Ben Brooks on Abandoning the Apple Watch

The Wrist — The Brooks Review

When I wear the Apple Watch I feel as though I am never out of contact. Tap, tap — your turn on this game. Tap, tap – someone made a joke about you in Slack. Tap, tap – unimportant text message. Tap, tap – news news news.

I understand where Ben is coming from, but it takes very little time to fix this. Notification overload is certainly possible with a smart watch, as it's harder to ignore a tap on your wrist than a buzz in your pocket. I solved this early on in my Apple Watch usage by cutting out some of the apps that were sending me excessive notifications. My mentality is that any notification I get is something I will likely want to act on.

He also brings up the fact that this removed his ability to focus when he was wearing it:

I could never be heads down. I could never get fully “in the zone” when I wore my Apple Watch because I was always one tap tap away from being interrupted.

Again, I get it but this is exactly what "do not disturb" is for.

Ben is a smart guy, and I'm sure he's aware of all this, but it just doesn't seem to be enough for him. I love watches of all types, so I don't think he's crazy for going back to a traditional watch. That said, I love my Apple Watch more all the time, so don't worry about me getting out of the smart watch game.