I am a husband, writer, and teacher exploring what it means to cultivate mental silence.

Using the Digital Crown to input Effort Scores on Workouts

This coming Fall, on watchOS 11 and iOS 18 users will be able to rate their effort on workouts in the Workout app. The ratings are based on a scale from 1 (Easy) to 10 (All Out). Apple provides simple descriptions of what each number means making it, over time, easy for the user to rate themselves. This ranking can be entered either on the watch or on the phone. The opportunity to rate your workout appears in a card named “Effort” as the reader can see in the picture below.

Users need only to press the card and you are presented, on the next card, with the scale to enter the rating. Up until a few days ago, I was brute forcing the rating, on my Apple Watch Ultra, using my fat index finger. This input method, due to the small touch target, occasionally produced the wrong number. I had a galaxy brain moment during a recent workout, what if I used the Digital Crown, on the watch to input the rating. It worked! Game changer! I’ve been using the Digital Crown ever since and it has worked like a charm!

One Month with the Betas: What’s sticking?

Beta 2: Still no Apple Intelligence