I've stopped wearing my Apple Watch. Kurzgesagt did this great video on exercise that annoyingly confirmed some things I already knew but would prefer to not be true. The main one being that exercise alone isn't enough for maintaining/losing weight. Diet is way more effective, and also better for your long term health. During covid (I know it's not gone but you know what I mean), and for a little after, I was so good about exercise, and essentially all that happened was I reached a weight and stayed there. For 2 years. Cycling 30km a day (both virtually and a little less on the road). 2 years. 1 hour a day. Same weight; no movement. Not sure why it didn't really sink in at the time. My diet's never been terrible, but I don't watch what I eat, and my portion control is terrible.

The Apple Watch is great at two things: telling you things you already know (you were active enough today), and telling you things you don't need to know (how many calories you burned. What your calculated VO₂ max is). It's theoretically good at other things - crash detection, ECG, and fall detection are useful, but given that it can't reliably unlock my laptop, you'll forgive me for not counting on those things! Pretty much everything else it can do, I can already do on my phone.

So I've spent the last however many years (I got the first one and I've been wearing one pretty much constantly since then) with this thing on my wrist, having to charge it every day, and it's not doing the one thing that I thought would most useful about it - helping me to lose/maintain weight. I just need to let go of the notion that I can use it in this way. I think I've given it a fair shot.

It also means something else is gone from my life. Notifications don't immediately grab my attention and distract me. If I know there's a notification, I have to know what it is. It's annoying, and I don't love being that way, but you play the hand you're dealt.

This has had a very nice effect on my life in the last few days. My phone is always on silent or Do Not Disturb anyway, so I often don't hear notifications when they come in unless my watch taps me. Now I'm not getting distracted by notifications, which has made my phone more like the internet used to be - a place you go to check your messages. People can't just get me now - a message has become an indication of intent and I'll see it when I see it. I pick up my phone when it suits me, and if I've got messages I'll see them then. I am enjoying that.

If I carry on feeling this good about my phone just being away from me, and there when I want it, I don't see myself going back the Apple Watch. It's a cool piece of technology, but when I look at what it actually does for me, versus the ways I couldn't get it to work for me, I think I'll prefer being without it.