(ad) GETTING SMART WITH TIME in collaboration with FOSSIL

(ad) GETTING SMART WITH TIME in collaboration with FOSSIL

Thursday 15 November 2018

If I had to pick a favourite season, it would have to be autumn. It literally takes my breath away every year. It's the one season in particular that forces us to stop a little, or at least it is for me. I find myself wanting to take long walks, to soak up all the colours, and my goodness, do those walks feel good for the soul. A chance to take in the fresh air and recharge a little bit. It's always a reflective time of year for me too, as we draw closer to the end of another year, I always feel like any changes I want to make, that this is the time to make them. I spoke recently about wanting to regain some much needed balance in my life and this time of year feels like the perfect time to do that.

This year has been a particular busy one for us, it's been wonderful, but it's also brought new challenges for Michael and I, mostly with managing our time and work loads. Realising that life isn't about to get any quieter, it's more about changing our approach. For me, rather than complain about being busy which serves no purpose (other than to add to my growing anxiety), I'm focusing on managing my time better, as my lack of organisation is the number one culprit for any stress and anxiety I tend to feel.

It's funny how in life opportunities seem to come at just the right time, and collaborating with Fossil to try out their new Smartwatch Gen4 is a cracking example of that. When they first contacted me I was thrilled because I love Fossil, but yet I wasn't sure about a smart watch. For a girl who works in social media and spends a large proportion of my time on my phone and laptop, my first thought was, do I really need another smart device in my life?! I spend my life on my phone and I thought this might be yet another potential distraction, because of this very concern it's been really interesting getting to try out the watch and make use of all the functions.

First impressions. Looks. The watch is pretty, like seriously pretty. I've always found other smart watches too look quite techy and just like a smaller version of your phone strapped to your wrist. Zero appeal aesthetically for me, therefore I ruled out smart watches quite quickly in the past. Fossil are changing that perspective with their Smartwatch Gen4 series.

Setting up the smart watch is super easy. Once you've downloaded the Wear OS by Google app, to your phone, there's simple instructions guiding you how to sync your smart watch with your phone, and when that is complete, you're good to go. You can control all the notifications you want to receive to your smart watch, so the watch is tailored to your exact needs.

This is where I discovered one of the main benefits when it comes to wearing a smart watch. Thanks to the notifications, I pick up my phone LESS, and picking up my phone less can only a good thing for me. For example, do you pick up your phone to check notifications, only to than fall down an Instagram (or insert your social media preference here ;) ) rabbit hole for the next hour? This is me ALL. THE. TIME. and that right there, is the main problem when it comes to my poor time management. Spending too much time on my phone when I shouldn't be, and scrolling aimlessly rather than being productive with my screen time. Now that I get my notifications to my watch, I know which ones I need to deal with straight away or can be left until later on without even picking up my phone.

Google Fit. Another aspect of the watch that has been good for me, is tracking my fitness, or should I say the lack there of. I've known for a while now I need to focus more on my general well being and fitness. I'm at that age where I feel like if I don't do something about it now it's going to be a slippery slope. I've never been one for wanting to loose weight but now an extra little tyre is sitting around my mid drift and it's making clothes not fit like they used to.

I want to feel good about my body and increase my energy levels, and right now, my watch is telling me that I'm not moving anywhere near enough to make those things happen. I've never tracked my fitness before and this has given me some much needed motivation to get my act together. My current goals are to hit 10,000 steps, 60 move minutes and 10 heart points (you score a heart point when you do activities at a higher pace, like a brisk walk etc) a day. I'll report back how I get on with this, but right now it's given me some much needed motivation.

The points I've touched upon are definitely the ones that have stood out for me these past few weeks when wearing the watch. I've also found the calendar and setting reminders really useful too, not to mention the find my phone feature, I use that a lot ;).

I also love that I can control what music I play in the house from my watch too. I'm definitely finding I'm using my phone less and less because of features like this.

Charge wise, with full notifications on I get a days charge from the watch but if you need to save battery life you simply adjust notifications.

Overall, I'm very impressed with Fossil's stylish take on the smart watch. If you're thinking about a smart watch I highly recommend you check their range out.

If you missed my post about regaining some much needed balance, you can read it HERE.