I bought an Apple watch a week or so before the lock down started. My approach to new gadgets tend to be to wait for a consistent need/use cases before I commit to a test
In this case, there were a few use cases I was interested in. The first and most important was physical health. The amount of time I spend playing sport has been significantly lower in the last year versus the last decade with two young kids. And, while I think of myself as someone who does a lot of the baseline things to encourage movement (walks, standing desk, etc.), I was sure I wasn’t doing anywhere as much as I could.
Second, I love getting out of the home without a phone. However, this resulted in some frustration for my wife as it was hard to know where I was if I went for a walk with the kids for example. Or, for example, if we were coordinating errands.
And, finally, also in the spirit of freedom from the phone, I wanted to be able to do some things – tell the time, see the weather forecast – without reaching out for my phone. The irony of one device replacing the other isn’t lost on me. :-) But, I’m a techno-optimist and I was interested to see how this small device replacement would change my behavior.
And, from my experience from the past month, the Watch has been a big winner. It has definitely enabled a lot more freedom from the phone (this would have been significantly more if it wasn’t for the lock down) and it has also brought a few other nifty use cases – e.g. seamless Apple Pay.
But, the biggest winner has been the rings. The first is a calorie goal that you hit by moving, the second is hitting 30′ of exercise (it is a loose term – a brisk walk will do), and the final is standing at least a minute every hour for twelve hours.
While the stand goal is easy, the other two take a bit of work. And, your calorie goal can be adjusted every week depending on how well you’re doing.
In my case, the biggest change has been a daily brisk walk routine with a stroller, a soccer ball, and a couple of stops around our local park. On days when the weather hasn’t been friendly, this has meant a lot of jumping and running around the house.
In times like this when a lot is out of our control, it is nice to have activities that are good for our health and are completely in our control. Closing the rings has been one of those activities for me.
I’m grateful for that.
