No More Smartwatch? - 2021-02-26

I recently got tired of the constant interruptions I was experiencing from my smartwatch. This was a very inexpensive Miband 4. It had some odd idiosyncracies, among them was a quick buzz at 10:15pm that I was never able to turn off. I also would get odd notifications and bumps that seemed to be ignorning my settings, etc.

This is not about complaining about Miband 4s. It is also not about how I should spend more on my smart watches if I want something nice. It really is about me realizing my major use of the smartwatch was as a vibrating alarm. I almost never used it to read notifications. I would get a lot of notifications on the watch but most were not important. The ones that were meant I needed to glance at all of them to make sure I was “getting the good ones”.

At some point, I just decided I was done. I dug through my bin of old electronics and found my Timex Expedition Shock (Timex that looks a lot like a Casio G-Shock, has a dark screen, and 3 vibrating alarms, etc). It was still working fine despite not being used in years and took a few minutes to set up to work as needed. I still maintain a series of alarms on my phone in case I miss the wrist vibrations, but I did that with the smartwatches as well.

Finally, I installed an app (Android) called Buzzkill that took a while to get set up but is now basically burying all but the most important notifications. I can also make sure I never miss anything from my wife, and my boss can reach me during normal working hours. Other than that, I see notifications only when I look for them. This is great. I barely check my phone now unless I am very bored, or I need it for something. I have definitely but doing a lot less of the “watch buzzed, missed the notification, pick up phone and scroll” behaviour.

We’ll see how it goes but I don’t see myself going back to a smart watch for a while, if at all, at this time.

#organizing

Notes:

I added category pages to this site so now can refer you to the COVID19 page where I am collecting thoughts on life during this pandemic.
I thought I would stick this link here to remind me why and how to journal - https://dariusforoux.com/how-to-journal/
The phrase "isn't there anything faster than a microwave" from The Simpons crosses my mind between 1 and 20 times a day.
Why are we still designing new styles of pants? After all this time, shouldn't we have figured that out?

macdonaldster.ca

No More Smartwatch? - 2021-02-26

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