Why This Year I’m Saying Goodbye to Anxiety ... and My Apple Watch

Lost in my thoughts!

I’m not starting again in January… I’m continuing with intention.  January doesn’t magically wipe the slate clean, life doesn’t reset, we don’t become new people at midnight.  Most of us step into the year carrying unfinished thoughts, half-shaped intentions, and maybe a bit of emotional exhaustion from the intensity of December.

As the noise of the festive season fades and the urgency of new year, new goals starts to feel oddly hollow, I’ve noticed something else settling in, a quiet stillness, I’ve made a simple but intentional decision about what I’m leaving behind as I step into 2026: my Apple Watch. Not because technology is the enemy, but because somewhere along the way, I stopped listening to myself and started outsourcing trust to a screen. 

I don’t know about you guys but 2025 for me has been a wild ride, I have achieved so much both personally and professionally and finished the year celebrating and feeling very proud of myself. Although, taking some time to reflect across the holidays has also forced me to recognise the bits that weren’t so great and where I think I would have liked to have done better.  2025 was a year of growth and with that comes a lot of extra everything……work, deadlines, opportunities, new challenges, things I’ve never done or had to do, and at the end of the year I was left feeling like I was in wind tunnel, facing the right direction but not feeling fully engaged in the forwards motion or the details of life. 

For 2026 I want to achieve the same growth and the same successes but with one-big difference, I want to enjoy ALL the moments, the good, the not so good, but most of all I want to feel truly present in life, not just a passenger.

Do you ever feel like your life is just a constant list of to-do, checklists and stats, the pressure of constant performance and the feeling that you need to do it all?  The apple watch wasn’t bad; in fact, it could be quite helpful with some of the above but somewhere along the line it took charge.  I became so engrossed in the numbers and check boxes that I forgot to check in with myself. 

I became quietly exhausted tracking my life rather than living in it and enjoying the small moments.  Once the festive rush was over and life quietened down, I started to hear myself once again and realised that my 2025 success had come at a cost.  I had fallen back onto old habits, looking at productivity as worth, trusting what I saw and heard externally rather than myself and living reactively instead of intentionally.

Studies have shown that a two second smart watch distraction can create a twenty to thirty minute drop in productivity, meaning you must work harder and longer to achieve the same tasks.  Without constant taps and notifications focus becomes intentional and not interrupted, your phone or tablet are then used only when needed, not something to give you a casual dopamine hit.  Goals stop being something you chase and start being something you live into, if your goals require constant reminders to matter, they’re probably not aligned with them.

I have leant back into trusting myself and my own rhythms again.  I don’t need a watch to tell me when I’m tired, I don’t need to know that I can save £5 on an uber journey when my nearest ubers are over 30 miles away, I don’t need to know over dinner that MyProtein are having a flash sale.  I can start to move my body because it feels good, not because it counts, and releasing the pressure to optimise every moment.  Tracking sleep, steps, heart rate can subtly turn life into a performance review.  My goals for 2026 aren’t about doing more, they’re about listening to myself better and trusting myself fully. 

For 2026 I want to feel fully present, one of the quotes I shared over the Calm countdown to Christmas was about the greatest gift we can give is our time and this really spurred me into thinking about the people that I love and the version of me I want them to see. Intention requires presence and presence doesn’t thrive under constant monitoring.  Do you design your days or do you react to them?

This isn’t about rejecting modern technology but sometimes depth wins over speed.  I want to take inspiration from simper times, using technology to support rather than control.  When we build a life carefully and intentionally it’s not about perfection but about building something that is meaningful and deliberate.  My goals for 2026 aren’t mass produced they are crafted just for me and the way in which I want to achieve them will be too.

So before you start to create your goals and intentions for this new year just stop to ask yourself:

·      Do your goals require constant pressure or genuine desire?

·      Are you chasing metrics or meaning?

·      Who am I trusting to deliver them?

I have stepped in 2026 feeling disconnected, but in all the right ways! If you’re stepping into this year feeling a little untethered, unsure why past goals haven’t stuck, or craving a quieter, more intentional way forward this might be the perfect moment to pause and reflect. Sometimes clarity doesn’t come from setting new goals, but from listening more closely to yourself, and if you’d like support exploring what that really looks like for you, I’d love to walk alongside you.