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.这是一个各类移动应用于井喷的世界。面向苹果和安卓(Android)设备的应用于早已超过100多万个，还包括食谱、健美、办公和购物等各个门类。许多应用于声称可以让你的生活显得更加非常简单，并且可以节省你人生最宝贵的财富——时间。But will they? Can they?但它们否知道能做这一点？“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.居住于在温哥华的个人效率顾问埃莉o戴维斯认为：“很多人过分辛苦，不堪重负。

我们都在找寻一些自身之外的东西来减低自己的开销。”戴维斯专门向客户获取时间管理辅导，但她从不向客户引荐任何一款效率应用于，甚至常常建议他们不要用于这些应用于。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，市面上的效率应用于数量过于多，很多应用于注目的是十分细分的领域。TECHnalysis Research公司创始人兼任首席分析师鲍伯o奥唐奈尔回应：“这个行业没转入门槛。

”为了在早已十分挤迫的应用于生态系统中打造出一个需要扎根的产品，开发者们“往往想研发一个独有且显眼的东西，所以它往往不会注目一个特定问题。”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?鉴于这些细分市场十分小众，哪怕是一些十分风行的应用于所企图解决问题的问题，也不一定需要消耗普通人大量时间。比如，如果你在一个新的城市寄居酒店，能告诉附近哪儿有一家爱吃的匹萨店，固然是挺不错的；但酒店的迎宾某种程度也能告诉他你。在手机上看一份分享的购物表格，有可能显然比打电话给老婆回答她必须卖什么东西便利一点点，但在大多数人的生活中，节约两分钟的意义并不大。

何况你节省下来的这两分钟还要花上在查阅收件箱上。你甚至有可能把你的人生都浪费在收件箱上。给你老婆打个电话怎么会不是更为感觉的体验吗？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.不可否认，很多人的确很倚赖移动应用于。

如果你到了一个陌生的城市，谷歌地图(Google Maps)不会很简单。酒店的迎宾不会告诉他你大体方向，但不了躺在你的车里给你导航系统。通过银行应用于，你只必须给你的支票照张互为就可以赚钱，而不必驾车到网点办理。

如果你在一家商店里想要出售一款商品，一个能发放优惠券的应用于能让你省些钱。从长年来看，这也相等于节省了时间。

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.虽然很多应用于开发者射击的都是小众市场，但也有些开发者意识到，做到一个包罗万象的应用于对人的协助更大。比如Journl是一款来自英国的效率应用于，它综合了表格、日历、笔记等功能，目的让人们挣脱夹杂的系统：日历在一个地方，便签安放桌子上，表格在另一个应用于中。Journl公司营销总监里娜o汉森回应：“我们用一点明晰和条理代替了这种恐慌。

”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.”这种通过增加应用于总数来节省时间的方法只不过是很最重要的。因为即便某个应用于的确具备某种益处，很多简单的应用于夹杂在一起，也不会产生一个时间成本。奥唐奈尔认为：“这么多的应用于，你怎么有可能做一切尽在掌控呢？”加装一款应用于必须时间，让你的生活适应环境这些应用于也必须时间。

“如果你找到这种情况合乎你的实际情况，那当然好，但那很难。”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.并非所有人都通晓技术，这意味著移动应用于总有一天和“直观”扯不上边。奥唐奈尔回应：“我的妻子还是倚赖纸质表格。

”我回答他“纸质表格”是个什么应用于，他问道：“不是什么应用于，就是把事情记录在一张纸上。”人们买了智能手机后，往往不会实在：“既然用了智能手机，我就得iTunes应用于，就得把它用在任何事情上。”只不过并非如此。

大约有22%的人iTunes了某一款应用于后，就总有一天会再行关上它。只有约一半的人会用于一款应用于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.最后，用于目的节省时间的应用于还有个仅次于的问题：我们很更容易迟疑。戴维斯回应：“这并不仅有是应用于本身的问题，而是它启动时的不道德所造成的。”你iTunes一款任务管理应用于，本来是想要把上面的项目一项项勾掉。

但是一旦手里拿着手机，你就开始查阅电子邮件，上Pinterest看照片，或是花45分钟看万圣节服装。不管节省了多少时间，都填补没法这样的损失。

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.戴维斯向她的客户引荐了两个策略。首先，“记录你的时间都去哪儿了”。

你可能会找到，你在健美应用于上较为你和你朋友的成绩赚到的那20分钟，还不如花上在确实磨练上。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，你可以试着移除一些不最重要的东西，然后想到你最必须把什么加到回去。

戴维斯完全删去了所有应用于，只新的加到了一款地图应用于。有些客户也做到了某种程度的自由选择，他们回应“取得了相当多的空间时间”。当你的手机显得不那么有意思了，你花上在手机上的时间也就较少了。

如此一来，你就不会实在，你可以把所有时间花上在这个现实的世界上。

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