4 Apps I Use to Make My Day Happier
By: Delaney Jaye
Tags: Apps, Personal Development, Productivity, Self, Self Improvement

4 Apps I Use in My Morning Routine

My mornings start the same as everyone else’s (wash my face, brush my teeth & hair, make coffee, let the dog out, pick up around the house, etc.) so I won’t get into too much detail here — let’s jump into the good stuff.

What sets my morning apart is the 30 minutes I set aside for “me” time. I have 4 apps I use to make the magic happen.

Here are the apps and details to my morning minutes:

Insight Timer

Insight Timer is the meditation app that I use every morning.

I give myself 10 minutes of meditation time while my French press steeps and reward myself with a fresh cup of coffee when it’s over.

There are thousands of teachers on this app and new meditations uploaded daily on any topic you could imagine. There’s also a simple “timer” that will let you meditate on your own and a library of sleep sounds if that’s your thing.

It’s completely free (though there is a subscription-based upgrade for access to courses). It’s a 10/10 for me — the most important part of my morning.

A great visualization I learned from the Headspace app is to imagine your thoughts as cars on a highway. You can ride in the car and let it carry you away into the distance, or you can take a step outside, sit on the side of the road, and watch it go by.

Meditation is the art of learning to separate yourself from your thoughts — observing them with interest instead of attaching your identity to them.

Screenshot from the InsightTimer dashboard.

Co-Star

Co-Star is an astrology app that I like to check in with each morning.

I can’t say I’m a firm believer in astrology, but I think there’s merit (or at least some romance) to the idea that we can find personal understanding by connecting to the energy of the universe around us.

Co-Star gives me a reminder and a moment to pause and reflect. It offers insights into the mood I may be feeling and how to work with it to make the most of my day.

It challenges me to take a few minutes to check in with myself, my life, and my attitude. It’s scarily accurate sometimes.

Day One

Day One. This is the journal I’ve used for years — the bulk of my 30 minutes each morning is spent here (~10–15 minutes).

I think there’s something sweet about the idea of handwriting in a pretty journal with fancy pens. I would love to be someone who takes the time to handwrite my thoughts daily, but it’s just not realistic for me. Just that little bit of extra effort is enough to discourage me from doing it, so I knew I personally needed a different plan.

I like Day One because I always have it with me and I can add things like weather, geotags, or photos to set the scene.

Journaling is something that elevates my mood more than anything else on this list. This is where I realize if I have some sort of annoyance or grievance bubbling under the surface.

I structure my entries as follows:

A summary of the previous day (or whatever is on my mind)

A brief plan for the day ahead

10–15 things I’m grateful for right in that very moment (this can be even the tiniest of things: coffee, puppy snuggles, food in my fridge, the roof over my head, my heater, blanket, etc.)

Affirmations and goal-setting.

I find this structure lets me air out my mind of whatever’s there, get it prepared for the day, ramp it up with positivity, and send it off in the right direction. It leaves me in a much better mood than when I started every single morning.

If you’re someone who struggles to journal, try out this structure for yourself.

Audible/Podcasts

While I don’t fit this within my 30-minute window in the morning, it is something I try to do daily.

When I commuted to work, I would take that 30–60-minute commute (traffic depending) and listen to an audiobook or podcast to give my brain a challenge in the morning. I found that if I listened to music before I started work, my mind was in a resting phase when I got there and I had to kick-start it again once I sat down to work.

On the contrary, a non-fiction audiobook or podcast can get my brain moving before I start my workday. It’s something I noticed in myself, so I’m sure I’m not the only one.

Now that I work from home, I like to “fake a commute” (I have to break the day up somehow right?) and take my dog on a walk each morning for ~20–30 minutes. During this time I still ramp up my brain with something stimulating before I dive into my work for the day.

Do you have an app you love to use? I’m always looking for recommendations.