To get this out of the way up front: this is not an entire post about my pants. Just bear with me.

For around a decade and a half, I have always had my phone in a pant pocket. Even if I was at home, my phone might be in my pocket or no more than an arm’s reach or spidey-sense away. I had an iPod in the other pocket for a good chunk of that time, but the iPhone took care of that.

These days, I almost always leave the house with one bag or another. Now that I have an Apple Watch, my pockets are slimming down yet again.

I don’t know what it is, but I’m developing a weird thing about having stuff in my pockets. It started with my keys about two years ago, now I usually clip them to a hook in my bag once I’m out of the house. For a while I thought about offloading my iPhone too, but I have to stay in touch with work and friends, so I never tried anything because notifications.

With a carefully curated set of important notifications on the wrist, I’ve been playing with cutting the anchor chain to my phone. Many bits of information are just things I need to know about, but don’t need to act upon, so I don’t need a full device. At home I keep it on a charging dock in the living room bookshelf more often, and have actually started using the phone pockets in my bags while out of the house. Yes, the Watch is more tech, but it feels different this time around versus adding another device or screen.

There is something liberating about no longer having my phone directly on me—no longer having the entire world’s knowledge and ecommerce and FOMO-inducing social media and ever-present internet outrage and that app I feel bad for still not trying, always nudging me in my pocket. I also realize my situation is entirely self-induced. Plenty of people do not keep their phones on them at all times, but on the flip side of that coin, I know I’m not alone in having this (now deteriorating) habit.

If you have felt the same way, that your phone is a necessary tool (with or without the ‘evil’) that has become heavy in a metaphorical sense, maybe Apple Watch can relieve some of that burden.

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