[eckza]

I love this, I love this, I love this.

Right now, I am about a month along with no Facebook or Messenger. Previously I spent hours per day on both, running a pretty large community group and supporting its members. I disappeared; no explanation. Stress levels are down, I have so much more time to do things, and I have so much more attention for the things that really matter.

Anybody that needs me, has my phone number; and at least for now, SMS isn't a gamified platform (I'm looking at you, Snapchat).

Any social media apps (I compulsively install and uninstall Instagram a few times a week because on one hand, it's awesome; on the other hand, I end up putting too much time into it) have notifications disabled.

Getting an Apple Watch was the real game changer. Now, if my phone goes off, I don't even have to look at it or stop what I'm doing. I can decide whether or not to engage with the incoming notification without risking getting sucked into "being on my phone". With LTE, I can even leave the god damn phone in the car, at my desk, or in my locker at the gym without having to worry about missing an important call.

HN is my ground zero for everything and while it may be a little dangerous to only read news and articles that are posted on the same website, you all are pretty balanced and nuanced people from reasonably diverse backgrounds and worldviews, so I'm not that worried about it.

[greggman]

interesting. I would have thought a watch would be worse because it's basically a "hey, look at your phone alarm".

I spend too much time futsing around the internet but I have almost all notifications turned off. no Twitter notifications, no Facebook notifications, no Instagram notifications. I only have messenger like app notifications on.

[rootusrootus]

I have found my experience similar to the person you are responding to. With my Apple Watch I still see notifications, but I devote very little time to the interruption before dismissing most of it. It doesn't distract me long enough to derail my train of thought, and it is hard to get sucked into the Internet through the watch. I am working on tuning my notifications to just essentials, but even at full blast it has been a net win so far.

[ericd]

I found it still creates those addictive little dopamine hits that prevents you from really being able to easily disengage, slow down, and think deeply. It keeps the addiction alive. It's useful for times when you need to respond quickly to messages, emails, and such, like during big deals or launches, but otherwise, I throw my smart watch in the drawer in favor of a mechanical one. I also aggressively uninstall apps that attempt to grab my attention, rather than waiting for me to call on them. Couldn't be happier with these decisions.

[eckza]

That's what I told my wife for like 3 years (as she has been an Apple Watch day-one user). I finally caved and got one.

Everybody else that commented on this post beat me to the punch, more or less; but because I have to spend less mental energy digesting the notifications, it ends up being LESS of an interruption - not more.

You don't have to sit at dinner with your family, KNOWING that your phone buzzed, wondering whether it was an important work email, a text from your boss, or your dipshit best friend multi-texting you 30 photos of sick bikes that he wants to buy and / or thinks you should buy. ;)

[michaelt]

If I couldn't leave work for long enough to eat a dinner with my family, I would be diagnosing a different root cause and applying a different fix :)

[najra]

So you do end up reading those, just quicker than you would on your phone

[ozmbie]

I find the watch helps, because you distil your digital interactions down to a small number of important ones. Then go about your life without the constant pull of your phone nearby.

The new Series 3 LTE watch has enough battery to get me through the day. The only notifications I have enabled are messages, phone calls, and reminders.

I leave my phone at home but I'm still available for the important things.

[vram22]

>The only notifications I have enabled are messages, phone calls, and reminders.

>I leave my phone at home but I'm still available for the important things.

How do you reply to phone calls then? Via a public phone? Or do you not reply?

(I don't know about the capabilities of that watch, and whether you can call back on it.)

[wan23]

The Apple Watch can make and receive calls, though you might not want to talk to your wrist for an extended conversation as it can be kind of uncomfortable.

[Yhippa]

This ends up being the case for me for my Android Wear watch. The thing keeps vibrating and I am more tempted to check it out even while I'm in the presence of others. When the phone was in my pocket it took more effort and was a bigger gesture than it is to just furtively look down at my wrist and swipe a few things away.

[muzani]

Using a Fitbit here. I didn't buy it for the phone notifications but found it felt useful to focus. The real killer is not the calls but the other apps - email, shopping, Samsung.

A lot of deals come in from Facebook messenger for me, but I don't want to actually touch Facebook. The watch is really good at this too, and telling me who it's from.

[vvanders]

I love my Pebble for the same reason and I'm really dreading when they will become hard to come by. I already lost one Time Round to a swelling LiPo and nothing else has a similar form factor.

[letsgetphysITal]

Fitbit killed the original Pebble, or at least I couldn't get my Pebble connected reliably to my iPhone. Apple watch is a great upgrade.

[Angostura]

Certainly a few months ago, there were Time Rounds going on Amazon on clearance (refurb stock) I know, I got one cut price.

[caconym_]

I have been considering the Apple Watch with LTE for this reason. I don't want to supplement my phone; I want to largely replace it with something that's less intrusive and offers less potential for wasting time. Thanks for sharing your experience.

[PhasmaFelis]

> Previously I spent hours per day on both, running a pretty large community group and supporting its members. I disappeared; no explanation.

I'm glad you're feeling better, but I'm not sure why you'd choose to leave people in the lurch rather than even a brief message.

[idrios]

If I'm not wrong, the message would disappear after the person deleted their Facebook so for people to see it the parent would have needed to stay on Facebook long enough for people to see it (which is an easy way to get sucked back into staying)

[ardillaroja]

> reasonably diverse backgrounds and worldviews

Definitely agree with the rest of your comment. Not sure about this bit though, I love the HN community but I think we're a pretty homogenous bunch. I would guess a lot of us work in technology, relatively well-educated, relatively wealthy, left-leaning, english speaking etc.

Disclaimer: I've no data on this...

[Retric]

I generally think of HN as far right not far left. But, I think it's bias in how we react to things not HN.

Granted, not an American Republican party sounding board, but in terms of actual right and left political spectrum.