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Whether you’re a student, teacher, or parent gearing up for the new school year, taking care of your mental and physical health is more important than ever due to our reliance on technology for learning. Fortunately, technology can also be part of the solution, offering many tools to help you take better care of yourself.
If you’re looking for an app to help manage anxiety or a gentle reminder to take a break and stretch every hour, you’ve come to the right place. Adding these apps to your toolkit can help you build healthier habits and support your wellbeing throughout the entire year.
8What’s Up?
Don’t mistake this app for the popular messaging app WhatsApp (though you might need that one as well to talk to your friends and family). What’s Up? is a mental health app that keeps track of all your thoughts and feelings and helps you manage them.
It combines approaches from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to teach you how to rewire your brain and manage symptoms of anxiety, depression, anger, and stress.
For instance, the app offers over 100grounding questionsthat’ll help you instantly feel better by bringing your attention to the present, essentially acting as a human “reset” button when you’re feeling overwhelmed.
In addition, the app includes explanations of common negative thinking patterns, a catastrophe scale to help you put your problems into perspective, and a notes section to capture your thoughts. Unlike many mental health apps, it doesn’t push you to use it daily, so you’re free to use it whenever you need it.
7Focus To-Do
Focus To-Do is a fairly straightforwardPomodoro appthat you may use to organize your work into timed intervals with regular breaks in between. It uses the classic 25-minute system by default, but you can customize the timers anywhere from 1 to 480 minutes (though going for 8 hours kind of defeats the purpose of thePomodoro Technique).
What makes the Focus To-Do one of the better Pomodoro apps is its simple UI and handy extra features. For instance, if you seriously struggle with phone use when you should be studying, you can use the app’s Strict Mode to lock your phone completely until the timer ends or block certain apps.
Aside from the timer, the app includes a built-in task manager, white noise options, daily and weekly productivity reports, and even a forest minigame where a virtual plant grows as you use the app.
6Insight Timer
With over 10 million downloads and a current 4.8-star rating from 245K reviews, Insight Timer is undoubtedly one of the most popular meditation apps on Android—and for good reason. It’s an excellent choice for bothbeginnersand experienced meditators.
While Insight Timer offers a wide range of premium courses and features through its paid subscription, the free version provides numerous excellent features too.
It includes access to over 283,000 guided meditations and soundtracks to support everything from morning or evening practice to breathing exercises, sleep, and more. There’s also a customizable meditation timer and the option to join live meditations led by real teachers directly within the app.
5Serenity
While Serenity isn’t as widely known as Insight Timer, its 4.9-star rating from 53.8K reviews speaks volumes about the calm and peace users experience through its meditations. The clean, user-friendly interface makes it easy to navigate through the selection of weekly meditations that’ll help you relax, unwind, and fall asleep.
The free version has limited access, but it’s still a gold mine of guided mini-meditations, daily practice, and morning inspiration sessions, which constantly get new content. Serenity’s simplicity and ease of use make it especially appealing for first-time meditators looking to build a sustainable habit.
4EyeRelax
If you’re one of the42%of people in the U.S. with myopia (nearsightedness), raise your hand. What many don’t realize is that taking frequent breaks to rest your eyes can significantly help reduce eye strain and alleviate symptoms of dry eye syndrome, both of which canhelp prevent myopia from worsening.
EyeRelax is a simple, easy-to-use app that reminds you to take breaks after a set period of screen time. You can customize it for both short and long breaks. It’s essentially an ultra-lightweight alternative to a Pomodoro timer that’s focused on eye health.
3StayFocused
Stay Focused is a screen time management tool designed to help you block distracting apps and websites, track your usage, and, ultimately, boost your productivity.
You can configure exactly how much time and when you spend in each app. This is especially helpful if you want to set ultra-specific limits, like allowing yourself 15 minutes of TikTok on weekday evenings and 30 minutes on weekends. You can even restrict how many times an app can be launched within a set time frame.
It’s super useful if you struggle with smartphone addiction or find yourself compulsively checking social media while studying. You can limit usage of your most distracting apps and still use your phone for less addictive tasks like meditation during breaks.
The only downside is that some features are locked behind a paid subscription or a one-time purchase. However, the price is reasonable for the level of control and customization it offers.
2Wysa
I know for a fact that AI has taken an important role in the lives of young people, myself included (if 27 is still considered young). According toa surveyconducted by Common Sense Media, 33% of teens who regularly use AI have chosen their AI companions over real humans to discuss serious and important topics.
This is understandable, as sharing feelings and thoughts with a “robot” that isn’t capable of judgment can invite even reserved individuals into an open conversation.
I’m not here to say whether that’s good or bad, but if you ever find yourself opening up to an AI about your personal challenges, Wysa is worth a shot. It’s specifically designed as a therapy chatbot—it describes itself as a “clinical alternative to ChatGPT.”
Alongside the chatbot, the app includes a few free self-care exercises. Upgrading to the premium version unlocks additional features like guided meditations, sleep stories, and more therapeutic tools. There’s even the option to book weekly sessions with licensed therapists.
1Work Break
Work Break is a lightweight, highly customizable break reminder app. The app makes it easy to organize your day, maintain productivity, and take care of mental and physical health.
You can set custom breaks for different activities while studying for an exam. For example, one break can be dedicated to guided meditation, another to stretching, and a third to resting your eyes.
A nifty feature of the app is the 2-hour preview of your schedule, which is great forkeeping trackof your classes and breaks.
