Detoxing From My Apple Watch
I thought my Apple Watch was helping me stay on track. It turns out it was just adding more interruptions.
If you're a tech nerd like me, you likely have a smartwatch you wear daily. I wear my Apple Watch like it's my religion, if the battery is dead or I forget to wear it (unlikely) I feel like I'm missing a limb all day.
Over the past year, I have been feeling like my smartwatch has become more of a distraction than it is useful. Whether I'm constantly making sure it's charged for the day, or the never-ending stream of notifications. It's become more of a chore to wear than a useful piece of tech gear.
When I got my first Apple Watch I dove deep into using every feature I could as well as searching for any app I could find that had an Apple Watch app. I felt the need to track every health metric possible and get every notification I could. When I upgraded from the Series 3 to the Apple Watch 8 I thought the ECG feature was the coolest thing ever. I was constantly checking my heart for no reason at all; I have no history or concerns with my heart health. I would wear my watch all day and then come home from work and charge it to make sure I could wear it through the night to track my sleep. I was obsessed with checking my sleep metrics and nightly heart rate.
Not long after upgrading to the Series 8 the notification overload started to kick in. I found myself constantly checking my watch, switching to my phone to open whatever app was notifying me, and then getting a notification again on the watch as soon as I put my phone down. It became an endless cycle with little actual productive work being done. It was becoming such a distraction that I slowly started to cut down on which apps could send me notifications to the watch. Now, I have it set so that very few apps can notify me. I've narrowed it down to basically just iMessage, Signal, phone calls, and one email account that I rarely use as well as some of the default Apple notifications such as the activity reminders. Even these notifications are starting to become too much of a distraction for me while I'm at work. If I'm not getting a notification, I get the phantom notification, my mind tricking me into thinking I felt the watch vibrate on my wrist when it hasn't.
I have enough distractions at work as it is. Between emails, my work cell phone, my desk phone, and my personal cell phone, I am constantly getting a stream of notifications and phone calls. On top of that, I need to constantly communicate with coworkers in person. It quickly becomes overwhelming. I found that when my watch was buzzing on my wrist it was the last straw that would send me over the edge. When I start to get overwhelmed with things the first thing I find myself doing is taking the watch off and setting it to the side. I would notice an immediate sense of relief, my anxiety level would drop and I could start to focus.
What really prompted me to start this smart watch detox was when Apple released the new sleep apnea feature on the newest series of watches. I started to think about upgrading to a new watch so that I could have that feature. I thought it was something that I needed. After some thought about it I realized a few things. First, I don't need to spend the money on a new watch. Second, why do I need a watch to tell me about the sleep apnea that I know I have, my doctors have already established that and issued me a cpap machine. Lastly, I started to think about the notification overload that I have from my current watch and thought it would be crazy for me to upgrade to a new one.
I decided to leave my Apple Watch on the charger today and I put on my basic analog Timex watch. As I was setting the time on it I was reminded of an article I read recently. It discussed how kids are no longer able to read analog clocks. I also found myself having to think a little too hard about setting the time on it. I didn’t realize how little I actually find myself reading analog clocks in my life.
I‘ve only had one phantom notification feeling from my watch and I don’t feel like I’m missing out on any notifications that are actually important. I haven’t set a goal on how long I will go without wearing the smart watch. I’m going to just take it day by day and see how it feels. I already feel like I have reduced my unproductive screen time.
If you are looking for more inspiration on ditching your smart watch, this is a great article from Men’s Health on it.
If you liked this article, you might like my post about how smart home devices are getting out of control.
