The 6 best goal-setting apps for work and life outside the cubicle

During the busy workday or while juggling a loaded personal itinerary, staying on top of a laundry list of to-dos can be challenging. There are a number of goal-setting apps on the market to help people set goals, follow their progress and hold themselves accountable to these targets. From apps with coaching capabilities built in to gamified offerings, here are some of the best goal-setting apps for personal and professional growth.

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Habitica app

Overall, Habitica gamifies tasks and goals in an effort to build healthier habits. The app uses a pastiche over-pixelated interface and gameplay resembling console classics of yesteryear a la Zelda. Within the app, you can create and track habits, goals and to-do lists, and then access new gaming features as you complete these tasks. These unlocked features enhance gameplay with battle armor and magic skills and open the door to new quests. Habitica is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Productive

Productive is a habit tracking app designed to help people check off various tasks and to-dos in their day to day. The interface offers plenty of customization so people can create tasks specific to them and assign icons and color schemes as desired. The app allows people to track their performance and those so-inclined can take part in weekly challenges.

To get the process started, the app will ask people a series of questions to understand their habits and routine such as their wake-up time, procrastination tendencies, difficulty with concentration and more. Productive is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Atracker

The Atracker app is a solid goal-setting and habit-tracking app. The app lets you create and track various goals and track the amount of time dedicated to specific taps with the press of a button. This time logged can be viewed in list formats or a calendar depending on preference and the reporting feature provides a granular look at long-term performance. Atracker is available on the App Store and Google Play.

Coach.me

As its name suggests, the Coach.me app is a goal-setting app with coaching opportunities built in. The app lets people track habits and tasks and set weekly targets for each. The app also provides coaching to help people meet their goals and people can also get feedback from other members of the app community. Coach.me is available on the App Store and Google Play.

HabitBull

Similar to other offerings on this list, the HabitBull app lets people track habits and set goals. To get the process started, people will first need to select a habit and set how they’d like to track this. For example, some habits could be more readily tracked via a simple “yes” or “no,” while others will need to be tallied.

The app comes loaded with a number of preset habits with categories ranging from health and self-improvement to options for work and studying. The set reminders help people stay on pace to meet their goals and graphs provide detailed performance metrics. There’s also an available Android widget to help people easily log information on the go. HabitBull is available on the App Store and Google Play.

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Streaks

We previously included the Streaks app on our roundup of the best productivity apps and the option is certainly worth a look for people on the market for a goal-setting app. Similar to other apps on this list, Streaks helps people track tasks, monitor progress and keep track of “streaks.” 

The app boasts a vivid, minimalist chic interface without skimping on the data or overcomplicating the display of these metrics. People can log ongoing “streaks” and gauge their long-term performance toward their goals. Streaks is available on the App Store and Google Play.

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