Apple Watch, but no iPhone

I love my Apple Watch. I regret not buying it sooner.

It gives me the essentials of an iPhone without most of its downsides. So I use an Apple Watch without an iPhone.

You should try a smartwatch without a phone too.. ideally an Apple Watch.

Unless you’re not optimizing for both privacy and security, that is. In that case, you do you. There’s something for everybody.

It sucks to not have a phone

I wrote about my digital minimalism a few times in the past. As someone who takes how I spend my time and attention very seriously, I ditched my phone several years ago.

My phone was just a distracting device I was carrying in my pocket that companies that didn’t hold my best interest in mind used to grab my attention.

Not having a phone, though, is a major inconvenience:

• It’s hard to be found
• It’s hard to reach out to others in case of emergencies
• If you care about music, you need other solutions
• Maps, Uber, ordering food, .. lots of missing things

I remember once at the gym, the receptionist asked for my phone number, and her shock at me not having a phone at all:

Receptionist: “We’ll get in touch with you. What’s your phone number?”
Dui: “Oh, I don’t actually have a phone.”
Receptionist: “You don’t have your own phone number?”
Dui: “No, I don’t have an actual phone. You can’t call me.”
Receptionist: “Then how do you talk to people?!”
Dui: “Why, like this, like we’re talking right now!!”

That’s just one example. There’s this “phone inclusion” that we only realize exists when we no longer carry a phone on us, from not being able to make restaurant reservations to not being able to access your bank account.

Being found can also be really hard. I used to carry an AirTag with me, and while it has stronger privacy guarantees than an Apple Watch, it has less precision and, of course, no autonomous connection.

You gotta try to see it: it’s not easy to not have a phone.

But believe me: ditching the phone is one of the best things I’ve ever done.

It’s great to not have a phone

Do you have a lot of extra free time? Thought so. Nobody does.

Whenever people ask me how I get so much done, be it reading, studying, writing, or whatever, a big reason is that I don’t have a phone. Because everyone else does, not having one is the ultimate competitive advantage for time.

In fact, if there’s anything that I regret regressing on lately, it’s that I’ve been using my iPad more often as a phone at home — something I’m actively addressing now. I removed Safari from it, and I only use it to play chess and read O’Reilly books.

You know why I couldn’t resist using the iPad as a distracting device when I started using it more often? Because it’s addictive! It's distracting by design.

Do you have screen time or the equivalent running on your phone? Take a look now. I’ll wait.

How much time have you used your phone in the past 7 days? 5? 10? 20? ..40 hours? And what for? Instagram, TikTok, Safari, Slack?

Here’s mine:

Up 5% from last week lol

No wonder I have more free time than most people.

And with my Apple Watch, I can now avoid most downsides as well.

Call me, maybe

The driver for me getting an Apple Watch was work. I’ve been on-call a lot, and was carrying a phone whenever I was on-call. Eventually, I was on-call all the time.. and carrying a phone all the time, too.

Because I couldn’t say I didn’t have a phone while carrying a phone with me all the time, I eventually got the watch.

With my Apple Watch, I can be paged when I’m on-call wherever I am, which means I can go anywhere without carrying my phone with me and still be available.

Besides being paged by work, my wife can text me. If anything important (or not) comes up, she can find me, and we can exchange limited messages, which I’ll dictate to the watch, sometimes to hilarious outcomes. And she can easily find me.

And that’s pretty much it.

Note: I do have Signal installed on the phone, and I have it enabled on my watch to get in touch with some of my friends, but the Apple Watch functionality is so poor that it’s almost impossible to really use it. I can reply but can’t even initiate a conversation. I honestly think that’s fine for now, but it’d be easy to disable if I changed my mind.

This friction of using a minimal, hard to use, reactive device is a feature, not a bug. An Apple Watch without an iPhone is the only way to be found, reach others, and not be easily distracted.

And the Apple Watch is far more convenient than a dumb phone, it’s not even close: With a watch you can dictate texts, you carry it everywhere by default, and your family can find you with Find My without calling “hey, where are you?”

And your comms are end-to-end encrypted, both iMessage and FaceTime.

So.. are you ready to try?

Buy an Apple Watch, and leave your iPhone home

Because Apple is dumb, you still need to have an iPhone to use your Apple Watch, which you probably already have anyway.

You also have to keep your iPhone turned on to get some notifications that don’t have an Apple Watch native App. My iPhone just stays plugged into a power outlet under my desk.

So put on your watch, plug your phone into the wall, and go out. See how it feels to not pull your phone out every time you’re bored. Savor the inconvenience of replying to the few texts you get. Delve into the anxiety of not being able to check Slack.

And most importantly..

.. enjoy your newfound free time.