For many of us, 2017 was a doozy, but we here at Brit + Co are ready to hit refresh in 2018! Follow our Hit Refresh series through January for new ideas, hacks, and skills that will help you achieve (and maintain!) those New Year’s resolutions.
We get it: Your schedule is crazy with a capital C. What with juggling relationships and staying healthy and picking up momentum toward officially becoming the boss you so obviously already are at the office, there are very few free moments left to be invested in other things — whether those other things are want to’s or have to’s. Who has time to maintain regular manicures, constantly track a budget, and strive for the holy grail that is inbox zero… while still maintaining a basic level of sanity?
The truth is that you probably do have that time buried in between the bullet points on your jam-packed weekly to-do lists. For decades before us, busy women juggled life and love and work and health without the help of technology — and if we’re to believe the things we’ve been told about “the good old days,” they probably didn’t do a lot of complaining while they were at it. Fortunately for us, though, technology has now afforded the development of an entire industry of services dedicated to making our lives more convenient and (slightly) less stressful. Here are seven such services that you should definitely check out if you’re feeling spread a little too thin.
1. Glamsquad: You’re running at a million miles per hour every day, and suddenly you realize that you have somewhere to be and your hair can’t keep looking the way it looks. Glamsquad is a great solution to this problem. Download the iOS app and you’ll be able to schedule an at-home appointment with a hair, makeup, or nails professional who’s both talented and vetted. Schedule a Glamsquad session for a date night for you or line up pros for a full bridal party on your wedding day.
2. Luxe: No one has time to endlessly circle their destination looking for a free parking space. (And if you’re running late, then you literally have no time.) Luxe — now available in San Francisco, Chicago, and New York, but already starting to expand — allows users to alert the service where they’re going, triggering the arrival of a professional valet who can then park their car in a secure lot. You can even request a wash or gas refill for an added premium! When you’re ready to call it a night, you simply tell Luxe that it’s time for a pickup.
3. Wag!: There may be days when you feel like your schedule is too packed to allow for a nice, long walk for your dog, but guess what? Fido doesn’t care. Check out Wag if you often find yourself scrambling for a minute (or ten) to take your pooch on a stroll. Dog owners who use the app on iOS or Android can find and reserve qualified walkers and sitters on demand with time to spare, or on a recurring basis. You can also track your canine’s walk via GPS and get updates on whether or not they accomplished what they were supposed to accomplish (ahem) on said spin around the block.
4. Mint: Don’t have time to organize your receipts and maintain a budget by hand? No worries. Try Mint! The financial tracking tool lets you see all of your financial indicators — balances, bills, credit score, and more — in one simple interface. The more accounts you link to your Mint account, the more information you can access. With additional details, Mint can automate an ideal budget for you, taking out the guesswork that we know is constantly stressing you out.
5. Blush: The chaos of our lives is often exactly the thing that drives us to need therapy — and yet that chaos is also often the thing that makes it a challenge for us to make time to seek the listening ear that we so desperately need. Online life coaching service Blush offers you the opportunity to talk with a professional coach (in most cases, these coaches are licensed counselors or therapists in addition to being life coaches) via private video chat or digital journaling. A girl’s gotta take care of her mental health.
6. Boomerang: How much time do you spend (read: “waste”) dealing with your infinitely dynamic email inbox? We’re willing to bet that the answer is a lot. Boomerang for Gmail is essentially an extension of your existing email account that gives you a handful of incredibly useful tools for managing and streamlining the messages that are coming in and out (all. the. time.). With Boomerang, you can schedule emails to go out later on, hide emails currently sitting in your inbox so that they come back as new mail when you’re actually ready for them, and pause the flow of incoming mail so you can catch your breath. Boomerang even has the Respondable feature — a virtual assistant that uses AI to predict for you how likely your message is to garner a response.
7. Simple Habit: Even the busiest person needs a minute (or five) for themselves. Simple Habit is free app that provides five-minute meditations designed around different moods and situations. It may be hard to squeeze in an hour-long yoga class every day, but we’re pretty sure you can squeeze in at least a few minutes in your day to find your zen, whether it’s right when you get out of bed or while you’re commuting, eating, or in between meetings.
What services do you use to stay sane in the chaos of everyday life? Tweet us @BritandCo!
Brit + Co may at times use affiliate links to promote products sold by others, but always offers genuine editorial recommendations.
(Photos via Getty)
