Setting a routine can help you improve your overall lifestyle. And if you use Most Days, you can follow routines specifically designed to address depression, anxiety, grief, trauma, addiction—plus other conditions.
Use the preset routines designed by psychologists and neuroscientists, or create your own. The app also includes accountability features and plenty of social support from other users.
Here's a look at Most Days' many features and how they might help make your daily routine a little brighter.
Getting Started With the Most Days App
The setup process does take a few minutes. Select up to three topics for your experience with the app, including anxiety, wellness, stress, addiction, and relationships. Each broad topic includes more specific areas as well. For instance, under the Stress tab, you can select Caregiver Burnout, Job Burnout, Preventing Burnout, and additional topics.
In addition, select one of the broad topics as your primary area of focus for the app. You will receive information for each of your selections, but much of the content will depend on the area of concentration you choose.
Next, take a series of health assessments. In this instance, the app administered the GAD-7 to determine anxiety levels, as well as the WHO-5, which covers general mental wellbeing. Answering the questions took only a few minutes.
After completing your questions, the app sets up a series of routines to help address your particular needs. In this case, the daily routine called for adequate sleep, social time, and exercise each day, as well as at least five minutes of meditation. Additional routines encourage you to focus on exercise, strengthening relationships, or creating healthy sleep habits. You can opt to make your own routine private and post activities to the app whenever you like.
During the setup process, you can opt to engage with the app in two different modes. Community mode encourages you to interact with other app users with similar goals, while the Self-focus mode includes less priority on the social features.
There's also the option to match up with an accountability partner for the app for encouragement and support. If you've worked with a virtual accountability partner in the past, then you know how motivating it can be to have someone else keeping track of your progress.
Download: Most Days for iOS (Subscription required, free trial available)
Navigating the Most Days App
Once everything is ready to go, the Home screen includes your personalized morning routine, as well as quick access to tools such as health assessments, educational resources, and your accountability partner.
The educational section includes short videos about the Most Days app and your selected areas of focus (in this case, anxiety). The videos do offer a lot of insight about the philosophy behind the app and its best practices. Tracking your progress over time, and showing yourself compassion during inevitable setbacks, are key.
You can also access the Connection Sessions from this screen, 30-minute moderated Zoom calls that allow you to chat with fellow Most Days users.
Next, select the globe icon to access your Community screen, which showcases other users' check-ins and routines. It's motivating to see everyone else's daily goals and objectives, and successes get celebrated even when you don't meet the goal 100% of the time. The app's design encourages you to value progress over perfection.
In the center of the screen, a candle icon indicates the My Ritual area. This section prompts you to comment or otherwise support other posts in the community, watch the resource videos, or log your emotions, for instance.
The magnifying glass icon lets you check in on other Communities in the app, including sections for people with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), depression, or trauma. Join any that interest you. There are also communities that focus on healthy sleep habits and productivity, as well as support for those facing divorce, grief, or addiction. Join a community to see others' posts, or check out the Routines section for helpful articles and videos based on each topic.
Lastly, the conversation bubble opens the Messages & Discussion section. Here you can review personal messages or read posts for communities you're subscribed to. In community discussions, you might commiserate on the way anxiety affects your appetite, for instance, or share tips for coping with feeling overstimulated by a loud social environment.
Logging Your Routine in the Most Days App
Checking in on your daily routine is fast and easy. Simply answer Yes or Not Today to each question. At the end of the checklist, you have the option to post to your feed.
Is the Most Days App Right for Me?
There are plenty of great apps you can use to improve your mental health, so what makes Most Days stand out from the rest? It doesn't require a lot of your time each day, and the community component can be tremendously helpful.
After using the app for a bit, you can see that its strength is its simplicity. All it asks is that you answer a few questions each day, and these responses allow you to track your mood and progress over time. You can devote a minute or two to the app each day and continue to chart results. It's unobtrusive and invites you to use it as much (or little) as you see fit.
Plus, it's interesting and informative to see how your mood correlates to hitting the goals each day. Do you generally feel better when completing all or most of the daily tasks?
In addition, the community message and discussion boards offer a space to vent and seek support whenever you're facing another sleepless night, coping with a difficult life event, or trying to make time for the gym. The boards are generally active, and users post about sensitive and personal topics regularly and receive thoughtful responses. Anyone seeking a community to share whatever is on their mind might benefit the most from this section of Most Days.
Lastly, the app is more accessible than many other subscription options. You can receive full access to the app by selecting the $0 option, choose to pay an annual fee, or even financially support other members' accounts, according to Most Days.
Work Toward Better Mental and Physical Health With the Most Days App
Filled with helpful resources for coping with many of life's biggest stressors, the Most Days app is easy to use exactly as you see fit. Whether you want to interact with others in the community or pursue a solo route, there are plenty of videos, articles, and habit-tracking tools in place to help you make small, consistent steps toward a less stressful, happier lifestyle.