It’s not a new concept that everybody on this little old planet is a lot busier than they ever used to be. It’s impossible to check just how calm and relaxed people may have been in past times, but nowadays things can get pretty hectic. Our lifestyles are in general more demanding. This is why it is important to take the time out to do things for yourself, and like nearly all 21st Century problems there’s an app that can help you do just that, and it’s called Balanced. I haven’t done many app reviews before (except for the Trello’s iOS App) but I’ve decided that it could be a good idea to share my opinions on the apps I like. Just to be clear, I’m in no way, shape or form affiliated with Balanced.
Balanced is an iOS app, compatible with iPhone & iPad, that is designed to encourage you to do all the things you want to do, but can’t always find time for. Whether that’s listening to music, reading a book, playing video games, cooking something new or anything else you think you’d like to do. Simply put, Balanced is there to help you find time for you.
The interface for Balanced is simple, with nearly every control being a simple swipe on the screen, as well as being simplistic but not childish. So you don’t need to worry about the stress of learning endless controls. To use the app, simply add the activities you’d like to monitor and how often you think you should do them. There is a wide variety of activities over a number of categories such as Myself, Fitness, Creativity and Confidence. Don’t worry if you can’t find the activity you want as you can add your own activities to the list as well, some of my favourites are “Take a great photo”, “Be thankful” and “Take a deep breath”. Each activity needs a frequency that you’re going to try and do this. This can be set by using the buttons 1-6 and the buttons day, week, month and year. So, you can set tasks for anything between 6 times a day and once a year.
Once you’ve done any of the activities on your list, tell Balanced and the counter will reset on that activity and start ticking down again. A pulse marker keeps track of the activities you’ve completed, or skipped. This pulse meter should ideally not dip to before 75%, so providing you keep doing the activities the pulse meter will be happy.
The trial app allows you to add up to five activities to monitor, but if you opt for the premium version for just under £3 then you can add as many activities to your list as you want, though the more activities you add the more things you have to achieve. As the title suggests, the app encourages balance, so maybe start with a handful of tasks that you have difficulty keeping up with. Balanced will gently nudge you if you don’t complete tasks, but if you find yourself unable to complete things at the frequency you thought, you can alter how many times you feel you’d like to do them anyway.
I was surprised at how effective the app is in just gently pushing me in to being just that little bit selfish. In a world where you’re constantly being pushed to work, it’s nice to have something gently pushing you to relax, instead. It can’t sit you down and force you to relax, but it’s a nice reminder to take that time out for yourself, and who can be against that? If you want to check it out, follow this link to the AppStore .