When New Year approaches, people prepare to greet it by making resolutions. They list goals, hopes, and dreams for the coming months, hoping to make the most of it.
Once the clock strikes midnight, the saying "New year, new me," starts making the rounds. But it's not easy to reinvent yourself or change your routine. And it's not easy to stick to your new year's resolutions.
Thankfully, you're not alone. And Amazon's Alexa can help you stick to your New Year's resolutions. Here's how...
1. Get In Shape With My Workouts
If you want to get in better shape for the new year, My Workouts is the skill for you. It helps you improve your levels of fitness by tailoring workouts to you and your needs.
It takes into account where you are on your journey and where you wish to get. You're asked a few questions, and once you answer them, My Workouts creates custom workouts to help you along. It instructs you how to do everything for the best outcome, and even gives you progress reports along the way for extra motivation.
My Workouts is with you all the way. Use it and don't give up on your goals.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, open My Workouts."
- "Alexa, tell My Workouts to start workout."
2. Try New Things With Daily Things
Many people fear that they'll fall into a routine and get stuck in a rut, which is why they often include "Be more adventurous" in their New Year's resolutions. If you want to try new things and ensure you don't lose your groove, this Alexa skill can help you.
Daily Things offers a slew of random ideas you can take a swing at to see if they suit you or not. And, who knows, maybe you’ll manage to find a new interest, hobby, or occupation?
Activities offered include cooking an unfamiliar recipe, completing a puzzle, and crocheting. The best part is that if you don’t like what this Alexa skill comes to you with, you can just ask again until you like what's suggested.
Daily Tasks can help you maintain your adventurous spark throughout the year, and not just for the first two weeks.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, Open Daily Things."
- "Alexa, ask Daily Things to give me another idea."
- "Alexa, Start Daily Things and give me a daily thing."
3. Meditate Daily With Mindful Meditation
Many people resolve to spend more me-time, but quickly fall into the bad habit of neglecting themselves for lack of time, energy, or any other excuse they come up with. Not physical neglect, but a mental one.
Meditation is proven to improve your mental health, and taking a few minutes a day to meditate can make all the difference. Ensure that you pay yourself the attention you deserve with Mindful Meditation.
It takes up a mere few minutes every day, from three to 20, but its impact lasts beyond that. Take that time to reset and remember that your mental health matters as much as your physical one, if not more. Use the Alexa skill to ensure you don't ignore it.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa open Mindful Meditation."
- "Alexa ask Mindful Meditation to play a five-minute meditation."
- "Alexa ask Mindful Meditation to play a random meditation."
4. Go Greener With Go Green
Going green is on a lot of people's minds when New Year approaches. And even though you can't save the planet by yourself, that doesn't mean you can't help. Don't be one of those people who recycle for a week and then give up on the notion.
There are plenty of things you can do to help; ways to change your lifestyle that aren't that radical but will ultimately have a positive result. So, start the year by going green and use Alexa to continue being green throughout it.
Go Green offers daily tips covering all manner of topics, including what you can do regarding pollution, energy-saving, and, of course, recycling. If you make an effort to follow that daily tip for that single day, you'll still make an impact. You'll still be helping. It's a fun way to do something important, so don't quit. Use Go Green and persevere throughout the year.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, ask go green for a tip on saving energy."
- "Alexa, ask go green for a random tip."
5. Learn While Playing a Game With Common Knowledge
People always strive to expand their knowledge, which is why many of us include that desire in our New Year's resolutions. It can be difficult, not to mention tedious, to deal with books, journals, and such every day.
Even if some do read the encyclopedia every day for a week learning random tidbits of information, they are quick to stop and put it down. That's where Common Knowledge comes in.
It presents a fun way to learn new information you'll find both interesting and useful.
The knowledge gets presented as trivia. You get asked questions, which are supposed to be common knowledge, and see if you know the answers or not.
There are many categories to test you, and if you find a question that stumps you, don't worry. You can get hints, skips, and saves.
Common Knowledge makes it easier to continue learning throughout the whole year, and not only in the beginning when your New Year's resolutions are still fresh in your mind.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, play Common Knowledge."
- "Alexa, open Common Knowledge."
6. Keep Up With the News With Make Me Smart
A lot of people promise themselves that the coming year will be different from previous ones, and they'll keep up with local politics, learn the difference between APR and interest rates, and so on.
However, somehow they never get around to reading up on those topics, tracking the news, and being aware of how it affects everyone. Or, their lust for knowledge only lasts for a couple of weeks.
If you wish to remain knowledgeable about worldwide events and their significance throughout the new year, you should give Make Me Smart a try.
Make Me Smart lets you know what's going on in the world in various categories, including economy and politics. Take advantage of the skill, and avoid the shame of not knowing who's running and what they stand for during the election cycle. Or, that Taylor Swift dropped a new album and you missed it.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, Make Me Smart."
- "Alexa, ask Make Me Smart what's new."
7. Be More Organized With Todoist
"Be more organized" isn't as exciting a resolution as "Learn a new language," but it's one present on many people's lists. Everyone wants to know what they have to do for the day so they can manage their time most effectively. If you're aware of what you have to do, you're more likely to do it.
For those wishing stop forgetting tasks, missing deadlines, or falling behind on their work, try Todoist. It allows you to create a to-do list, which you can then manage and edit according to your load for the day.
You can ask Alexa to read out your to-do list in the morning, add or remove tasks, and mark them as complete. It's an immense convenience, regardless of whether you have a hectic lifestyle or not. Use it and stay on top of things throughout the entire year.
How to activate it:
- "Alexa, add go to the barber to my to-do list."
- "Alexa, add coffee to my shopping list."
- "Alexa, what's on my to-do list?"
New Year, New You
As cliche as "New year, new me" has become, the new year does allow you an opportunity to improve, change your habits, switch your routine up, and generally be and do better. The year resets and you can start anew. So don't waste that opportunity.
Try to keep up your New Year's resolutions this year, and make it easier on yourself by exploiting every tool that can help you on your journey.