- Hey everyone.
Today I want to talk to you about this little computer
that I wear on my wrist.
I want to tell you about my experience with it,
the apps I use on it,
and also why I think it is particularly great
as a remote worker.
(serene piano music)
I first got an Apple Watch about a year and a half ago,
I bought the Series 1, the 38 millimeter size
which was the smaller of the two sizes,
and just recently I upgraded to the Series 4,
so this is the newest version at the time
that I'm filming this,
and for this one I have the 40 millimeter
which is again the smaller size of the two.
The main reason that I personally upgraded
is because this one has a faster processor in it
so it's noticeably quicker when I'm navigating
through apps and things like that,
and also it is waterproof.
The Series 1 was water-resistant I think,
like you could have it in the shower,
but you couldn't go swimming with it
and I wanted to be able to use it
to track swimming workouts so this one can do that.
Luckily even though the design of the watch itself,
the Series 4, is slightly different to the past versions
the same watch bands still fit.
So I purchased this brown leather strap
when I bought my first Apple Watch
just because I felt like it was, I don't know,
it looked nicer and it fit me better as well,
the way the leather strap goes compared to the sport band.
When you buy a watch it always comes with a strap,
so when I upgraded I got the sport band version
which is kind of like the Velcro thing
and it's a good one to wear while working out,
tt's kind of like facric-y.
The two main things that I use my watch for,
aside from telling the time of course,
is work and workouts.
Let me just tell you a little bit about each of those.
I find the Apple Watch really handy during my work day
because I have my calendar on screen.
This shows me what my next upcoming appointment is
and I have both my personal calendar
with my side project stuff or whatever,
and also my work calendar in there,
so I always know what's coming up next
and can just be aware of it and how much time
that I have to go before it.
A way I like to work that I've mentioned in videos before
is using the Pomodoro Technique.
Basically this means you work in a solid focus block
for 25 minutes, then you have a five minute break,
another 25 minute block, another five minute break,
et cetera.
I find that using this technique is a really good way
to help me stay focused and help me get stuff done
because I will set a task for myself to do within
that 25 minute block, and I have an app on my watch
that does the Pomodoro timer thing
so I don't always have to be setting a timer,
so basically I just tap it, start focus,
when it counts down to the end it will count down
my break for me as well
and tell me when I should get back to work.
I love having this on my wrist because I can easily
just quickly look down and it'll tell me how long
I've got left on the block and I'll be like okay,
seven more minutes, I can do work for that long
before I check Twitter.
It's pretty unintrusive, it just gives me a little buzz
on the wrist when I'm done
and then I know I can take a break,
and it's really good for keeping me on track
throughout the day.
Speaking of focus, another reason why
I think the Apple Watch really helps with my work day
is because of notifications,
and that might sound counter-productive
because I know getting too many notifications
can be really distracting, and it definitely is on my phone.
When I would see a notification flash up on the screen
of my phone I would pick it up to check what it is,
and then because I'm holding my phone I'm inevitably
going to end up going into some apps,
scrolling on Twitter for a while.
With my watch I get a little buzz on my wrist
when a notification comes in and then you just kind of
lift your arm up and it'll flash up on screen.
This means that I can be aware of what's happening
but it's not super easy to reply from my watch,
it is possible but it's not a great user experience
so I don't really find myself doing that.
I find I focus best when my phone is in a different room
so I'm just like not even tempted by it,
but when I do that I'm worried that I'm missing out
on something, something urgent or something that really
I need to respond to, missing a phone call,
or something like that,
and because all of those notifications show up on here
I don't need to worry about it,
because I'm still being made aware of all of the stuff
that's happening and I can check it and decide
if I need to attend to it right now,
or if maybe it could wait until my next break,
and to be honest, usually it can wait.
So it reassures me that I'm not missing anything
but it allows me to keep focused and keep working.
Just like on your phone you can choose what apps
you actually get a notification for on your watch as well.
And then the last little thing I want to point out
to do with work,
is I have a New York time zone down here in the corner.
Most of my team members are in the States
and I'm not very good at remembering time zones
in my head so it's nice to be able to just quickly
glance and see around about what time it is
in their workday.
Alright, next up is workouts.
So before I got an Apple Watch I wore a Fitbit,
it was just one of the little digital pedometer things,
so it just counted steps.
The Apple Watch counts steps too but it also counts,
it measures your heart rate,
so it can measure calories burned and things like that,
so it's a lot more accurate than my little Fitbit was.
I'm sure you've heard of this but the Apple Watch
has a thing called activity rings,
so basically every day it wants you to burn
a certain amount of calories and your ring will fill up
as you burn through them.
It wants you to exercise for at least 30 minutes,
I think if your heart rate goes over a certain amount
then it counts as exercise.
And then in the middle here is standing,
it wants you to get up and move around every hour,
that's really healthy for you to not stay in one place
too long, and keep your body moving.
I find the activity rings really motivating,
I like achieving things and it also gives you little badges
and things like that,
which you can see here in my app on my phone.
When you, I don't know, achieve 200% of your goal,
or you hit it x-number of days in a row,
that's always really satisfying.
I've been really surprised since becoming a remote worker
at how little I move per day if I'm just like,
going about my regular day and not aware
and intending on moving or exercising,
so I like having the rings because it makes me aware
of how little I'm moving basically,
and it encourages me to get up and go do more.
When your office is right next door to your bedroom
then you don't have to go far to go to work in the morning
so you have to be a lot more purposeful about how you move.
So for me personally, I find the activity rings
really motivating and I think it is definitely having
a huge impact on my health as a remote worker.
So now that I've professed my love for activity rings,
let me show you the workouts app,
so this is what I use when I track a workout basically.
So if I'm going for a walk around the park,
if I'm going for a run on the treadmill,
going for a swim, doing weights,
I will always start the workout here in the app
before I do and then it'll log it as I'm going.
When you're doing a workout it shows you
how many kilometers you've gone
if it's a distance based one,
where your heart rate is, how many calories you've burned,
so those are the main functions that I use on my watch
and I just want to quickly show you what watch faces
I have set up,
'cause you can pick from many different templates
and customize them to suit whatever you personally use.
This right here was the first watch face that I set up
and the one that I used for quite a long time.
Its just got the date, the time, that's my calender
in the middle there showing me what my next
coming up appointment is that I really like.
Got the weather, I've got my rings,
and this is a Pomodoro timer.
The next one is the one that I would then swipe along
and switch to when I'm doing a workout,
so it shows my activity rings, super large behind the clock,
click on workouts at the top there, and then my heart rate,
and then I just have the timer at the bottom too.
This watch face here though is my new fave,
and this design came out with the Series 4,
so it's a pretty recent one.
With this I can fit a lot more stuff
but I think it's nicely designed,
it doesn't look too cluttered.
I've got my calender up at the top there wrapping around
the clock, and I can just tap on that to go into it
and see what's happening.
I've got my activity up in the top left,
the weather at the top right,
and I like that this one shows me
what the high and low is of the day.
Then like I was talking about,
I have my New York timezone in the corner,
and then Wellington timezone in the other corner
because my family all lives in New Zealand.
In the middle I've showed the date
because I can never remember what day it is
and I'm always checking my watch to tell me
what the date is.
I've got my activity rings, on the side here I have my timer
and then this here is a different Pomodoro app.
I've switched to using this one,
and it's called Focus because it has a complication,
is what they're called, that works with this watch face.
I think that the people who made this old one
that I was using, that I can't quite remember the name of,
I think it was called focus timer,
but yeah, they haven't updated it
so it's not possible to be used on here.
Then if I really want to switch off and not think about
the weather, or my calendar, or anything like that,
or be guilted into doing exercise I suppose
looking at my rings,
I have this last watch face which is just a clock
and behind it is this very soothing little animation.
A function of the Apple Watch that I don't use that often
is breathe, where basically it'll just give you a reminder
to sit and take a breath.
It's quite nice whenever I do do it,
so I should probably do it more.
It's kind of like a couple minutes of some meditation
where you breathe in time to this thing zooming in and out,
and it is very calming.
So that's my watch faces, and that's my watch.
People often ask me if I would say it's worth getting,
and if I recommend they buy one,
and I don't know if I can tell you that,
I think that you have to decide that for yourselves.
I personally really like gadgets
so I like having this thing,
and I find it really useful for all of the reasons
that I just said, especially the keeping me moving one.
Now that I've become a remote worker,
keeping me moving is really important and yeah,
staying up to date with my team and my calender,
and all of that, it has been really handy for work.
Obviously Apple Watches do not come cheap
so I do think of it more as a luxury, really nice to have,
rather than something that is necessary for your daily life.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed hearing about
why I do like my Apple Watch and how I use it.
I don't normally make videos like this,
I know I normally make videos about design,
so if you're new to my channel
and you're expecting more tech reviews,
it's not normally what I do,
but I do talk about design and software,
and the computers I use for design every so often,
so if you're in to that sort of thing
please subscribe and I will see you back here
for the next one.
Thanks for watching, give it a thumbs up
if you did enjoy it.
If you use an Apple Watch as well
tell me what your favorite feature of it is.
I'm always interested in hearing how other people use theirs
because they are so customizable and so personal.
So yeah, share that down below in the comments,
thanks again for watching
and I'll see you in the next video.
Bye.
(funky instrumental music)