Cool Apps: Don’t Lose Your New Year’s Motivation

By John Thompson, Executive Vice President, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

We’ve just concluded the first month of the year and I’m sure many of you have lost sight of your New Year’s Resolutions already. Coming into February, people tend to slack off, allowing themselves a little more lenience and by March, they’ve all together given up. Well, today I bring you an app that will, hopefully, keep you motivated through the whole year.

We all know that success in weight loss or a healthy lifestyle is more than just working out 5 days a week. It takes focus and energy to really adjust your whole way of thinking. Today’s app can help with just that. Fitbit will not only track your activity but will help you eat better, sleep better and keep you overall motivated to meet your goals!

Save Energy and Money with Nest

By John Thompson, Executive Vice President. Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

I’m sure by now you’ve all received your gas and electric bill for the month of December and you might not be too happy with it.  Between the heater running all day and the Christmas lights running all evening, I’m always amazed at how much it goes up during the month of December.  Not to mention the fact that you forgot to change the settings as you ran out the door for that last vacation of the year.  All of these elements can add up to a very expensive and wasteful month.  If only there was a way to set it and forget it.

The Nest Thermostat can help you do just that. The device learns your schedule, programs itself and can be controlled from your phone. With this kind of set up, your heating and cooling bills could be lowered by 20%.

To get started, purchase the Nest Thermostat here.  The device itself is about $250 but I promise, it will pay for itself.  Install the Nest Thermostat and answer a few simple questions to optimize the system, then over the first week turn it up and down as you go through your normal daily routine.  This teaches the thermostat what temperatures you like and builds a personalized schedule just for you.  After about 7 days, The Nest will automatically set everything on its own. Pretty amazing!

If you need to reset the system, say for the summer months, just go through this process again to reprogram it for your new routine.  If you leave on vacation and forget to turn off your thermostat, don’t worry, The Nest Thermostat will automatically turn to an energy-efficient Away temperature.  Want to adjust your thermostat while you’re away? Connect your smart phone to your Nest with the Nest app and you’ll have a warm welcome when you arrive home.

When your setting are saving energy, The Nest Leaf appears on the thermostat so you know you’re moving to a more eco-friendly temperature.  The Nest Thermostat even gives you an Energy History to see exactly how much energy you’re saving.

It really is super simple to use and by doing so, you could end up with a great reward: not only more money in your pocket but a more energy efficient home too.

Better Sleep Means a Better You in 2014

By John Thompson, Executive Vice President, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

It’s the beginning of a new year.  That means, new goals, new commitments, a chance to start fresh.  For most people this includes goals of losing weight, eating healthier, or being more productive; making the most of your day to be the best person you can.  Why not start each day with a better night so you can accomplish these goals well rested and energized?  Your standard alarm clock just won’t do when it comes to this, but Sleep Cycle Alarm Clock does.  The app tracks your sleep patterns, waking you up in the lightest sleep phase closest to when your alarm is set to go off.

So why is it important that you wake up in the lightest sleep phase? Well, our bodies go through a cycle when they are asleep, moving from light sleep to deep sleep and occasionally going into REM-sleep (a dream state).  A normal alarm clock doesn’t take any of these phases into account.  It just simply goes off at the specific time you set no matter what stage of sleep you’re in.  Waking up in the middle of the deep sleep phase can cause a great disruption in your sleep pattern resulting in the sluggish, sleep deprived feeling so many of us are familiar with.

Sleep Cycle takes all of this into consideration using a 30 minute alarm window that ends at your set alarm time and wakes you up in your lightest sleep place.  The result: a more refreshed, well-rested you and a more productive energetic day.  Just think of all that you could accomplish when you’re at your best from the start of the day!  All of this for only $.99.

Cool App – Pay It Forward

By John Thompson, Executive Vice President, Intero Real Estate Services, Inc.

Looking for a great and easy way to make a resolution come true this year? Well, if you’re looking for a way to give a little back to the amazing world we live in, but don’t know where to start here is your app. Here at Intero, we’re always talking about giving back to the communities in which we serve so I was excited to find an app that did just that. Based off of the idea of doing one good deed a day, Pay It Forward was developed to remind us that helping others is the best way to make this world a better place.

Every day, Pay It Forward will send you a suggestion with an act of kindness that is designed to be simple, fun and effective. If you didn’t get a chance to do the act of kindness that day, the app will hold onto that task until it is completed. You can easily track your progress as you go and share your progress with your friends and family. Get motivation from others by viewing where other good deeds are being done all over the world.

The app provides an extremely easy way for you to check off the “give back” item on your list of resolutions and just think what a difference it will make. If everyone downloaded this app and did what it said on a daily bases, I think we would definitely succeed in making the world just a little better. Such a simple thing with the potential for an amazing result. Download it now and start giving back today!