Bigger than expected change: hand washing

[Mad Mac Maniac]

With all the focus this year on hand washing length, I've been resistant and skeptical. "Hum the happy birthday song twice? Come on give me a break. Nobody washes their hands like that!" Right? I mean maybe on occasion when you feel your hands are particularly dirty, but not every time.

When I first turned on the apple watch hand washing feature, it definitely seemed like an exaggeratedly long time to wash your hands. "Geez what a waste of water while I'm rubbing my hands together..." But for the most part I played along, because I wanted to fully test out the feature. And I found myself doing it again and again, because it provides an immediate and actionable goal in a semi-game-ified form. It's kind of fun and the OCD in me (there's not much, but some!) would be frustrated anytime I left 1 or 2 seconds on the watch! Now I've realized that mostly subconsciously, I've defaulted to washing my hands for the appropriate amount of time without even thinking about it. What originally seemed long just feels normal.

It's kind of an interesting and unexpected shift in behavior derived from my watch. I'm curious to hear others experiences. Have many people turned on the feature? Do you like/dislike it?

 

[Night Spring]

Early on in the pandemic, I watched a few YouTube videos showing how to wash hands effectively, to make sure you wash all key parts. Since then, I've been washing hands that way without measuring how long it takes, but I feel sure I'm taking longer than 20 seconds. I'm a bit curious about the watch's hand washing function, but I haven't tried it because I have no need for it. It'll just be a distraction from the washing routine I've set up.

 

[rmw49]

I keep it on, having turned it off at the beginning, because it's easy to forget to wash when you get in from shopping or some other activity. Now there's a gentle buzz on my wrist a couple of minutes after getting home and I wash, where I'd probably have forgotten before.

 

[mrteethcentury21]

I wash my hands everyday frequently, no matter what it takes...

 

[kb923689]

I wash my hands everyday frequently, no matter what it takes...

Same. I have a cat so it's been a habit of mine. I didn't need a pandemic to teach me how to wash my hands and use hand sanitizers when I can't wash my hands.

 

[Foxglove9]

I used it, but after the last WatchOS update it's not working properly. Either it stops counting down in the middle of hand washing and just pauses or just stops completely without warning and goes to the main watch screen. Hopefully they fix it on the next update it worked perfect otherwise.

 

[Fayette3001]

I used it for a while back in the beta and it would definitely do its job but after a while it felt a bit annoying. Even before the pandemic I would regularly wash my hands and use hand sanitizer so I’m not to concerned.

 

[itsmilo]

Turned it off. Almost as annoying as the take a breathe notification

 

[Apple_Robert]

Even though the feature doesn’t work 100% every time, i appreciate the reminder each time.

 

[Blowback]

Nice feature but didn't seem to count in a linear fashion. Sometimes seemed to start 5-10 sec. after I had already been washing...then would 'freeze (?) at a number for a while before finishing. Good first try though and will give it another run if/when updated.