Apple Watch Series 6 - Fitness / ADHD

June 28, 2021 9:49 AM

For those of you with an Apple Watch, does it really work to keep you focused on fitness? How might you use it for ADHD?

Looking for personal anecdotes, tools you use and YouTube or online guides that helped you maximize your Apple Watch for fitness and ADHD.
-What apps do you recommend?
-What strategies?
-Do you find the fitness reminders and tools help you stay active? I tend to have hot / cold exercise cycles and I’d like to stay active longer with the help of the watch
-Bonus: Surprise features / perks / words-of-caution / suggestions welcomed

posted by glaucon to Health & Fitness (5 answers total)

ADHDwise: One of the things I'd love to try out but haven't gotten the chance to is taptic chimes every fifteen minutes to help me keep better track of the passing of time. I'd also get very used to using timers, alarms, and reminders.
posted by foxfirefey at 11:09 AM on June 28, 2021 [3 favorites]

For me, the best use of the Apple Watch in regards to my ADHD brain is just keeping it on my wrist while I work, with my phone slightly out of reach. That way, when I get a text or an email, I can glance down and make sure it's not urgent, but there's just a little bit of friction so I don't slide into replying right away. Then, when I go back to my phone at the time I choose, all the messages are still there unread. Sort of similarly, with fitness, I don't really do anything differently, don't have any fitness apps installed or anything...but just looking at the dumb little circles filling up gives me a vague satisfaction that nudges me into walking a little more - and when I'm grumpy and stir-crazy and too in my head to figure out why, if I look down and see I've barely moved all day, I might go, "ohhhhhhhh" and leave for a walk.

It's funny, I do think the watch has improved my life enough to justify its ridiculous price, but in the most unglamorous, least melodramatic way possible. I'll be curious to see if other people have fancier hacks!
posted by Merricat Blackwood at 1:17 PM on June 28, 2021 [4 favorites]

Best answer: I've not been diagnosed with ADHD, but I can talk about the fitness aspect a bit. It's helped me a lot, in no small part because I get a little compulsive about closing the rings; I can even remember what was going on on the increasingly rare occasions when I don't close all three--the last time I didn't close any was in April of 2020 when I got word that my work furlough was going to be extended, and I just sat around and pouted. (I've since realized that I can turn that negative energy into exercise and help myself physically, mentally, and emotionally all at the same time.) I picked up Apple's Fitness+ when it debuted, and I love it--not just for the encouragement in the more vigorous exercises but also the yoga and Mindful Cooldown, which usually combines some sort of post-exercise stretching and guided meditation. Sometimes I'll hit a cooldown even if my rings are already closed, if I need it. There's a nice variety of instructors with different styles. Negatives is that sometimes, for some reason, the Exercise and Move rings don't seem to count all the exercise that you're doing even if you seem to be doing the same exercise that you usually do. (Fitness+ will always count the Exercise minutes if you're actually doing one of their workouts.)

As far as the ADHD stuff goes, this and this seem to have some good suggestions.
posted by Halloween Jack at 2:48 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Regarding the hot/cold exercise patterns, the Apple Watch has its fitness rings (obviously), but it will also give you encouragement for a “perfect move/stand/exercise/all of the above week.” It will also give you awards for keeping streaks going.

For ADHD, having something attached to me to input reminders and capture notes for later is great. Removes the struggle of figuring out where I left my phone or potentially getting distracted with my phone. I use lots of timers/alarms, but you’ll have to balance alert fatigue with their usefulness. I can also miss the alerts when I’m hyper focused, YMMV.

-Aside from the built in apps, I love Due for alarms- it has customizable snooze durations, as well as auto-snooze. It will also keep bugging you until you deal with it.

-Drafts is great for making notes to myself for later. It has an Apple Watch complication, so can live on my watch face. With one tap, I’m dictating a note to my drafts inbox, and the dictation doesn’t time out nearly as quick as Siri- great for when I lose my train of thought while talking.

-Other than that, I use timers a lot, either by asking Siri to set one or by using the watch app.
posted by bluloo at 6:55 PM on June 28, 2021 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I set this aside until I got the watch and started working with it. Fantastic suggestions - thank you all!
posted by glaucon at 5:52 AM on July 11, 2021