If you’ve stumbled across the term “EDC” lately and wondered what all the fuss is about, you’re not alone. Everyday Carry or EDC has grown from a niche hobby into a mainstream lifestyle movement. And once you understand basics, it’s hard to go back to leaving the house unprepared.
What is EDC? EDC stands for Everyday Carry. Simply put, it’s the collection of items you have on you whenever you leave the house. Most people already carry an unofficial EDC without realizing it; phone, keys, wallet. The EDC philosophy is about being intentional with those items, and adding a few well-chosen tools that make daily life easier, safer and more organized.
The goal isn’t to carry more stuff. It’s to carry the ‘right’ stuff.
If you’re new to this page, I’ve been trying to be intentional with my technology for a minute now.
With that said, here’s a picture of my current edc setup:
Starting with the basics which are my keys, watch and wallet.
The watch is the Casio A168WA. I have always been a watch guy, I have many others in my collection. But I’ve been wearing this daily for a minute now, I like the form factor, I like the retro look and battery life is pretty hard to beat. With my keys, I also carry my earplugs. Knowing that hearing loss never be reversed or repaired, I do try take care of that on my behalf.
The wallet apart from holding cards and cash, also has a little notebook inside, which is pretty neat because I like the pen and paper option when it comes to jotting things down. Also it’s great to have a notebook on me at all times, because it’s easier to keep track of my to-do’s, calendar and what not.
Also, in the bottom is my dumbphone. It’s a 903kc. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I don’t carry a smartphone with me. But whenever I’m working or want to be fully immersed in what I’m doing, I keep the dumbphone on me and keep the iPhone in my bag. Honestly, having these two separate devices has changed my life for the better. I’ve tried using DND mode on my devices. But I’m a junkie and intentionally or unintentionally I do check my phone if it’s kept besides me. So, eliminating that completely has changed my ability to focus, getting things done and made me overall productive in some sense.
In the top half, starting from the left. We have the iPod nano(7th gen). It’s still one of the best devices ever made by Apple. The sheer weight of the device, the form factor and the fact this was released in 2015 still baffles me. Because I have a dedicated MP3 Player, I don’t have to pay for the Spotify. It also supports video. That’s why some of my favorites to it as well, for example the Stanford 2005 Steve Jobs Commencement Speech.
In the middle is the Olympus XA2 film camera. Last year, I got into film photography and it has been very rewarding so far. After researching a lot, I ended up getting this on ebay. This camera was manufactured in the 1970’s and it’s still working like a solid tank. I don’t have any complaints, it does what I need it to do.
And the last item, is my e-reader. It’s the Xteink X4. It’s a fairly new product. I think it was released just 6 months ago or so. It’s honestly great to have a library on you at all times. So whenever I’m bored or I’m waiting in line at the bus station, I just pull out this instead of my phone. The community is really active on reddit and keeps sending out updates to this date. On a single charge, the battery lasts ateast 3 weeks for me.
I have separated all of things I enjoy into single-use devices. Rather than having to use your smartphone where you’re bombarded with notifications and applications which are always trying to grab your attention. The intention or the philosophy behind my edc setup is to make sure that I’m present at all times. Our time on this planet is limited, I want to intentional on how I spend it.
Thank you for reading.