{"id":65105,"date":"2025-10-08T08:30:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/65105\/"},"modified":"2025-10-08T08:30:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-08T08:30:08","slug":"i-ditched-my-smartwatch-for-a-month-and-felt-my-brain-reset","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/65105\/","title":{"rendered":"I Ditched My Smartwatch for a Month \u2014 and Felt My Brain Reset"},"content":{"rendered":"

I WAS ABOUT to leave for my flight when I took off my Apple Watch<\/a> and put it on my dresser. The trip to Portugal was hosted by a watch brand, Tudor \u2013 a surf expedition with a big wave champion, definitely not in my typical weekend plans\u2014and one of their stipulations was that I wear one of their ultra-luxe models the entire time. Seemed like a fair trade-off. By the time my flight touched down in Lisbon, I\u2019d already hit a milestone: It was the longest my wrist had gone without a smartwatch<\/a> in years. <\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the thing: In my day-to-day life, I\u2019m a notification maximalist. I have every single possible alert turned on. Each text and email and news alert and app notification becomes a literal tap on the wrist. Again and again and again. Usually, the only time I take it off is to charge it. I\u2019m always connected, even in bed (I have to use my watch to track my sleep, after all).<\/p>\n

But lately, that tether has started to feel more like a chain. I worry the anxiety I\u2019ve started to feel outweighs the convenience constant connection provides\u2014the twitchiness when I\u2019ve received too many notifications, or too few. I want to dumb down my life a bit.<\/p>\n

A cushy trip Portugal seemed like a perfect excuse to unplug. As soon as the \u2018dumb\u2019 watch was on my wrist (likely the most valuable item I\u2019d ever worn in my life) I noticed something shift. I found myself pathologically checking my arm as I moved around my hotel room. At breakfast, I started feeling ghost notifications\u2014slight haptic pushes like those that would announce an incoming text. But the watch on my wrist didn\u2019t have that capability, so what I was feeling was more like a phantom limb. Or withdrawal.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve been wearing and reviewing smartwatches since I got my first in 2015, the year the Apple Watch debuted. The devices have since evolved from tech curios to mainstream wristwear. My grandmother now wears one. For this magazine, I\u2019ve tested models from Apple <\/a>and Garmin<\/a> to Fitbit and Suunto that can track just about every conceivable activity and measure all kinds of biometric data. I\u2019ve recorded almost every workout for the last decade, giving me a log of all those hours of sweat.<\/p>\n

On my second day in Portugal, I was sitting in the sun reading a book. My phone was facedown on the table and I had no obligations for a few hours. Wouldn\u2019t you know it: I\u2019d made it through detox and was able to totally focus. It was a pure moment in time, uninterrupted by noise. It feels absurd that I needed to fly halfway around the world for clarity, but there I was, with a pricey hunk of metal on my wrist and, for once, a clear head.<\/p>\n

As I put down my book, I decided I would make this more than just a few days off. I would go back home to New York and spend a full 30 days without wearing a smartwatch.<\/p>\n

BACK IN BROOKLYN, I took my first run without a smartwatch in years. I went on a familiar 5K route and halfway through, I realised I felt much more comfortable in my stride when I wasn\u2019t stressing over in-the-moment metrics. I\u2019d end up going on eight runs over the 30 day period and felt much more relaxed and in tune with my body without the watch.<\/p>\n

At work, my typical focus-to-distraction ratio is about 1:3\u2014as in, one distraction every three minutes\u2014since there\u2019s always another email, text, or news alert buzzing on my wrist that pulls me completely out of my flow. But when I got back to the office, I was able to put my phone on the desk, screen down and out of sight. I was much more dialed in on the work in front of me. During lulls in focus, I no longer had the watch as an easy gateway to pulling out my phone. And even when I did have messages, my brain didn\u2019t feel their pull as acutely as it did with the watch-to-phone notification combo.<\/p>\n

About halfway through the 30-day period, I called up Dr. Konstadin Kushlev<\/a>, a behavioral scientist and associate professor at Georgetown University, to try to understand what my deal was. His work at the school\u2019s Happy Tech Lab<\/a> explores the ways we interact with our devices and how that can affect well-being and mental health.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I’m interested in is essentially the opportunity costs,\u201d he says of his research. Our devices \u201cserve so many purposes\u2014but what are they replacing? What are they displacing? What are they interfering with?\u201d<\/p>\n

Finding just one answer to that question might sound complicated, but Dr. Kushlev can point to a key factor: They demand our attention. How and where we focus can be extremely important for our emotional well-being, his research shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cHumans evolved in an environment where it was extremely important to pay attention to social cues,\u201d he says, calling these moments of social affirmation a \u201cbasic motive\u201d of human behaviour. \u201cYou need attention in order to experience the happiness that is available to you in a social interaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t the first time I\u2019ve come across this line of thinking. The first article I ever wrote about smartwatches dealt with this as a question of etiquette<\/a>. A decade later, researchers have a lot more data to confirm that tech fixation isn\u2019t just rude\u2014it can affect your happiness, and that of others around you. \u201cBecause these devices are with us all the time, it probably adds up,\u201d Kushlev says. \u201cIt kind of chips away that happiness here and there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though most of his research is focused on smartphones, Kushlev could immediately point to data he has collected that backed up how I felt during my smartwatch sabbatical. For one 2019 study,<\/a> Kushlev\u2019s team restricted how people received their smartphone notifications. Some participants received notifications on the hour, a second group received them three times per day, and a third group had their notifications turned off entirely. The thrice-daily group had the best results: Kushlev says the researchers observed that participants\u2019 attention and positive emotions improved, while stress was reduced. <\/p>\n

My brain had been feeling calmer\u2014but would it last? Or had I already done irreparable damage to my attention span? For what it\u2019s worth, Dr. Kushlev wears a smartwatch too\u2014he just has all of his notifications turned off.<\/p>\n

Another study<\/a> his team published earlier this year blocked mobile internet on participants\u2019 phones for two weeks. After the two weeks, the researchers found 91 percent of participants saw improved mental health, subjective well-being, and \u201cobjectively measured ability to sustain attention.\u201d Participants also reported that they spent more time socialising in person, exercising, and being in nature during the period.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe improvement was equivalent, or the opposite, of 10 years of age-related decline,\u201d Kushlev says. \u201cWe’re not screwed forever. We just need to take a little break, reduce the notifications, and our attention is going to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

AFTER MY CONVO with Dr. Kushlev, I felt encouraged and continued making the most of my smartwatch-free time. I was able to tune in more to those around me; my girlfriend told me I seemed more attentive when I was speaking to her. When I put my phone on the charger and went to sleep, that was it. I was no longer feeling little prods to check news notifications after lights out. Practically, I enjoyed not having to worry about charging yet another gadget. I did miss using my wrist to pay for my train fare and lunch, but the extra second it took to pull my phone out of my pocket wasn\u2019t actually an inconvenience.<\/p>\n

Once 30 days were up, I put a smartwatch back on\u2014it\u2019s my job to wear them, after all\u2014but with my notification settings drastically reduced. Two days in, I realised I was checking it less, even when it did buzz. I got a new dumb watch (a sturdy Marathon OSAR-D Diver\u2019s<\/a> model) and I\u2019ve been switching between it, a basic Seiko my grandparents gifted me after graduating high school, and my other smart devices.<\/p>\n

I went on a run and didn\u2019t look down to note the stats until two-thirds of the way through. Even then, I was more focused on confirming my pace against how I felt, rather than allowing the data to dictate my effort. Overall, a slightly dumber life just feels better to me.<\/p>\n

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