The Best Tech Tools to Help You Stick to Your Goals

Every New Year’s Eve, you tell yourself that you will change. You will save more money, cut the carbs and manage your time better. It usually works great — until February.

But now, with the power of technology, it is easier than ever to follow through on such pledges.

Technology enables you to empower yourself to make real, lasting changes. No longer do you have to stay mired in debt, remain disappointed with what you see in the mirror or continually apologize for running late to the meeting. Here’s how:

Stick to a Budget

Being smart with your money is the key to keeping your head above water. One great app to stick to a budget is Mint. When you sign up, it automatically tracks all of your purchases, categorizes them and tells you when you are nearing your limit for any individual budget item. It is a lot easier to monitor what you spend when all you have to do is log into your transaction history, rather than trying to keep track of hundreds of receipts.

The grocery store is one place where it’s easy to stray off course. Unlike a boutique shop or electronics store, you can’t avoid it entirely — everybody has to eat. Especially if you’re prone to impulse buys, it may help to shop for groceries online or to use an app, like Grocery IQ. These options make sticking to a list easier, and they offer coupons. Plus, some stores offer delivery services.

There are plenty of other apps to help you save as well. For instance, GasBuddy helps you locate the cheapest per-gallon rates in your area, DebtTracker Pro helps you pay off obligations and RetailMeNot offers discounts on all kinds of products.

Track Your Health

If your goal is to slim down or get in shape, there’s plenty of technology to help you. Popular apps like MyFitnessPal and LoseIt! let users track the calories in everything they eat. Counting calories is one of the biggest keys to weight loss, so having an easy way to track makes it easier to stick to your goals.

Wearable technology like Jawbone UP Move Fitness tracks your steps, exercise and overall calories burned throughout the day. When combined with a calorie counter, you know exactly how many calories you need to burn to meet your weight loss goals. It also counts how many hours you sleep and the quality of that sleep to help you make any necessary changes.

Get Organized

There are countless ways to use technology to organize your schedule, manage your time and generally stay on task. So the key is finding one that works for you.

There are simple solutions, such as creating a Google Calendar that you can sync to all of your devices. Evernote is an even more powerful task manager that enables you to keep to-do lists, record voice notes (to yourself or others) and compile research projects in which you can attach photos, link to web articles and add handwritten notes all in one place.

Another great tool is RescueTime. This computer program monitors and records exactly how much time you spend in everything from Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to Facebook and iTunes. Every time you switch to a new program, it clocks the amount of time you spend there and then later sends you a report with how you spent your day. It can be a reality check and help you learn why you’re always running a half hour behind schedule. You’ll be amazed to find out where all your time goes.