Episode 95
This little piece of tech changed my life
I received an Apple Watch for my birthday.
“Woop de doo,” I hear you say.
“People get Apple Watches all the time. What’s the big deal?”
Well, the big deal is that it has changed my life.
And there is a very simple reason why.
Attention.
Prior to my Apple Watch life, my phone was the way I accessed the bulk of those things that we all need:
The time, the date, banking, messages, phone calls, music, podcasts, maps, photos.
But because my phone also had these:
Social media, YouTube, News, Business Apps, Analytics, Slack, Real Estate, Airbnb…
Well, I know you understand what I’m going to say next.
I would pick up my phone purely because I wanted to know what time it was, and all of a sudden I was on Instagram answering DM’s and “just checking” my work emails.
If I was ever “waiting” for something my default action would be to check my phone.
But since this little watch has come into my life, all that has changed.
My energy has shifted from distracted, to attentive.
I don’t bring my phone anywhere unless it’s a bigger business trip. Everything I actually need is on my wrist.
The rest I can access within work hours when I’m at my desk.
And I feel like me again.
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Transcript
I got an Apple Watch for my birthday.
Speaker:And it has changed my life.
Speaker:No, I'm not some sort of Apple fanatic.
Speaker:I'm not a crazed Apple fan that
Speaker:will camp outside, waiting for the
Speaker:new Apple product to be launched.
Speaker:I'm not gonna stampede the doors
Speaker:and push past people like you see
Speaker:Arnie do on Jingle All The Way.
Speaker:One of my favorite movies of all time.
Speaker:That's just not me.
Speaker:I like Apple products, but I
Speaker:don't obsess about those things.
Speaker:I recently sent an email out to
Speaker:my newsletter subscribers, telling
Speaker:them the story of this Apple watch.
Speaker:And I got such a good response
Speaker:from it that I'm going to
Speaker:share it with you here as well.
Speaker:I have now had this Apple watch for about
Speaker:four months prior to my Apple watch life.
Speaker:I got everything I needed from
Speaker:my phone, as most of us do.
Speaker:We can tell the time, the date, podcasts,
Speaker:music, checking with people via messages,
Speaker:phone calls, all the standard stuff.
Speaker:You've got your calendar,
Speaker:events, organization,
Speaker:banking, that sort of thing.
Speaker:The normal stuff that you
Speaker:can access from your phone.
Speaker:But the problem I had was that
Speaker:because my phone also had social
Speaker:media, YouTube, business accounts.
Speaker:analytics, Airbnb, Uber
Speaker:Eats, all the other stuff.
Speaker:It meant that the
Speaker:distraction level was high.
Speaker:When I go to check the time, I bring
Speaker:up my phone and I check the time, but
Speaker:then all of a sudden I'm on social
Speaker:media, I'm checking my Instagram
Speaker:DMs, I'm checking my business emails.
Speaker:Things that I never intended
Speaker:to be doing in that moment.
Speaker:I just wanted to know what the time was.
Speaker:And then all of a sudden I'm
Speaker:lost somewhere and I can't
Speaker:remember what I even went to my
Speaker:phone for in the first place.
Speaker:This is stuff that I on reflection
Speaker:realize I've been doing, but I
Speaker:didn't really realize it at the
Speaker:time before I had the Apple watch.
Speaker:So how did the Apple
Speaker:watch change my life?
Speaker:Well, I went from distraction to
Speaker:attention, and that's massive.
Speaker:Everything shifted from me picking
Speaker:up my phone and by accident being on
Speaker:something that I didn't mean to be,
Speaker:to having my Apple Watch come up with
Speaker:the time right there, checking it.
Speaker:And then that's it.
Speaker:Social media, you can't really
Speaker:access on the Apple Watch.
Speaker:I can access things that I really want,
Speaker:like my music and podcasts, being a
Speaker:podcast producer, SMSing, phone calls.
Speaker:I can still do those things
Speaker:on my Apple Watch, but there
Speaker:is literally no distractions.
Speaker:And because I also walk many kilometers
Speaker:a day, I can now track those steps.
Speaker:It's just made such a profound impact
Speaker:on my mental health that I feel
Speaker:like everyone needs to know this.
Speaker:We spend way too much time on these
Speaker:short form content platforms that
Speaker:suck us in because of an algorithm.
Speaker:And then we lose all this time.
Speaker:We waste so much time on things
Speaker:that really don't matter.
Speaker:What do you do with the information
Speaker:that you gain from that TikTok video
Speaker:that was like a funny viral thing?
Speaker:What do you do with that information?
Speaker:You have it now.
Speaker:You could tell someone about it later,
Speaker:but does it add any value to your life?
Speaker:Actually, these are the questions
Speaker:that I started thinking about myself.
Speaker:Once I got away from the distraction
Speaker:of having a phone around with all those
Speaker:distractions on it, I started to really
Speaker:think about who I am, what I love doing.
Speaker:And there was so much more peace,
Speaker:so much more peace and quiet.
Speaker:I'd pick up a book, or I
Speaker:wouldn't pick up a book.
Speaker:If I'm out now, and I'm meeting someone
Speaker:for lunch, I'd never bring my phone
Speaker:because everything I have is on my watch.
Speaker:And instead of the default going to
Speaker:go to distraction, to not be socially
Speaker:awkward by looking, I've stopped that.
Speaker:I go back to what I used to
Speaker:do, which was people watch.
Speaker:And that's how a lot of my songwriting
Speaker:happened because I would be sitting
Speaker:somewhere and watching people go by and
Speaker:imagining what their lives are like and
Speaker:imagining where they're going and what
Speaker:they're doing and who they're talking to.
Speaker:If they're on the.
Speaker:Phone.
Speaker:Have they just got good news?
Speaker:Bad news.
Speaker:I'm so interested by people.
Speaker:And for the longest time, I haven't been
Speaker:really engaging in society when I'm out
Speaker:there in the world with other people.
Speaker:So that's my reflection.
Speaker:That's all I really wanted to say, is
Speaker:that the Apple Watch has changed my
Speaker:life, is that I'm no longer distracted.
Speaker:I'm so much more attentive.
Speaker:I feel so much better.
Speaker:I'm walking more, even more
Speaker:than I was before, because I
Speaker:want to impress my Apple Watch.
Speaker:Because I want those rings
Speaker:to get all the way around.
Speaker:It's such a good feeling to
Speaker:feel like I'm more in my body.
Speaker:I'm more myself than I have
Speaker:been in quite a long time.
Speaker:And I would implore you to check your
Speaker:screen time on your phone and you decide
Speaker:for yourself whether that is acceptable.
Speaker:Whatever number that comes
Speaker:up, is that acceptable?
Speaker:How much time do you spend
Speaker:on devices that you really
Speaker:don't need to be spending on?
Speaker:And you will realize once you're
Speaker:off of that, there is so much more
Speaker:space for you to think, create.
Speaker:And you'll do some of your best
Speaker:work because of it as well.
Speaker:Are you on social media as a job?
Speaker:That's something that can be
Speaker:hard to get out of as well.
Speaker:Maybe you love short form content,
Speaker:but for me personally, I have
Speaker:felt a massive pull towards
Speaker:long form, long conversations
Speaker:and feeling way more connected.
Speaker:to the content that I'm consuming.
Speaker:That's why I started
Speaker:this YouTube channel.
Speaker:I really wanted a way to connect
Speaker:with long form in an audio format
Speaker:and a video format as well.
Speaker:Okay, talk to you later.
