Day-planning apps for healthier lifestyle

New apps are designed to help people pace themselves better to achieve a healthier, more balanced lifestyle.

Owaves, for the iPad, is one of several new wellness-planning apps that aim to help users reduce stress by visualizing how they will spend their day.

Royan Kamyar, founder and chief executive officer of Owaves said, “Day planning is a very important and under-appreciated piece of achieving wellness. It gives you a roadmap,"

The free app includes a 24-hour clock and lets users drag and drop activities essential to health, such as exercise, sleep, relaxation and nutrition, into the day planner to fit into the normal routine of work and play.

Designed by game developers, the app also encourages people to incorporate activities like meditation and spending time with friends and family into their day.

Users can also save routines they plan to repeat regularly.

Other life balance apps include Candooit and Life-Clock, which are both for iPhone and cost 99 cents.

Scott Schieman, a professor of sociology at the University of Toronto in Canada who studies work stress and health, believes the apps may help people gain a greater awareness that they need to take time to unwind.

But Schieman is skeptical about whether people will follow through on their plans.

“At a minimum these kinds of apps keep your mind more focused on the way you’re actually spending your time, but it might raise awareness of how little control you have of that,” he said.