A few months back it was my birthday so I bought a Samsung Galaxy Gear 2 smartwatch. It has a camera, speaker, microphone, and itty bitty touch screen. After a few months of playing I discovered 3 really cool functions that actually get used, and one blockbuster function that has changed my life. Bring on the list!
- Baby camera: The camera is a great way to take photos of my 6 month old baby daughter. She stops and stares at a normal camera or phone put in her face, but the smartwatch lets you catch the sweet moments on film.
- Car kit: Just talk normally and the microphone and speaker on your wrist acts like a car kit for your phone. There is no need to take hands of the wheel and no need to hold a phone. Fantastic!
- Notifications: You would think that having notifications on your wrist would be more intrusive, but actually it is less. When an email or SMS comes through you glance down and instantly triage the issue. Nine times out of ten you maintain flow and keep working on whatever you were doing.
So what is the “blockbuster” function?
I started to associate work notifications with my wrist. Unexpectedly once this association formed I found I could disconnect by simply taking the watch off. Because phones are used for play they cannot be so easily turned off. But with a smartwatch you can turn off by taking it off. Think about winding down at the end of a long day by undressing from your suit and putting on sweatpants. We can exploit the physicality of wearable technology and “undress” from our smartwatches to achieve a proper work life balance.
StretchSense 