For the last few weeks, I’ve been playing with a new iOS app called Balanced – Get more out of life. Balanced is good for reminding you to perform recurring tasks, but it is not a traditional “todo” list. You would not, for instance, put a reminder to “buy milk,” or do something that is time-sensitive into Balanced ? it’s for recurring tasks that you want to accomplish. Balanced seeks to help you keep your life in balance, and rewards you for doing so with some motivational feedback.
Balanced lets you pick from several predefined topics, such as Myself, Fitness, Appreciation, Creativity, Confidence, and Discovery. Within these topics are specific activities, such as Meditate, Hit the gym, Call an old friend, Paint or draw, Meet new people, and Watch a foreign film. If the selection of pre-defined activities is not sufficient, you can add your own.
Whether you choose your own or a pre-defined action, the next step is to choose how often you would like to perform it. For example, I have a variety of exercises scheduled several times a day, as well a reminders to write in my journal once a week and meditate once per day. As you perform these actions, Balanced makes a note of your success, and tracks how often you are able to stay on track. Balanced gives you notices in your iOS device’s Notification Center, and in the app itself.
The interface is very intuitive and simple. Swipe down to add a new task, right to mark a task as complete, left to skip it, or press and hold to edit. A simple “Menu” link reveals options to turn reminders and sounds on or off, get instructions, send feedback, or share the app with your friends via email, Facebook, and Twitter.
I’ve enjoyed using this app to celebrate my little wins throughout the course of the day, and to keep me on track. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go Clean the Roomba, Watch a TED talk, and do some Shadow boxing.
The personal blog of Peter Nikolaidis