You know what stress is, but how is microstress different from everyday stress? The difference is that microstress, as its name implies, is less obvious stress. Since you're probably conditioned to work through minor aggravations, you work through the microstress, barely recognizing it's happened.

While microstress may not be noticeable, it can become impactful when ignored and add up. Thankfully, some apps can help identify your microstress and deal with it effectively so that it doesn't snowball into more significant issues.

Using Technology to Help Fight Microstress

If you're experiencing microstress, there are actions you can take to minimize its impact on your life, whether they're personal or professional. There are apps to help you identify you're experiencing microstress, others that can help you reduce your stress, and some that can help you practice mindfulness and focus on what's important to you.

1. Identify the Cause of Your Stress

Identifying the stressors affecting you is crucial to managing your microstress. If you've been experiencing a lack of productivity and fatigue, it may be the result of the microstress you're going through. Learning the causes of your microstress is vital so that you can neutralize them.

You may be interested in starting with one of the mental wellness quizzes online that can reveal how stressed you are. In addition, some apps can help you identify the cause of the stress you're experiencing.

Welltory

Welltory is an app that tracks your heart rate and mood using your smartphone's camera flash. You place your finger on the flashlight that the app turns on, and it monitors your stress, energy, and overall health levels. You can even tell the app to monitor the local weather to see if that affects your stress. The app also has self-care aids to help you relieve your stress, get a better night's sleep, focus, and find balance.

If you have a smartwatch or a fitness tracker, you can sync it with the app to get a better read of your vitals and track your physical activity. You can see what impacts your stress and overall health by tagging events and measuring your vitals.

Download: Welltory for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

CareClinic

CareClinic is an app where you can do check-ins on your medications, mood, and overall well-being. You can complete questionnaires that measure whether you're depressed and screen if you have any mood disorders, anxiety, or adult ADHD.

You can schedule how often you do the questionnaires, whether daily, a few days a week, or a customized frequency. The app allows you to save your results to compare them and see if you're experiencing any improvements.

In the app, you can track any medications you are taking and see if they impact how you cope with stress. You can also track your water intake, which may be helpful, since water intake may be linked to stress management, according to studies cited by WebMD.

Download: CareClinic for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

2. Find Activities to Reduce Your Stress

An excellent way to combat your stress is to find ways to calm down. Once you find a way to calm down, you may get more insight into the causes of your stress and take the necessary steps to neutralize them.

Many activities can reduce your stress, depending on your interests. You can read, go for a run, meditate, or do art. You may be interested in learning the top ways to relax and de-stress after a long day at work.

Amaha

Formerly InnerHour, Amaha is an app that provides various activities to help you release your stress. Whether it's a grounding meditation or a visualization about a place that brings you happiness, you can find daily tasks to help you tackle your stress.

Amaha also has a daily journal feature with question prompts to help you identify what's troubling you. You can join the Amaha community to connect with others and support one another in dealing with life's stresses.

Download: Amaha for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

Home Workout

Physical activity is an excellent way to reduce your stress. You can eliminate the stress of driving to the gym with the Home Workout app, which provides exercises you can do at home without gym equipment.

Once you give the app your details and what you hope to accomplish—whether it's reducing stress, losing weight, increasing your confidence, or all of the above—you will get a workout plan. The workouts aren't long, so they're easy to fit into your day.

Download: Home Workout for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

3. Practice Mindfulness

If you're experiencing stress, practicing mindfulness is vital since it allows you to reflect and see if there are ways to limit the stress you're going through. You can use meditation to help lower your blood pressure and help you gain clarity on your current situation.

You don't have to sit cross-legged for an hour to meditate or practice mindfulness; there are plenty of ways to calm the mind. If you're new to meditation, you may be interested in discovering the easiest meditation tools for beginners.

Calm

The Calm app has various types of exercises to help you practice mindfulness. There are different kinds of meditations, exercises to release tension, and movement routines for you to try. None of the activities are very time-consuming since they range from as little as 2 minutes and can go as long as 15 minutes.

The suggested activities are based on the mood you've told the app you're feeling. Whether you're interested in soundscapes, need help with sleep, or want to listen to calming music, you can find what you're looking for in the Calm app.

Download: Calm for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

Headspace

Headspace provides exercises to help you with mindfulness throughout the day. Once you tell the app what you'd like to do, whether it's getting a better sleep or reducing your stress or anxiety, Headspace will provide exercises you can do at different times of the day to help you feel better.

The app has resources to help you practice mindful eating, reframe stress, and relax. If financial issues are causing you stress, this app has a section on mindful money to help you manage financial stress.

Download: Headspace for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

4. Focus on the Important Things

When microstress creeps in, focusing on the things that matter can be challenging, and stress can cause you to become agitated by insignificant things. A scattered brain is unproductive, so you must find a way to sharpen your focus to accomplish your daily tasks and achieve your goals.

Some apps can help you focus on what matters to you so you don't feel stressed about not giving the essential things the time needed. You may be interested in checking out some calming YouTube streams to help you focus.

Freedom

The Freedom app allows you to focus by blocking specific apps from opening for 25-minute intervals. You can block access to social media apps, SMS, and WhatsApp to stay focused on the task at hand.

If you don't like to work in complete silence, the app provides focus sounds varying from international coffee shops, offices, nature sounds, Brain.fm, and Pomodoro sounds. You can also listen to episodes of the Freedom Matters podcast to learn tips on improving your focus.

Download: Freedom for Android | iOS (Free, subscription available)

Forest

The Forest is an app that gets creative about helping you stay focused. You choose the type of tree you want to plant, and it grows as you work, and your tree dies if you leave the app before the allotted focus time.

The app gives you 25 minutes to focus on whatever you want to work on. Whether it's quality time with family or friends or time dedicated to a project, the time spent will help you grow your forest.

Download: Forest for Android | iOS (Free, in-app purchases available)

You Can Nip Your Microstress in the Bud!

You don't have to allow microstress to go unnoticed and develop into significant stress that can make you ill and prevent you from focusing on your goals. With the help of technology, managing and reducing your stress is possible.

These apps can not only help you track your stress, but they can also help you manage and possibly eliminate them. While it may be easy to accept that stress is a regular part of life, you want to control your stress and not be controlled by it, and these apps can help.