We’re not ashamed to admit that here at Multiminded we’re suckers for cool tech and things don’t get much cooler than the Apple Watch. Fiona was thrilled to receive one as a very early birthday gift and it arrived at the Toffee Factory on the first day of release. We asked her a few questions…
OK it’s a nice bit of kit but do you really need it?
I guess the official answer should be no but I love it so much I’ll say yes anyway. Could I live without it? Of course but does it enhance my life? Yes. For two simple reasons. I no longer have to take my phone everywhere. Nowadays we’re all fixed at the hip to our mobiles taking them pretty much everywhere. I draw the line at the bathroom but every other time I move rooms at home, in the office, etc. my mobile usually goes with me. Now I have the watch I don’t do that anymore. I no longer need to. And now that I’m aware of that it feels surprisingly liberating not to. It’s healthier too. It seems strange to say this but this new piece of tech has made me realise just how reliant we can all be on tech even at times when we don’t need to be.
The second reason?
Time. “D’oh!” I hear you say “it’s a watch – of course time is a factor” but I haven’t worn a watch for years. I’ve used my mobile instead but there’s something about having a proper watch on my wrist that makes me much more aware of time in terms of focus. I continually set myself little deadlines throughout the day. I plan things differently. I can honestly say it completely transformed my time management making me immediately more productive from the get go.
And that’s without all the ‘ooh’s’ and ‘aahs’ of the pretty butterflies, jellyfish, flowers and Mickey Mouse and the fascination of checking out my heart rate at obscure times.
Anything you don’t like?
Getting the notification and haptic settings right took a bit longer to master than expected which surprised me as I’m a complete geek. But once sorted it’s worked brilliantly.
Notifications?
This has been a bit of a learning curve. I set far too many alerts and notifications in the early days. For example I definitely didn’t want an alert for every email I received but it’s very useful to receive texts this way. It was fascinating to receive BBC news alerts during the election and its aftermath.