12 Apps That Will Actually Help You Keep Your New Year's Resolutions This Time

New Year's resolutions made easy

New Year's resolutions - why do we do it to ourselves? We only end up feeling disappointed when we don't manage to fulfil our list of impossible goals. But you're not alone, so we picked last year's most popular New Year's resolutions and discovered that for each one, there was an app to help...

Remember more birthdays

Forgetting a friend's birthday puts you in dangerously close un-friending territory. If you've made it your New Year's mission to prioritise birthdays, make sure you do it properly with Not On The High Street's Thoughtful Gift Finder, designed to help you with every facet of present-buying from budget to suitability. Done.

Catch up with friends in person

If you're determined to disconnect from social media and have more actual face-to-face interactions with your friends this year, you'll find CatchUp a useful app to have. Instead of having to seek out friends, CatchUp will alert you when people in your contacts lists are nearby, facilitating those much-needed impromptu catch ups.

Find a new job

Let's face it, no one deals in paper any more. Your Filofax is useless; your business cards are now defunct. So, when it comes to finding a new job, we need a digital way to network. Keep up with your most important contacts in 2016 using FullContact, which simply scans your paper business cards and stores the information electronically, allowing you to move forward in business, while decluttering your life at the same time (bonus New Year points).

Leave work on time

Download Leave Now, an app which monitors how long you have to get where you're going, and when you need to leave by to properly commit, to keep you constantly running on time in 2016. This year, you'll be leaving work on time, paving the way for more quality nights in with the family.

Eat more healthily

Your phone can now tell you how to make a healthy meal out of the ingredients you already have in your cupboards. With an app called Epicurious, you'll reduce food wastage and you won't need to alter your shopping habits, healthy eating is coming to you.

Drink more water

Water improves everything, we know this, yet very few of us manage our recommended eight glasses a day, even with the best intentions. Water In keeps tabs on just how much you've consumed, hour-by-hour, and will notify you when you're in danger of missing your goal consumption for the day. There's nothing more motivating than a hounding, judgmental iPhone app.

Start saving money

Save, save, save - that's at the forefront of all of our minds in the aftermath of Christmas. Surprisingly enough, one of the top New Year's resolutions is to stop buying hot drinks from large coffee chains like Starbucks - just think how much we'd save with £2.50's worth of latte still lining our pockets at the end of every day. Well, Moneybox will help you budget your cash and will tell you just how much you could be saving in relation to a money goal (like your upcoming weekend break in Paris) as an incentive to put the change back in your pocket. It's the digital reinforcement for 'Look after the pennies…'

Redecorate the home

Magic Plan is an app designed to create a visual representation of your living room, the way you want it, and just exactly what you need to do to get there, making that renovation project seem (at least in theory) a lot more manageable.

Read more books

Want to be able to comment on all of the new must-read novels your colleagues are talking about, but you just can't seem to justify the endless spend? Make sure you're still reading the best books available to you with EBookSearchPro, which will allow you to search exclusively for free books on your ebook reader, so that you can still read more in 2016.

Do some charity work

The Just Add Spice initiative will give you rewards and prizes as you bank hours of wonderful help-giving actions this new year, giving you that extra push to commit. That's a win-win in our eyes.

Feel more confident

Many people lack the confidence to achieve what they really want but there's no better time than a new year for a fresh perspective. We suggest you start small, and with the help of Lift - a free motivational tool that's like a life coach in your pocket - you can be helped on your way to achieving simple goals, ditching bad habits and beginning fresh challenges. Now there's no excuses.

The diet of the moment

The 5:2 diet craze is going nowhere, so if your resolution is to shift a few extra pounds, the 5:2 diet complete meal planning app is the way to go. It includes recipes, snacks ideas, calorie counts and tips for 500-calorie diet days.