Lift™ review

Equal parts life coach, therapist, nagging mother, and personal trainer, the Lift iPhone app is a simple tool to inspire you to stay on task, develop healthy habits, and log them simply and easily. It is loaded with familiar iPhone app functionality like productivity lists and social networking check-ins to remind you of mundane tasks like flossing and exercise, as well as lofty goals including a clean inbox and staying on task.

The Lift iPhone app home screen is an attractive list with the date at the top of the screen. You press the plus icon in the upper right hand corner of the screen to add a habit. There is a list of habits ranging from goal-setting, healthy reminders, lifestyle choices, and work habits. If your healthy habit or choice is not listed, you can add it by typing in the search. The List iPhone app automatically adds it, if it is not already included. One recommendation for greater ease of use would be to organize some of the habits by categories like healthy eating, exercise, goal-setting, etc.

When you select an item from the list, you check in and out of the activity. You touch the check icon, and it remains active until you check it complete. While you are in the process of performing the activity, you can touch the pencil icon in the list under the check to add a note. You can monitor the frequency of the habits with the columns of weeks. If you do something on a day, then one of the seven cubes in the column is highlighted. You can also select a calendar view to see a monthly calendar of your results.

The bottom menu bar from the home screen allows you to check out the feed of Lift iPhone app users, your profile, and your activity. The feed has three lists sorted by one touch–friends, habits, and all. The default list is habits, so you can see the users and any notes. You can press the thumbs up to like an activity for encouragement. You can email friends or sync with Twitter to find friends. It is interesting that there is no Facebook friend sync, but it is also not necessarily shocking. There is no opportunity to share with Facebook and Twitter because the Lift iPhone app seems to be more oriented towards personal growth–not necessarily with your 552 Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Your profile is just another link to your frequency of use, so there are two icons that generate the same information. Visually, the bottom menu bar is balanced nicely, so it is an opportunity to add a functionality or perspective to one of the icons.

The Lift iPhone app has a lovely simplicity in its visual presence, and its goal to serve as inspiration and execution is fresh and appealing. With a few tweaks to maximize the functionality, the Lift iPhone app will truly lift others.