Life can be tough. Whether it’s your job, your health, your relationship or something else that’s stressing you out, improving yourself can turn out to be a tough task. The self-improvement industry provides a slew of solutions, but many of them cost a pretty penny.
But do you have to fork over cash to improve yourself? As it turns out, free alternatives to these paid services and consumer products often work just as well.
The Tool: Coach.me
Habits. They’re the backbone of life and often determine the type of life you end up leading. After all, your habits create your everyday actions and those actions make up your life!
This app helps you form positive routines. It provides access to habit coaching that costs $15 per week and up. So, what’s a free alternative to this app?
The Alternative: Reading. Tons of free websites and books that you can find at the library offer these same tips. Online forums also provide plenty of useful information. You can even join internet communities that foster mutual responsibility. Reading is the real winner if you don’t want to shell out tons of cash.
The Tool: Day One App
It all starts on day one. Turning your life around can happen today, and that’s what the Day One app is all about. It relies on journaling and photos to guide you through your stress and slowly improve yourself. It gives you a space for self-reflection. However, for the Premium service, which allows for unlimited journal entries and photos, you pay $34.99 per year.
The Alternative: Write down your thoughts in an old notebook or using a free service like Google Docs. Sure, you may not get the nuanced guide of the app. But simple journaling may make your experiences more tangible. It’s an excellent and cheap alternative.
The Tool: Sociidot
Sociidot uses a unique approach to self-improvement. Instead of telling you what you need to do, the app shows you. Pictures fill your phone screen as your dreams visualize right in front of your eyes. A series of dots also appears. They show you your trail of accomplishments and goals.
While the base app is free, the “expert roadmaps” cost some money. Expect to pay between $1 and $5 for these roadmaps to success. Although you do need to pay, this app falls on the cheaper end of the spectrum.
The Alternative: Draw your goals out. Write down your thoughts on paper and draw pictures to accompany them. You’ll be amazed by what you’ll find out about yourself if you try this out for yourself.
The Tool: Lifetick
Lifetick is the most comprehensive self-improvement tool on this list. While other entries on this list fall more into the app section, Lifetick is a software program that tracks your goals, helps you develop healthy habits, and even gives you access to life coaches. It includes a wide variety of plans but with complexity comes a heftier price tag. The prices range from free to $199 a month.
The Alternative: Keep a flow chart of your activities at home. Tracking your goals on paper can help you achieve them just as well as any software program.
The Tool: Anti-Snoring Sleep Mask
Self-improvement doesn’t just mean the intangibles. It also involves your health. Although snoring may not seem like a big deal, it can be a sign of an unhealthy lifestyle. An anti-snoring sleep mask is designed to stop your snoring and potentially find out what’s causing it. You just have to pay $200.
The Alternative: Slip in a mouth guard. Always ask a doctor, but mouth guards may help your jaw and alleviate some of the snoring. Again, do your research before doing anything that may impact your health. Now, this alternative isn’t 100% free, but it is an extremely cheap and affordable solution, especially compared to its high-tech counterpart above.
The Tool: Wearable Posture Tracker
Along with the sleep mask, a wearable posture tracker could potentially improve your health. Bad posture can lead to serious health problems. But improving your posture can help avoid these negative impacts. Wearable posture trackers work with smartphone and sell for hundreds of dollars.
The Alternative: Exercising can help your posture, especially if you do stretching. It’s a free activity you can do that will positively impact your health.
Improving your life is important, but that doesn’t mean you have to shell out tons of money to do it.
Many of the best self-improvement tools are completely free and were used for years before self-improvement became a business.
Try out one of these free alternatives before you open up your wallet to improve yourself, your health and your life.