My Top Ten Smartphone Apps

I feel like I spend more & more time plugged into my phone these days... I sometime worry about how many hours I am staring at its tiny little screen, but I also can't really imagine life without it. My phone helps me do so many things. It's a flashlight, a watch, a calendar, a library, & so many other handy things.

Now I can "colour" on my phone. Like I needed another reason to use it. #colorfy

A photo posted by Lisa Corriveau (@spokesmama) on Oct 16, 2015 at 8:39pm PDT

For better or worse, here's what I've been doing there lately:

1. My Fitness Pal I started using this a couple of weeks ago to track what I'm eating. It's fairly easy to use & appeals to my near obsessive tracking/charting tendencies. I find it interesting to get a sense of how much sugar or fat I'm consuming. I like that it helps me keep track of how many calories I'm burning by biking. Entering everything into the app keeps me a bit honest--I'm less likely to "cheat" & eat something unhealthy. The downside is, I'm really focusing on numbers: calories, grams, pounds... using this is really dieting. Not a bad app if you're looking for a free calorie counting & tracking tool.
2. Words With Friends I've been playing this one a lot in the past week. I really do like Scrabble. I wish people would actually make their moves more often, however. It's annoying to wait for a whole day to play again sometimes.
3. Colorfy Just discovered this one a few days ago & I'm hooked. Not sure I'm going to actually subscribe though. We'll see if they release any new designs into the free section of the app once I've complete all the ones you don't have to pay for.
4. OverDrive I use this app to read Vancouver Public Library eBooks. I'm starting to take them out more often than the real books because I never get any overdues this way--they just disappear at the end of the loan period. 
5. Facebook I've been on Facebook for over eight years now & I have trouble remembering what life was like before it...
6. Twitter I often tweet via SMS, sometimes surf on my Twitter app, but prefer to use Hootsuite, generally.
7. Evernote I still love this app for making grocery lists, to do lists, & taking notes at meetings. I've started saving recipes there too. So much easier to be able to search the contents of all those documents to find a list I made months ago.
8. Instagram I find I spend less time surfing my feed on Instagram & more time going to specific accounts these days, or just posting my own stuff. 
9. Gmail I get so many emails every day & if you see me swiping at my phone screen, that's quite likely what I'm doing--reading the latest update from my son's kindergarten classroom, or the latest fundraiser/event/important thing I need to pay attention to from his school; skimming through all kinds of pitch emails from PR companies to me as a blogger, messages related to my work on the Mount Pleasant Family Centre Board of Directors or the Active Transportation Policy Council. 
10. Weather Network I kind of love their hourly forecast. It's so handy when your main form of transportation is cycling, to know when it may rain & be able to plan accordingly. Though it's not that accurate, so I still get soaked occasionally. Last time that happened it was on the way home from picking up Linnaeus from school, so once we hung up our coats & had some hot chocolate at home we were fine. 

In case you were wondering, all of these apps are available for free, though My Fitness Pal, Colorfy, & Evernote do offer premium subscription rates for more features. I just haven't yet found that I need more than they offer for free. So go on, do tell... Are you addicted to your smart phone too? What apps do you use a lot these days?

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