Apple Watch has always been a powerful device for tracking your health and fitness. But two recent changes in watchOS 11 have made it easier than ever to hit your goals. Here are the details.
Setting daily Apple Watch goals for your health, including rest
When Apple Watch first debuted, its three Activity rings were very rigidly defined.
To close all your rings, you had to hit 30 minutes of Exercise and 12 Stand hours per day. You couldn’t modify these goals; only the Move ring was customizable.
In recent years, watchOS added support for changing the Exercise and Stand goals too. But it was only in the last few months, with watchOS 11, that two more key Activity ring changes were implemented.
You can now take rest days and sick days. And your Activity rings can have different goals for different days of the week.
watchOS 11 supports ‘pausing’ your Activity rings for one or more days, so that failing to close the rings on those days won’t end your streak.
And you can adjust your daily goals so that, for example, on weekdays you’ll need to move more while on weekends you can take things easier.
Here are two reasons why these Apple Watch changes can help you achieve your health goals:
- Streaks can be a big motivator in keeping healthy habits going.
- Goals need to be seen as realistic, or else we’ll quickly give up on them.
I’ve seen these two principles play out in my own Apple Watch journey. Let me explain.
Why Apple Watch’s health fixes matter
My longest streak ever for closing my Move ring is 285 days.
It was an exciting season, but it came crashing down when I got COVID and could barely get out of bed for a few days.
The loss of my streak, and how long I knew it would take to set a new streak record, were hugely demotivating for me. I quickly got out of the habit of closing my rings daily.
The ability to pause my goals would have been huge, and gotten me back on track much sooner.
Similarly, I’ve often struggled to maintain consistency with my rings because the Apple Watch has historically treated every day the same. It’s never felt right to me that if I had a huge day for movement, I was expected to still hit my standard goal the next day.
Now, I can plan on having a big exercise day on Fridays, for example, before taking things a bit easier on Saturdays. And my Apple Watch won’t shame me for doing that.
Have these Apple Watch changes helped you stick to your health goals? Let us know in the comments.
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