My husband is pretty wonderful. He got me the Apple Watch I wanted a few months ago for Christmas. When it was on my wish list, I didn’t think of it as a time management tool, but turns out it has helped me with my focus and productivity in a big way.
My Reasons
When I first laid eyes on the Apple Watch, I wanted it for 2 reasons:
- My phone is a little big to carry in my pocket all the time and I often don’t hear it in my purse
- My toddler daughter tries to steal my phone any time it’s out.
…ok, ok. Three reasons. It’s the cool thing, and I’m a sucker for the appeal of Apple, and if you try to tell me there is a smarter non-Apple smart watch out there I will politely nod and smile, and go back to my MacBook Air, iPhone 6, Apple TV ways.
But I digress.
A Productivity Solution
After using the Apple Watch for a few months, I discovered an interesting productivity side benefit. I’m used to keeping my phone out when I work. I’m on the go so much, that my cell is my primary mode of communication so I never want to miss a call.
When my phone is out, however, I’m all too tempted to go on Facebook, or check the weather, or scroll through the latest news stories, or do any of the other 10,000 things we do on phones now that aren’t texting or phone calls.
Now that I have the watch, I keep my phone out of sight and I’m far less distracted! I know that if I get a call, my wrist will buzz and I won’t miss anything. I disabled the email alerts so the only thing that comes through are texts and phone calls.
Your Turn
Don’t have the couple hundred bucks for a tiny phone you wear on your wrist? No big deal. You can do the same thing and put your phone out of reach while you’re working, but I probably never would have taken that self-discipline leap, or realized how helpful it could be, without the watch pushing me there.
So what about you? Do you feel the need to stay in communication but can’t stand distracting allure of your smartphone? How do you balance the two?
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