Digital Helpers for a Smarter Everyday Life – 7 Useful Apps for making life easier
Kira Zabe
October 15, 2024
In a world full of tasks, deadlines, and goals, it's crucial to find ways to optimize daily routines to stay organized and reduce stress. The right apps can help you manage everything from fitness and mental health to financial planning and household organization. Whether you're working on developing better habits or managing your budget, these six apps will empower you to live smarter and more efficiently.
1. Homerockr – Everything about home management under control
You surely know the feeling: there's always something to do at home, and it's easy to lose track. Checking smoke detectors, cleaning gutters, unclogging drains... all these to-dos that weigh on your mind. Homerockr provides a solution by reminding you of maintenance and upkeep tasks with numerous templates – including those that are easily forgotten. Also handy are the guided home inspection for visual checks and the project planning for larger home projects. This way, your home stays well-maintained, and you get the satisfaction of knowing you've thought of everything.
Features: Templates for home care and maintenance, guided visual inspections, planning of home projects
Who it's for: People who want to get the mental load of managing their home out of their mind
Link: https://www.homerockr.com/
2.YNAB (You Need A Budget) – Take control of your finances
Managing money can seem overwhelming, but with YNAB you can create a budget that fits your lifestyle. This app helps you give every dollar a job, so you're prepared for every expense that comes your way. With tools for setting savings goals, debt management, and planning for the future, YNAB changes the way you handle your finances, promotes better money habits, and helps you achieve financial security.
Features: Budgeting, financial planning, and goal settingWho it's for: For anyone who wants to take control of their finances, save more effectively, or manage debt.
3.Habitica – Turn your life into a game
Would you like to turn everyday tasks into a fun, motivating experience?Habiticatransforms your to-do list and habit tracking into a game where you earn points and rewards for completing tasks. Whether it's about daily habits, long-term goals, or project milestones, Habitica helps you stay focused and productive by making work playful. Plus, you can join group challenges for even more motivation.
Features: Game-based task management and habit trackingWho it's for: For those who struggle with procrastination or are looking for a more entertaining way to stay productive.
4.Forest – Enhance concentration and stay productive
If distractions keep disrupting your productivity,Forestis here to help. The app encourages you to stay focused by planting a virtual tree that grows as long as you don't leave the app to check notifications or browse the web. If you get distracted, your tree withers away. For extra motivation, Forest collaborates with organizations that plant trees, so your focus also contributes to reforestation in the real world.
Features: Focus and productivity tracker with environmental impactWho it's for: For anyone who wants to reduce distractions and improve concentration while contributing to the protection of the planet.
5.Headspace – Mental Wellbeing and Mindfulness
Taking care of your own mental health is crucial, and Headspace provides the tools to help you incorporate a sense of calm and mindfulness into your day. With guided meditations, sleep programs, and breathing exercises, Headspace helps you reduce stress, improve focus, and even sleep better. It's an ideal app for both beginners and those experienced in mindfulness practices.
Features: Guided meditations, stress reduction, and sleep programsWho it's for: Individuals looking to improve their mental well-being, manage stress, or establish a meditation practice.
6.MyFitnessPal – Your Personal Nutrition and Fitness Tracker
If you're aiming to keep an eye on your health, MyFitnessPal is a must. This app helps you track your calories, macronutrients, and even your workouts. With a huge food database and the ability to log meals and exercises, it offers a comprehensive method to monitor your fitness journey. You can even sync it with wearable devices like Fitbit or Apple Watch to get a complete picture of your health.
Features: Calorie counting, nutrient tracking, and workout logsWho it's for: For anyone who wants to maintain a healthy lifestyle, track fitness progress, or manage weight.
7.Smantry.App – Organize your pantry, reduce waste
If you're tired of food spoiling before you can use it, the Smantry.App can help. This app keeps track of your pantry, fridge, and freezer, making it easy to see what you have and what you need. It even suggests recipes based on what's already in your kitchen, helping you to plan meals more efficiently and reduce food waste. By organizing your food supplies, you save money and reduce the stress of last-minute shopping trips.
Functions: Inventory management, meal planning, and waste reduction
Who it's for: Anyone who wants to manage their food supply, reduce food waste, and plan meals more efficiently.
With these six apps, you can better control your daily routines, develop good habits, and manage important areas of your life more effectively. Whether you want to increase your productivity, manage your finances, or simply reduce food waste, these tools offer simple, effective solutions to live smarter.
Why we never stop refining Smantry ✨
At Smantry, we don't believe in 'finished'.
An app that is meant to accompany people in their daily lives is never complete – it grows, changes, and evolves. Just like the people who use it. 💛
We regularly pay attention to every detail:
How does a click feel? Is the path to a function clear enough? Does the idea behind a new view come across intuitively?
Sometimes it's just tiny things that make the difference – a better-placed button, a simplified overview, or a sentence that suddenly becomes clearer.
What drives us is the idea that Smantry should feel easy, familiar, and meaningful.
We want you to open the app and feel: "Ah, this is exactly how it should work."
Of course, not everything always goes perfectly. But that's exactly the point: We take the time to listen, to observe, to reconsider. Every piece of feedback, every use case, every new idea helps us to understand a little better what really matters.
Smantry is not a rigid product for us – it's a living process. A collaborative project that grows step by step.
And every update, every small improvement is a sign that we are on the right track:
A path to an app that doesn't feel like technology, but like support.
Towards a daily life that becomes simpler. Towards clarity, structure – and maybe even a bit of ease. 🌿
We're staying on it.
Because we are convinced that good things take time – and that it's worth creating them with heart.
Your
Smantry-Team
🌱 Staying on track made easy: How to stay motivated to create order and avoid food waste
We all know it: Initially, the motivation is high! You finally want to get your kitchen organized, keep an eye on your supplies, and shop more consciously. But after a few weeks, everyday life creeps back in – and the good resolutions start to falter.
With Smantry we want to support you not only in getting started, but also in sticking with it in the long term. 💪✨
1. Be aware of why you are doing this
Order and sustainability are not short-term trends – they grant you freedom, time, and a good feeling. If you know why you want to keep your supplies in check or throw away less food, it becomes much easier to stay consistent.
👉 Tip: Write down your 'why' in the app note or as a reminder.
2. Set small, achievable goals
Nobody becomes an organizing pro overnight. Start small:
- Today I'm just organizing the spice rack.
- Check the fridge this week.
- On your next shopping trip, purposefully buy only what you really need.
Small steps lead to success – and success motivates!
3. Make it easy for yourself – with smart helpers
Smantry automatically reminds you of expiring products, helps you keep track of your inventory, and assists you with shopping. This way, you have to think less and can enjoy more.
👉 The less effort required, the easier it is to stick with it!
4. Celebrate your progress 🎉
Creating order or avoiding waste is a process, not a sprint. Regularly review what you have already accomplished – you may already see that you need to throw away less or that your supply is finally manageable. That's great!
5. Make it part of your routine
Schedule fixed 'Smantry moments': for example, briefly check the inventory on Sundays or update the shopping list before going shopping. Routines provide structure and make sustainable actions a matter of course.
💚 Conclusion:
Motivation is not a perpetual flame – but with the right tools and habits, you can reignite it time and again.
With Smantry, you have a smart companion by your side that helps you stay organized, consume more consciously, and incidentally do something good for yourself and the environment.
More clarity when shopping: How Open Food Facts and the Smantry app make nutrition transparent
Many foods look healthy at first glance – but what's really inside them? Are the nutritional values balanced? How processed is a product? And what impact does it have on our environment?
This is exactly where the Smantry-App comes in: It uses the globally open database Open Food Facts, to give you immediate clarity when scanning your items. But what's actually behind the colorful labels like Nutri-Score, NOVA or Eco-Score, that you encounter in the app?
Let's take a closer look at the background.
Open Food Facts: From the Idea to a Global Database
The journey began in 2012 with the founding of Open Food Facts – a non-profit organization that collects, analyzes, and makes food information freely accessible worldwide. The goal from the beginning was to provide consumers with scientifically substantiated information.
What started as a small project has now become a global platform with millions of products. And it is precisely this data that the Smantry-App uses to give you a clear overview directly on your smartphone.
An overview of the most important scores
1. Nutri-Score – how healthy is my product?
Since 2016, the Nutri-Score has been legally established in France – and it has quickly spread throughout Europe.
- A (green) means: very balanced.
- E (red) means: unbalanced, enjoy in moderation.
The rating is based on calories, sugar, salt, saturated fats – but also on positive factors such as fiber, protein, and the proportion of vegetables.
👉 So in the Smantry app, you can see at a glance whether a food item fits into your everyday life – or perhaps should be on the table less often.
2. NOVA-Score – how processed is it?
Not only the ingredients, but also the degree of processing plays a significant role for health. This is exactly what the NOVA-Score (integrated into Open Food Facts since 2018) shows you:
- 1 = unprocessed or minimally processed (e.g., fresh fruit, plain yogurt)
- 2 = ingredients such as vegetable oils, sugar, flour
- 3 = processed foods (e.g., bread, cheese, canned goods)
- 4 = highly processed products ("Ultra-Processed Food"), often with additives, flavors, and industrial processes
👉 With the Smantry app, you can instantly tell if a product is still 'close to nature' – or if it falls into the category of being highly processed.
3. Eco-Score (soon to be Green-Score) – how sustainable is my shopping?
Since 2019, Open Food Facts also includes an environmental assessment: the Eco-Score. It takes into account, among other things:
- CO₂ emissions from production and transportation,
- Packaging and recyclability,
- Origin and seasonal factors.
The rating is – similar to the Nutri-Score – from A (very eco-friendly) to E (less sustainable).
By 2025, this will become the Green-Score, which will take into account even more detailed data and thus provide you with even better guidance for sustainable consumption.
👉 For you in the Smantry app, this means: You can see not only whether a food is healthy for you, but also whether it is good for our planet.
What this means for you as a Smantry user
Currently, you can scan your products in the Smantry-App and view many details. The scores themselves are not yet integrated – but the integration is planned.
This means: Soon you will be able to see not only the nutritional values of a product but also how healthy, processed, or sustainable it is – all directly in your app.
Conclusion: Your Smart Nutrition Compass
The colorful labels are much more than pretty symbols. They are your quick compass in everyday life – whether you want to shop with health consciousness, reduce highly processed products, or pay attention to the environment.
With the Smantry-App you already have strong support for more transparency while shopping. And with the planned integration of the scores, it will become even more valuable – your smart nutritional compass for the future.
Cooking with the Future: Augmented Reality and Smart Interfaces for Your Recipes
That’s exactly what augmented reality (AR) and smart interfaces bring to the table. They project digital information where you need it most: into your cooking environment. This makes it easier to stay organized, cook more efficiently, and even reduce waste – because less stress in the kitchen often means fewer forgotten or spoiled ingredients.
And here’s where Smantry comes in. The app already helps you keep track of your pantry, avoid food waste, and stay in control of your kitchen. With upcoming features like leftover-based recipe suggestions, you’re already stepping into the smart kitchen future today.
👉 Bottom line: The kitchen of tomorrow is here – and it’s efficient, sustainable, and surprisingly fun.