I wanted to love them so badly.
Because they were supposed to be hands-free and simple.
So I jumped on the bandwagon and bought some AirPods.
Here was my rationale behind the decision to purchase AirPods:
What problem would this solve for me?
Well, it would easily connect to all my Apple devices so I can use it seamlessly.
Is my current system actually broken.
Nope. But there are some extra steps I would like to eliminate.
Will this fit into how I already work?
Yes! There are days when I like to work from a coffee shop and I would like to reduce some of the background noise when I am on Zoom calls. (This was one of the major selling points for me.)
What happens if I don’t buy this?
THE WORLD MAY END. No, not really. Absolutely nothing, but save all my money.
The Truth
I instantly regretted it.
They kept falling out of my ears and I lost them more times than I can count. I guess my ears just aren’t built for AirPods.
So I went back to my wired earphones. I find them to be way more user friendly.
Even though they are not as sleek looking, and are a little bit more to deal with, as far as getting the wires untangled, they always stayed in place.
I didn’t lose them, and I never had to charge them. One less thing to worry about.
I actually love how low maintenance my wired earphones are, and knowing that I didn’t have to worry about them constantly falling out of my ear. Do they make my desk look a little bit more messy? Sure. But do they still get the job done? Absolutely!
This “new and improved” solution made me more frustrated than anything else. What hurt even more was that they came with a hefty price tag. Welcome to episode 2 of Buyer’s Remorse.
Honestly, it’s exactly like many of those business upgrades everyone raves about that you feel like you’re behind if you aren’t using them. Especially now with AI, there’s just so much to take in and everyone has an AI solution for everything.
So most naturally, we feel like this must be the next step for our business.
So you buy the program or the tool (probably also had a hefty price tag), but then you didn’t factor in the time it would take to learn it. Or how much energy it would take to make it fit into how you already work. And then when you finally learn the program, you find out that it wasn’t really a good fit for what you were trying to do.
So you spent more time learning and fixing than moving forward.
Have you ever done that?
Bought something thinking it would make things easier and it just made things worse?
And then, after all that time and effort, you go back to what you were using before.
Seriously, following the crowd is exhausting. I’m over the hype. I just want tools that help me get things done without the headache.
Final Thoughts
Not everything that’s wireless is freeing. And not everything with a wire is sure to hold us back. If you’re struggling with a clunky process or tool right now, try to ignore all the hype around the products and really dig in to see if it would feel right.
Anyone else wired with me, or am I the only person on the planet with ears that won’t hold Airpods?
Shamayne Brown is a virtual assistant and the founder of Camp Virtual Assistance.
She works with solo professionals and small business owners who are ready to invest in their business and need the support that she offers.
She specializes in creating email newsletters as well as other admin and creative design tasks.
Click here to connect on LinkedIn.
Click here to set up a discovery call.
