5 Apps to Help Reduce Stress & Optimize Your Day

Written By The Rounds

Are you feeling busy, overwhelmed, or worse, on the verge of burnout? It happens to the best of physicians, but that doesn’t mean that it has to be that way. As a physician, your day is jam-packed full of tasks, to-do lists, and everything in between. We published a blog featuring tips to deal with physician burnout, but believe that this conversation is worth exploring more to introduce helpful ways to reduce stress and optimize your day using something as simple as an app! Check out our list of apps from meditation to audiobooks that will help you regain control of your day:

Meditation app – Calm

If you haven’t heard about the benefits of meditation, where have you been? Studies show that you can help prevent burnout by establishing a daily meditation routine. No, this doesn’t mean you need to sign up for a yoga class at your local studio. Adding just a few minutes a day of meditation to your routine can benefit your overall wellbeing. The Calm app is the #1 app for sleep, meditation and relaxation and has received over 100 million total downloads from the app store. The most popular feature on this app is a 10-minute meditation called, ‘The Daily Calm,’ which explores a fresh mindful theme and inspiring concept each day. Everyone has 10 minutes to dedicate to bettering their life through meditation.

Price: $14.99 per month / $69.99 per year

Reminder app – todoist

Gone are the days of struggling to remember every item on your to-do list. Juggling duties at work and home can be tricky, but with an app like todoist, you will never forget anything again. This app takes the stress out of a busy schedule by never losing track of your tasks and giving you a full overview of what you have on the go. You can set recurring dates, add sections/headings to ensure your tasks are organized, and delegate tasks with the shared projects feature. Todoist’s minimal design allows you to organize your tasks in an easy-to-understand layout that is tailored specifically to you.

Price: FREE with the option to upgrade to a Premium subscription

Exercise app – Wakeout

Finding time to hit the gym or attend a workout class can seem like an impossible task during a busy day. Exercise reduces levels of the body’s stress hormones, elevates your overall mood and leaves you feeling relaxed and optimistic. With the app Wakeout, you will no longer have to feel guilty about not using your gym membership to its full potential. Wakeout offers a variety of 30-second workouts that are tailored to the setting you are in (office, living room, the park, or a plane) and features short workouts to make sitting for a long period of time more bearable. Try it today!

Price: $4.99 per month / $48 per year

Nutrition app – MyFitnessPal

Something that may be forgotten in your journey to reduce stress and optimize your day might be your diet. When we are busy, it is easy to choose fast-food options that bring you instant satisfaction to your hunger, however, these foods may have a negative impact on stress. MyFitnessPal has been the #1 Health and Fitness app for four years straight and makes tracking food fast and easy. They offer a database of over 6 million foods, feature a barcode scanner to log your food, automatically count calories of the foods you enter, and much more. Staying on top of your food intake can easily fit into your busy schedule as a physician!

Price: FREE with the option to upgrade to a Premium subscription

Audiobook app – Libby

What’s better than being able to take a book anywhere you go for free? Reading is a great way to break up your day and will give you a chance to slow down and take a break from your long to-do list. Libby is completely free and allows you to borrow ebooks and digital audiobooks from your local public library. If you have a library card, you can stream books with Wi-Fi, mobile data, or download them to read offline wherever is most convenient for you. One unique feature of this app is that it features no subscription costs, in-app purchases, or late fees (books are automatically returned on their due dates). For zero dollars, it is a no-brainer that you should download Libby and dive into a new book!

Price: Completely FREE

With thousands of apps in the app store, you are bound to find something that helps reduce stress so you can make the most out of your day in the office and at home. With 75% of our physician members of The Rounds admitting that they have dealt with burnout, we want to help reduce anxiety around your day-to-day duties to be the best version of yourself when assisting patients!