Sometimes it can feel like anxiety is in charge. Here are a few ways to take some power back.
Five Awesome Apps for People with Anxiety
Our understanding of anxiety and its management have evolved in recent years. It’s more often recognized, acknowledged, and validated. Therapy and apps have changed lives but with a world of apps available in your pocket, how do you choose which to use? Fear not! The productivity geeks over at NoPlex narrow it down to a top five.
5. Amazon Alexa
We all know and love Alexa. She’s like a member of the family…who interrupts you every time you accidentally say her name.
Why It’s Awesome
Having the world’s collective knowledge at your fingertips…or, well, voice-tips is one of the magical things about living in the current age. From weather (use Big Sky, it’s better) through immediate answers to questions, it’s great on its own, but when coupled with tools like Blueprint, you can go even further.
But simply considering its readily available skills, you can have it call your phone, connect with fitness wearables, provide sleep sounds, manage your thermostat and locks, and give step-by-step first aid directions.
4. Breathwrk
You’re familiar with well-advertised mindfulness apps like Headspace and Calm. Ever since James Nestor’s book, Breath, was released, evangelizing the power of breathing exercises, a few options have cropped up for those interested in experimenting with this powerful and ancient centering practice. Enter Breathwrk.
Why It’s Awesome
The interface is simple and the app accommodates complete newbies well. There are paid subscription tiers (which we feel are worth it), but you can use it for free without sacrificing a lot of functionality.
3. 1Password
Passwords suck. No two should be the same. If you decide on a good mental algorithm, it’s invariably not going to work with every site/app/account since the rules can vary wildly. You shouldn’t write them down though. What to do?
Password managers to the rescue. Over the past few years, they’ve begun baking into things like browsers and operating systems (e.g. iOS has a native password manager), but 1Password has been around for a while and does a few things really well.
Why It’s Awesome
1Password securely manages not just passwords, but also sensitive information (e.g. credit card and bank account information) separates your information into searchable categories, and lets you store additional information with each account — either from a template or using your own fields.
2. Notion Calendar
There are a lot of calendar apps out there. They range from simple to full-featured, but Notion Calendar hits the sweet spot.
Why It’s Awesome
To begin, integrations are simple; to use Google Calendar as an example (since it’s a common choice), you can tied in your main Google Calendar, a few shared calendars, professional calendars, etc. in minutes.
Some apps become a bit pushy or overzealous with AI. For instance, a popular calendar app (which shall go unnamed) was notorious of taking keywords and making assumptions based on it (e.g. if you were creating a calendar event on November 10th to “Shop for Christmas Gifts",” it would automatically move the event to December 25th (due to the Christmas keyword). Notion Calendar does no such thing but provides assistance in intelligent ways that never take the user out of the driver’s seat.
Bonus: Notion Calendar has great iOS widgets (and many options). The biggest current downside is that there’s no way to text search on mobile apps — only web and desktop app.
1. NoPlex
Oh, gee, how did this get here?
Okay, we’re biased because we’re convinced that we built the greatest personal organization/productivity app in the history of the universe. But in all seriousness, NoPlex will change your life.
