For the last three years I’ve been using an Apple Watch exclusively as my watch, from day to day, exercising, hiking, social gatherings etc. But lately I’ve been thinking about going back to a dumb watch.

With the Apple Watch I’ve been addicted to closing my exercise rings, responding to notifications right away and looking at my watch like a madman. I think something has to change.

First, I think I have to ask myself; Do I need to respond to everything as soon as possible? Ever since I started removing social media from my life I’ve realized more and more that I do not in fact need to respond to everything right away. But for some stuff I feel like I need to, but I’m sure that I mostly don’t. If something is very urgent I really hope the people trying to reach me will call me directly instead of expecting a near instant reply to their inquiry.

But how does my Apple Watch fit into all this you may ask. Well it all goes back to the “great” phenomenon called FOMO. I think I’m afraid of missing out on something important, it could be a friend asking to hang out, family inviting me to a birthday party or even an important call. With my smart watch I don’t feel like I’m missing anything. I feel like I’m naked without notifications on my wrist. In hindsight, it’s a sickening feeling. I’ve become so used to having my wrist vibrate for messages, appointments and calls that it’s hard to picture a day without it. I’ve become too attached to my second carrying smart device that I almost fear for not wearing it. This is why I need to leave it behind.

However, I’m not going to sell it or throw it away. It’s the best fitness tracker out there (IMHO), I don’t need to sync any of my data to the cloud, everything can live on my iPhone. So I will continue to use it as a fitness tracker, but solely a fitness tracker, nothing more - nothing less. I think I’ll primarily use it for running, but I might also use it for some other cardio activities and weight lifting.

I’m swapping it out with a Casio watch that I bought a year ago when I tried this earlier. I failed because I became to hung up on all my circles and achievements, and also all that nonsense I don’t need in order to live a healthy and active life.

I’m really looking forward to see how this turns out. Will I become harder to get a hold of? Will I spend less time on my phone responding to messages? Time will tell (pun intended).

Hopefully I’ll write a follow up to this within a year!