If you’re not looking forward to trying to participate in Sober January or having your performance review in January, how about making some mini career-changing resolutions for next year instead? And how about if I make that incredibly easy by providing you with some app suggestions that take a lot of the work out of it.
Great—let’s do it.
1. Polish Your Communication Skills With Ummo
Whether you want to improve your elevator pitch or sound more professional during that daily meeting with your remote team, the Ummo app can help. You tell it what words or phrases you want to avoid, record yourself speaking, and then click to get a personalized report card on how well you’re avoiding those umms, uhs, and wells.
2. Wow People With Your Presentations With Prezi
Are you ready to ditch those boring slides that are putting your team to sleep, but you don’t know what else to use? Prezi has you covered. You can easily create a stunning, interactive presentation using their web service and then use the app to review it during your morning commute or even offline on the flight to a big conference. No more pre-presentation nerves for you!
3. Get The Most Out of Your Time With Timely
If you feel like you just don’t have the time to get it all done, maybe it’s time for time tracking. Timely is a beautiful app that automatically pulls in info about meetings and appointments from your calendar and lets you easily add information about the other work you do. It categorizes all your time in sleek reports so you can see where you’re actually spending your hours and make the changes you need to be more productive.
4. Conquer Your Inbox With Newton
Eliminate the dread you feel just thinking about all your unread emails with an app that lets you handle your messages in a way that works for you. Newton gives you the control to schedule when replies are sent, snooze messages to deal with them when it’s convenient, recall messages when you click send too soon, and even turn off whole conversations. And, it connects to plenty of productivity apps so you can stop struggling to use your inbox as a to-do list.
5. Get Through Your Reading List With Bookly
You know that keeping up on the latest trends in your industry and insights from experts would be both interesting and a huge help for you on the job. But if you never seem to get around to the bestsellers or just can’t retain the gems from what you’ve read, Bookly is the app for you.
Make reading lists, set reading goals, record the best thoughts and quotes, and even have some fun unlocking achievements and sharing them with your co-workers.
6. Broaden Your Skills (and Give Back) With Golden
If your job doesn’t offer the learning opportunities you need or you’re hoping to change industries, you can try out something new and, at the same time, help those in need. The Golden app screens volunteer opportunities from thousands of organizations and lets you easily find the nearby ones you’re most interested in.
Then, it helps you schedule your volunteer work and also keep track of it so you can include it when you apply for that new job you’ve been dreaming of!
7. Build Your Network With Whova
If you’re already headed in the right direction by going to meet-ups and attending conferences, take the next step in your networking game with the Whova app. It shows you profiles of attendees before an event so you can plan who you want to meet and get in contact with them right in the app.
It also digitizes business cards to keep track of your new contacts, keeps all your programs organized, and suggests future events so you can make sure you’re in the right place at the right time to meet the right people.
8. Stick to Your Career Resolutions With HabitBull
Now that you’ve set your professional goals for next year, make sure you stay motivated to achieve them with HabitBull. Tell the app your goals, set up customized reminders to work on them, and track your progress—all with just a few clicks. You can follow each habit on its own calendar, keep notes on what’s working for you, and get advice and inspiration from the community.
With these eight apps, you’ll be more than ready to make some serious career changes in the new year. So, download them today and be ready for your best year yet!