Wilson Watermark: Resources for Life Change

1. I use my phone less.

When I wear my Pebble I check my device less often. Freedom! Before I started using Pebble I took a screenshot of my battery usage so I would have a baseline to compare. “Home and Lock Screen” was 22% of my usage, the number one source of drain for me. That number has gone down a few percentage points and at times is no longer in the top spot.

I also save battery because I no longer control certain apps from my phone, including music apps. Also, I now use the timer on my watch for the Pomodoro technique instead of using an app.

2. Pebble is less disruptive.

The vibration alert on the watch is a massive help. It means I can set alarms or a timer without bothering people around me. It also means I can be with a group of people and read notifications without disrupting conversation. Recently I was at dinner with five other people and I read and dismissed a text message without anyone noticing.

Dismissing notifications from the watch is a game-changer for me. My phone doesn't keep vibrating every few minutes until I deal with it, and the alarm is less disruptive too, especially in the early morning. Sometimes I wear the watch to bed and its alarm will wake me up without waking up my wife.

3. Pebble keeps me connected.

I have fewer missed notifications like I used to when I didn’t feel my phone vibrate while I was walking. I also have fewer false positives when I think my phone vibrated but it didn’t. For me Pebble provides a kind of “two-factor authentication” where I feel the vibration on my leg and then on my wrist, reducing phantom vibration syndrome to almost zero for me.

4. Pebble is fun to customize.

There are a ton of different watch faces available so currently I load a different face every single day. It’s fun to pick and choose, delete the ones I dislike and leaving the keepers in my locker. I also love being able to customize my shortcuts. Currently I use the top right button as a shortcut to a timer and the bottom right button as a shortcut to a watch battery status app.