and this can serve us and our mental health so much better!

The 7 Minute Workout app is great for this. It gives you a variety of options for working out, in both timing and structure. So, next time you have a 15-minute break and you run for Netflix, you can get your sweat on with the 7-Minute workout app!

Lumosity

Although a little less obvious than most other personal development apps, Lumosity provides a number of games that help train your brain and learn how your mind works. We all go straight for Instagram stories when we’ve got a few moments or some extra time, but with Lumosity, you can use that time to challenge your brain and expand your mind.

Ideally, not all of your personal development is online, but in the age of non-stop busyness and technology overload, there is a natural fit to integrate technology and our development needs. Check out some of these apps and see if they are a good fit for your personal development needs!

Want more apps for self-care? You know we got you. Here are 12 self-care apps for bettering your life.

Prior to becoming a personal development strategist myself, I had no idea what kind of development to engage in. I needed to get focused. Planning in every other area of my life has always worked for this, so I figured making a personal development plan would do the same, and I was right. I will share a few simple steps that have worked for both me and my clients.

1. Get focused on your goals

Often when we engage in personal development, we choose things that may seem interesting to us or perhaps something that is recommended. What we should really be doing is taking an honest look at our on-going goals and finding development opportunities that serve those pieces of us.

For example, I was the queen of engaging in personal development that was focused on relationship building, authenticity, and building connections with others.

As a natural relationship builder, this was not the personal development (PD) I needed. I need PD focused on building stronger confidence in my professional life and continuing to work through my sensitivity with loved ones. I found these two areas of development for myself by digging deep into areas of my life that cause me difficulty and challenge and found opportunities for development that aligned with me.

2. Limiting what I was consuming

This might seem a little bit counter-intuitive, but I was once given a piece of advice that has really resonated with me and my practice. I was feeling overwhelmed by the number of opportunities there were for learning.

Between podcasts, books, articles, workshops, online seminars, and more, I was having trouble narrowing down the many life hacks that seemed to come from all of my sources.

The advice I was given was to limit myself to learning from 1-2 people at a time. This allows you to take what you need from these people, really dive deep in your learnings, and have enough brain space to implement what you learn in a meaningful way.

Once I have honed in on my goals based on areas of my life that need development, I research who the key leaders in that area are and do a vibe check on them. I watch some of their Instagram stories, do some googling, and look for methods that resonate with how I learn. I am a book person, so I look for a book where I can grab a highlighter and get learning!

After I read one specific opinion on a topic for my development, I will often go for a second resource by a different author or contributor to be able to really see multiple perspectives on whatever I am trying to learn about.

Good personal development resources often lead to other resources that compliment your learning!

3. Tracking your daily contributions towards your goals

Personal development needs to become a habit, just like any other area you are trying to grow in your life. If you do not make time or space for it or do not make it intentional, it will never be effective and help you achieve your larger goals.

A method that I swear by for every single one of my personal development goals is habit tracking. You can use a simple piece of paper, a bullet journal, or go all out and buy a habit tracker, but anyway that you use it, it gives you a clear visualization of your progress.

James Clear, author of the best-selling novel Atomic Habits, raves about the habit tracker because it provides a visual cue that reminds you to act, it is motivating to see the progress you make and there is a level of satisfaction in recording your success in the moment.

Keep your habit tracker somewhere where you have to see it every day and need to check in with yourself. I have a chair I like to read in every morning, and so I keep my habit journal with my iPad or book I am reading, so I fill it out right when I am done reading from my book and want to capture that I did something that contributed to my development.

Of course, the habit tracker is not the only way to do this and you need to test methods that feel aligned for you but tracking your contributions to your goal is crucial for personal development.

Unlike other goals, there can be less progress that you can visibly see immediately and there may never be an end to your goal (I’ll never be 100% confident), so tracking your progress in some way is crucial to you staying motivated with it.

Often when we have personal development goals, we do not treat them like we would other types of goals and they can fall off our plates as quickly as we added them. Being intentional with the personal development you choose will help you keep on track and motivated to make a long-standing change in your life to help you achieve any life goal you have in mind.