那些號稱可以讓你提高效率的App 其實省不了你多少時間

The universe has exploded with apps. There are over 1 million available for Apple AAPL 0.37% products and for Android devices: recipe apps, fitness apps, productivity apps, shopping apps. Many claim they will streamLine your life and save that most precious commodity: time.

這是一個各類移動應用井噴的世界。面向蘋果和安卓(Android)設備的應用已經達到100多萬個，包括食譜、健身、辦公和購物等各個門類。許多應用聲稱可以讓你的生活變得更簡單，並且可以節省你人生最寶貴的財富——時間。

But will they? Can they?

但它們是否真的能做到這一點？

“So many people are over-busy and overwhelmed. We’re looking for things outside of ourselves to ease our burden,” says Ali Davies, a Vancouver-based personal effectiveness coach who works with clients on time management issues. She almost never recommends a productivity app to a client. In fact, she often recommends the opposite, for several reasons.

居住在溫哥華的個人效率顧問埃莉o戴維斯指出：“很多人過於忙碌，不堪重負。我們都在尋找一些自身之外的東西來減輕自己的負擔。”戴維斯專門向客戶提供時間管理輔導，但她從來不向客戶推薦任何一款效率應用，甚至經常建議他們不要使用這些應用。理由如下：

First, because there are so many of them, many apps focus on something very specific. “There are no barriers to entry,” says Bob O’Donnell, who studies the technology marketplace as founder and chief analyst of TECHnalysis Research. To make a viable product in a crowded eco-system, a developer “wants to have something unique, that sticks out, that focuses on a very specific issue.”

首先，市面上的效率應用數量太多，很多應用關注的是非常細分的領域。TECHnalysis Research公司創始人兼首席分析師鮑伯o奧唐奈爾表示：“這個行業沒有進入門檻。”爲了在已經十分擁擠的應用生態系統中打造一個能夠立足的產品，開發者們“往往想要開發一個獨特且醒目的東西，所以它往往會關注一個特定問題。”

Since these niches are, well, small, problems that even popular apps attempt to solve may not be huge issues that devour people’s time. For instance, if you’re in a hotel in a new city, it’s nice to know there’s a good pizza place nearby. But your hotel concierge can tell you that too. A waiter can tell you what entrees other diners have enjoyed. It may be marginally more efficient to look at a shared grocery list compared with calling your spouse to ask if she needs anything, but in most people’s lives, saving two minutes doesn’t help much. You’ll spend those additional two minutes in your inbox. You could spend your life in your inbox. How much more pleasant to call your spouse instead?

鑑於這些細分市場非常小衆，哪怕是一些非常流行的應用所試圖解決的問題，也未必能夠消耗普通人大量時間。比如，如果你在一個新城市住酒店，能知道附近哪兒有一家好吃的匹薩店，固然是挺不錯的；但酒店的迎賓同樣也能告訴你。在手機上看一份共享的購物清單，可能確實比打電話給老婆問她需要買什麼東西方便一點點，但在大多數人的生活中，節約兩分鐘的意義並不大。何況你節省下來的這兩分鐘還要花在查看收件箱上。你甚至可能把你的人生都浪費在收件箱上。給你老婆打個電話難道不是更加愉悅的體驗嗎？

To be sure, plenty of people do swear by their apps. If you’re in an unfamiliar city, Google Maps is helpful; the hotel concierge can give you directions but isn’t going to tag along in your car. Banking apps that let you take pictures of checks to deposit them save a drive to the branch. If you’re in a store and want to purchase an item, an app that generates coupons can save you money. In the long run, that amounts to saving time as well.

不可否認，很多人的確很依賴移動應用。如果你到了一個陌生的城市，谷歌地圖(Google Maps)會很有用。酒店的迎賓會告訴你大致方向，但沒法坐在你的車裏給你導航。通過銀行應用，你只需要給你的支票照張相就可以存錢，而不用開車到網點辦理。如果你在一家商店裏想購買一款商品，一個能派發優惠券的應用能讓你省些錢。從長期來看，這也相當於節省了時間。

While many app-makers aim for niches, others have realized that being all-inclusive is likely more helpful. Journl, a productivity app that originated in the UK, combines list making, calendars, notes, etc., with the goal of getting people out of hybrid systems: a calendar one place, random post-it notes on a desk, lists in a separate app, and so forth. “We’re replacing all that chaos with a bit of clarity and calm,” says Lina Hansson, Journl’s chief marketing officer.

雖然很多應用開發者瞄準的都是小衆市場，但也有些開發者意識到，做一個包羅萬象的應用對人的幫助更大。比如Journl是一款來自英國的效率應用，它綜合了清單、日曆、筆記等功能，旨在讓人們擺脫混雜的系統：日曆在一個地方，便籤擺放在桌子上，清單在另一個應用中。Journl公司營銷總監裏娜o漢森表示：“我們用一點清晰和條理取代了這種混亂。”

This goal of minimizing the total number of apps you use is important for saving time, because even if any one app has benefit, volume produces a cost in clutter and complication. “There are so many of them, how can you possibly keep track of them?” O’Donnell asks. Setting up an app takes time, as does adjusting your life to the app’s process. “If you find one that works for your style, great,” he says, “but that’s tough.”

這種通過減少應用總數來節省時間的方法其實是很重要的。因爲即便某個應用的確具有某種好處，很多複雜的應用混雜在一起，也會產生一個時間成本。奧唐奈爾指出：“這麼多的應用，你怎麼可能做到一切盡在掌握呢？”安裝一款應用需要時間，讓你的生活適應這些應用也需要時間。“如果你發現這種情況符合你的實際情況，那當然好，但那很難。”

Some people’s styles aren’t technical, which means an app will never be intuitive. “My wife swears by her Paper list,” O’Donnell says. I asked which app this “PaperList” was, and he said, “No, I mean putting things on a piece of paper.” People get a smartphone and think “therefore I must have apps, therefore I must use them for everything,” but that’s not true. About 22% of people who download and use any given app once never use it again. Only about half of downloaders will use an app more than four times.

並非所有人都精通技術，這意味着移動應用永遠和“直觀”扯不上邊。奧唐奈爾表示：“我的妻子還是依賴紙質清單。”我問他“紙質清單”是個什麼應用，他回答道：“不是什麼應用，就是把事情記錄在一張紙上。”人們買了智能手機後，往往會覺得：“既然用了智能手機，我就得下載應用，就得把它用在任何事情上。”其實並非如此。大概有22%的人下載了某一款應用後，就永遠不會再打開它。只有大約一半的人會使用一款應用4次以上。

Finally here’s the biggest issue with using apps to save time: we are easily distracted. “It’s not always the app itself,” Davies says. “It’s the behavior it triggers.” You go into your to-do list app with the best intentions of crossing something off. But with device in hand, you check email and get sucked into a crisis that doesn’t concern you. Or you pop over to Pinterest and spend the next 45 minutes looking at Halloween costumes. Whatever time saved is dwarfed by that loss.

最後，使用旨在節省時間的應用還有個最大的問題：我們很容易分心。戴維斯表示：“這並不全是應用本身的問題，而是它觸發的行爲所導致的。”你下載一款任務管理應用，本來是想把上面的項目一項項勾掉。但是一旦手裏拿着手機，你就開始查看電子郵件，上Pinterest看照片，或是花45分鐘看萬聖節服裝。不管節省了多少時間，都彌補不了這樣的損失。

Davies recommends two strategies to her clients. First, “just log where all your time is going.” You might discover that the 20 minutes you spend comparing your stats to a friend’s on a fitness app could have been used to actually exercise.

戴維斯向她的客戶推薦了兩個策略。首先，“記錄你的時間都去哪兒了”。你可能會發現，你在健身應用上比較你和你朋友的成績花掉的那20分鐘，還不如花在真正鍛鍊上。

Second, you might try deleting everything that’s not essential. Then see what you choose to add back. Davies did this with everything but a map app. Clients who’ve made a similar choice “have reported the significant amounts of free time they have,” she says. When your phone is less interesting, you look at it less. And, overall, that can make you feel like you have all the time in the world.

其次，你可以試着刪除一些不重要的東西，然後看看你最需要把什麼添加回來。戴維斯幾乎刪掉了所有應用，只重新添加了一款地圖應用。有些客戶也做了同樣的選擇，他們表示“獲得了相當多的空間時間”。當你的手機變得不那麼有意思了，你花在手機上的時間也就少了。如此一來，你就會覺得，你可以把所有時間花在這個真實的世界上。