“Dumb” Watches

This is for anyone who fell down a smartwatch hole like I did, a hole I happily resided in for many years, with my streaks and alerts and reminders. One day, I realized it felt like the watch was the boss of me, not the other way around, and I didn’t need to feel like that. So I replaced it with a “dumb” watch and it immediately felt right.

I still wear my old Apple Watch to track workouts but as soon as I put it on, my stress and annoyance levels climb incrementally with every notification. It’s such a relief to discard it afterwards for something calm and pretty that tells me the time when I look at it instead of news headlines at breakneck speed.