The longer I use my Apple Watch, the more I’m convinced that it’s something anyone who has an iPhone should buy.
In all honesty, I was a little skeptical of the idea of a smart watch this time last year. While I loved the thought of tracking my workout and general body movement statistics more accurately, I wasn’t sure if I’d actually use the watch enough in other areas of my life to justify the cost of it.
Now that I’ve had mine for almost a year, I’m surprised at how much I rely on it.
By far my favorite part of owning this watch is the Health app that comes preinstalled on it. This is something I suspected would be the case a year ago, and it turned out to be true.
There is something incredibly satisfying about seeing the exercise minutes, calories burned, and standing hours rings grow throughout the day. Often I’ll walk in place while watching a TV show in the evening in order to burn those last few calories and make all three goals for the day.
The badges you earn for a perfect week in any or all of these categories are highly motivating to me. This won’t have the same effect on everyone, of course, but it is something to keep in mind if you also like getting cheerful messages when you complete a goal.
It’s interesting to check my heart rate every once in a while. I’ve learned that my resting heart rate can be as low as 55 or 60 beats per minute. Sometimes I play a game with myself where I see how low I can get it to go if I completely relax every part of my mind and body. It’s amazing to see just how much something as simple as a stray thought or a tense muscle can affect your heart rate.
Reminders are another feature of this watch that I’ve come to use every single day. I’ve set them for everything from daily routine stuff like taking medication to one time reminders about the time and place for that medical appointment I set up months or even years ago. It is really nice to have that prompt when you booked that optometrist appointment two years ago and you can’t for the life of you remember if it was for 3 pm on Wednesday the second of the month or 2pm on Thursday the third. I have a pretty good memory, but stuff like this is easy to forget after a couple of years!
It’s also been nice to have instant contact with my spouse when we’re spending some time doing separate things. If one of our phones is muted for some reason, we’ll still feel the tap of the watch on our wrist when we get an iMessage. This has come in handy for us more than once.
On a silly note, I’ve also come to love sending my husband my heartbeat or a drawing every once in a while.
In fact, I think I’ll send him one now while I publish this post!