Life is a journey and not necessarily an easy one to navigate. From the moment we open our eyes until we fall asleep again, we are faced with one decision after another. What should we eat for breakfast? We have to decide which routes will get us to work the quickest and whether or not bring our umbrella along for the day. No matter how small they may seem, each decision we make directly affects our day’s outcome and ultimately our lives.
Work, family and social life stress can fog our decision making skills, leaving us lacking the necessities for productivity:
● Balance
● Control
● Meditation
● and Focus
Sometimes we need help keeping our minds sharp, so here are four ways technology can help you make better decisions:
Balance – LearnVest
One of the easiest ways we lose balance in our lives is poor management of our personal finances. Lack of funds can make it hard for us to indulge in life’s pleasures and purchase the things we need to survive. Enter LearnVest, a mobile application that helps users manage their finances. After users have uploaded and linked all of their existing accounts, LearnVest tracks spending, recommends goals for financial stability, and even creates challenges for users to help them achieve fiscal independence. LearnVest is a free application, unlike some of its sometimes costly financial advisor human counterparts.
Control – BellyBio
Maintaining a sense of control is key, as it allows us to have confidence in the decisions we make. However, there will always be occurrences in our lives that we have no control over. Under strenuous circumstances, being able to control our breathing can also help us feel like we have power. The BellyBio Interactive Breathing App engages users with breathing exercises and provides feedback to help users utilize proper breathing as a tool for maintaining control over emotions and reactions.
Meditation – Smiling Mind
In our busy modern lives, meditation becomes an afterthought, and worn mind cannot make good decisions..After our morning commute, day’s work, evening commute, and personal activities are done, we only have enough time to prepare to do it all over again the next day. Mindfulness’ SmilingMinds application encourages users to incorporate meditation back into their lives with recorded meditation sessions that are complemented by games and challenges within the app. SmilingMinds also facilitates group meditation activities for families, friends and working groups.
Focus – Lumosity
Keeping a sharp mind is imperative for decision making overall. When our mental motors are in good functioning order, we can walk into just about any situation, identify a problem, and develop a solution. Lumosity exercises the mind with games developed to build skills like: problem solving, face/name recognition, memory, spatial reasoning, attention, speed and more. Lumosity tracks user performance with its LPI or Lumosity Performance Index using in-game performance to produce metrics that allow users to see their development over time.
