The simplicity of having two phones

With the recent purchase of an iPhone X, it also reintroduced an additional item to my everyday carry: a second phone. No, I do not have a day and a night phone, but a personal and a work phone.

A lot of people ask right away: why would you want to carry around two phones? Yes, it does add more bulk. I have to keep track of a second device and its charge. Sometimes I pull out one phone meaning the other. But, in the past two weeks, the benefits have outweighed the hassle in ways I wasn’t expecting.

With my job working in digital and social media, I use my phone for a lot of my work — from taking photos, monitoring accounts and posting to social media. This work happens at all hours of the day.

Previously, everything was blended together on one phone. It was distracting. But having the second personal phone actually simplifies things for me. Each device serves it’s own purpose. When I’m at home, I can open my personal iPhone and not get distracted with work stuff. When I’m focusing on work, it’s on that phone.

Now, there are some overlap. iMessages, for example, go to both of my phone so I don’t miss anything. I’ve also played around with the WiFi call forwarding, but not sure how it works in practice. But my work and personal e-mail accounts go to their respective phones, and it’s great.

We’ll see how I feel about having the two phones in the coming months. Right now, it’s actually allowed me to focus on what I’m doing every day.