The unexpectedly best free apps to track your 2023 New Year’s resolutions on an iPhone or Mac

Photo by Julie Tupas on Unsplash

So … trying to be a better person, are we?

Using the turning of the year as an inflection point to change your behaviour, eh?

Started by searching the App Store for an app to help but got overwhelmed by choice and cost and reviews and in-app purchases?

Well, eff that noise! I’m gonna spoil the conclusion here, but:

The best app to track your resolutions is the one you already have. And use. And like to use.

I’m not big into resolutions, but I’m always doing some sort of weird life change. I track them in all sorts of ways but I’ve rarely found an app that I liked better than the basic ones that come built-in with my phone.

There are some third party apps that may offer something unique so I’ve included my favs of those as well at the end. Notably absent are any apps just for the purpose of habit tracking … except for the one I made which is sorta that but not really. I’ll save that one until the end so the self-promo isn’t too gross.

Anyway, you want some built-in app examples? Sure. How about the Notes app?

The Notes app has gotten pretty darn good. You can, for example, create a folder for your resolution and create a note for each day.

Did you know Notes had per-folder sorting options? Handy. (Showing the macOS version of the apps ’cause it’s easier to visualize, but the option is inside a similar three-dot menu on the phone.)

With Notes, you can also create a note for each resolution and inside that note have a tick for each day of the year using their checklists feature. Or however it makes sense to structure your resolution tracking. Maybe one ongoing document that you can add progress notes to is all you need.

Pro tip: if you need every day of the year in a list, you can create them in Numbers (or Excel or Google Sheets) by copying down.

Just write in the first two and copy down. Use the formatting options to format your dates how you like.

But why copy out of a spreadsheet if you’re already in there? Spreadsheets are perfect for this. If you use Google Sheets, you can even set up a Google form to make the entries easier to input.

These bad-boys will go right into a spreadsheet along with a datestamp so you don’t need to worry about entering that. Easy statistic calculation, here we come!

I assume the maybe is like slippers? Crocs? Or maybe you put a shoe on your hand to kill a fly. Does that count?

How about the Reminders app? This is the perfect app for checking things off.

If you want to copy+paste in dates and get separate items, first copy them into Notes and make them a checklist, then copy them into Reminders and BAM! iPhone copying usually doesn’t require this extra step.

Hell, who needs an app! Use Files / Finder! (I guess that’s a app but is it really an app? When is an app an app?) Create a text file per day or task and pull them around into different folders. Or create a folder per day/week/month. This is good if your thing has a digital creation portion like ‘do research on a yellow or green animal every week’ or ‘do a photo shoot each month’. Just toss your creations in the respective folder and it’ll so easy to transport and archive them after.

Speaking of Photos, why not use the Photos app? Don’t be afraid to create a ton of albums nested inside folders and shove your best photo in the album for that day.

Or say you want to get better at photography. Create albums labelled 1–10. As you take photos, evaluate them and place them in the buckets based on how good you think they are. Over the year, watch your 8, 9 and 10 folders slowly populate more frequently. And the end of the year your top albums will be stunning to flip through.

I’m not sure I’ve ever taken a 6/10 photo

Damn, I like that one. I may do that one.

Some other useful tools

Want to set up a daily or weekly reminder email? Zapier can do that. The connection you’re looking for is ‘Schedule by Zapier’ to ‘Email by Zapier’

A weekly or daily reminder won’t put you over the free tier limit so you can run it as long as you like. There’s also an SMS reminder if you’re into that.

(Disclaimer: Once upon a time Zapier paid for my cheese so obvs I’m a little biased but it’s a great tool nonetheless.)

Trello is another great option! Trello is great for many multi-step similar things. Like, make 12 websites. You can set up a template and easily create 12 identical cards with identical checklists. Then drag them through the columns as you progress, just like with any kanban project.

Lastly, an actual app recommendation: Vero. It’s a social app but one where you can post stuff just for yourself to see. You can post stuff for others as well if you can find some friends on there, but I’ve been using it just to post stuff for myself. Creating a little journal type thing. It’s great because it feels just like posting on social. I like it for working on gratitude or positive self-talk but it’s perfect for a photo journal as well.

Of course, he says, naturally transitioning into the shameless self-promotion that’s always the transparent purpose for writing a post like this, if you do want an actual app, why not try Grapefruit? You can use it to track just about anything.

It was made with journaling and mood / emotion tracking in mind, but you can remove all those and/or add whatever custom things you may want to track. It’s as flexible as your sweatpants but smells better.

Measure some moods, track your resolutions, work on whatever you wanna work on.

It’s available for iOS or Mac, and it’s cheap enough that it’s practically free and has no ads or in-app purchase nonsense. Pay a few bucks and use it for life, like your favorite novelty bottle opener. Except this thing cracks your brain open instead.

Whatever you use or don’t use or do or don’t do, I hope 2023 is kind to you!