I definitely didn't believe that the Apple Watch would be so useful and change so many ways and things in my life. But it really did. And now I feel even more productive, creative and up to date than ever!
Here is some ways that the Apple Watch has changed my life:
- Fitness and health. Before the watch I was terrible at doing fitness, workouts or even doing some movements at all really. I was bad on taking a walk, I was bad at standing up. I was bad at drinking enough water. But now with the watch always on my wrist I have become a lot better with this. I'm not saying that I have become a fitness guru or something, but I'm saying that I have now setup a daily goal for how much I should move and stand up. And it actually works! The activity points and awards has become like a mini game for me. I just have to reach to my goal everyday. It works as great as the Karma points in Todoist works. It motivates you to do stuff. And the Workout app is amazing. Just choose what you will do, for example “Walking”, and then choose a goal, calories or time. And then just start! And the watch measures everything for you. Pace, pulse, steps, distance, average speed and more. And you get notifications during your workout. So simple but effective.
- Task management. You probably know how important task management and GTD is for me, and my task management of choice is the excellent service called Todoist. And they have an awesome Apple Watch app that makes it so easy to both check all my projects, what should be done today and also to add new tasks using Siri. I really like that it's so easy to snooze a task from the watch. I have their Glance extension as the number one when I swipe up on the watch so I can easily see what should be done and to add new tasks. Todoist on the watch has made me more up to date and a lot easier to add new tasks on the go. And I also use the excellent calendar app Sunrise that also has an excellent Apple Watch app. It makes It so easy to see my daily and weekly schedule. And the notifications is really good too. I hardly never check my calendar on my iPhone anymore.
- Weather. I can't believe how good it is to have a weather report always with you on your wrist! And the default weather app looks so good too. I have it as an complication on the different watch faces so I can easily see the actual weather and with a fast tap on it get the full weather report. And it is so well made for the small screen so I actually prefer to look at the weather on my watch than on my phone.
- Location based features. This is one of the best things with the watch. The reason why location based features is so good on the watch is because you wear it so it's so easy to look at it when it taps you on your wrist. So I can add location based reminders on some of my Todoist tasks for example, and the watch notifies me with taps on my wrist when I am in that location and when I then look at my watch it clearly shows what I should do in that specific location. Just brilliant. I also have an Apple Watch app called “Find near me”, that makes it so easy to search for things you want to find in the location you are at. You can pre-define all the usual things you want to search for in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone. For example “Pizza”. Or you can choose something from the default list. So if I for example tap on pizza on my watch, I get a list with all pizza restaurants that is near me, and if I tap on the navigate icon I get directions to follow to that restaurant directly on my watch! And the navigation is silent with light taps on your wrist when it's time to make a turn. Just brilliant. I'm sure we will see a lot more location based Apple Watch apps. It's a natural match.
- Audio. The watch has also changed how I listen to audio. For example my favorite podcast app called Overcast has an excellent Apple Watch app that makes it so easy to control the listening. I use it as a remote for my podcasts now. No need for reaching for the iPhone when you already have a remote on your wrist. And I also switched to Instapaper from Pocket as my read later service thanks to the Apple Watch. Why? Well because they have an Apple Watch app that makes it possible to listen to the articles you have saved to read later. It uses the really good Text To Speech feature that is built in to iOS. And you have excellent controls in the Instapaper Apple Watch app too. You can delete, archive and move articles you have read (listen), and it has pause, stop and play controls of course. So now I can listen to the articles I have saved to read later when I'm doing a Power walk or driving in my car for example. And yes of course the sound comes through the iPhone and not the watch.
- Journal. Believe it or not, but the Apple Watch is also great for logging your life with the right apps . I have been using the excellent journal app called Day One for a long time, and when I got my Apple Watch I found out that it has an excellent Apple Watch app too! It makes it so easy to check in to places you visit, or add the latest photo you have been taken on your iPhone to your journal directly from the watch! You can also of course use Siri (dictation) to add to your journal, or add entries from a predefined list of entries, like “at the cinema”, or “eating dinner with my wife”, and Day One automatically adds the location and time to the journal entry too for example. Journaling is important to be as productive as possible. For me it's a kind of therapy, a way to “empty my head”.
- Photos. Another thing you probably don't believe is that the Apple Watch is also great for photos. Even on such a small display. Yes of course it's much better to watch photos on the iPad, but it's quite handy that you can sync a preferred album to your watch too. And you can also choose how much storage the photos is allowed to take on the watch. But the most impressive I've seen when it comes to photos on the watch is the Instagram Apple Watch app. It's incredible. It's very impressive to see how great the developers has made the Apple Watch app. The squared photos almost looks magical on the small screen. It's so easy to go through your stream and comment and like on the photos you like. Amazing work! I actually think the Instagram app could be an excellent selling point for many Instagram users.
- News. And as I've been writing before, apps like Nuzzel, Hooks and Flipboard is excellent on the Apple Watch because you can do so much with the news you get from them via notifications. For example add articles to a read later service, or share to different social networks directly from the watch. And the handoff feature works great between the Apple Watch and the iPad and iPhone. It has completely changed how I collect news to blog, vlog or podcast about.
- Math. And finally is the calculator watch back again :) Apps like Calculator + works great on the watch, and it can be really advanced too if you need that. It's much easier and faster to calculate something immediately on your wrist than having to put out your iPhone from your pocket and find an calculator app to do it.
So this was some more things that makes the Apple Watch worth it. To me the Apple Watch is a game changer. I can't be without it really.