Exploring the role of reflective journaling in the use of wearable smartwatches

Smartwatches are a prominent personal informatics (PI) technology, yet many users struggle to move from self-tracked signals to sustained sensemaking and action. To examine how reflection is articulated around smartwatch data in everyday settings, we conducted a 14-day diary study (N = 75) in which participants completed structured daily prompts about smartwatch features used, affective reactions, and how data related to goals and routines. Using inductive thematic analysis, we identified two recurring forms of reflection: Reflective Thinking (habit awareness, goal setting, and usage reflection) and Insight Generation (insight formation and intended/attempted behavior modification). Across themes, reflections clustered around temporally salient and feedback-rich features—especially workouts/exercise, alarms, notifications, heart rate, and sleep—suggesting that smartwatch micro-interactions can function as “reflection triggers” that scaffold self-regulatory reasoning (monitoring → evaluation → adjustment). We discuss design implications for embedding low-friction reflective scaffolds (contextual prompts, goal-linked summaries, and reflection-on-change cues) into smartwatch ecosystems. We also delineate methodological limits: prompted diary entries elicit reflection but do not, on their own, demonstrate longitudinal elicitation of pre-existing PI practices.