那些號稱可以讓你提高效率App 其實省不了你多少時間

1、The universe has exploded with apps. There are over 1 million available for Apple AAPL 0.37% products and for Android devices: reccipe 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(yīng)用井噴的世界。面向蘋果和安卓(

2、Android)設(shè)備的應(yīng)用已經(jīng)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(yīng)用聲稱可以讓你的生活變得更簡單，并且可以節(jié)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. Were looking for things outside of ourselves to ease our burden,” says Ali Davies, a Vancouver-based personal effectiveness coach wh

3、o 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：“很多人過于忙碌，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(yīng)用，甚至經(jīng)常建議他們不要使用這些應(yīng)用。理由如下： First,

4、because there are so many of them, many apps focus on something very specific. “There are no barriers to entry,” says Bob ODonnell, 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 hav

5、e something unique, that sticks out, that focuses on a very specific issue.” 首先，市面上的效率應(yīng)用數(shù)量太多，很多應(yīng)用關(guān)注的是非常細分的領(lǐng)域。TECHnalysis Research公司創(chuàng)始人兼首席分析師鮑伯o奧唐奈爾表示：“這個行業(yè)沒有進入門檻。”為了在已經(jīng)十分擁擠的應(yīng)用生態(tài)系統(tǒng)中打造一個能夠立足的產(chǎn)品，開發(fā)者們“往往想要開發(fā)一個獨特且醒目的東西，所以它往往會關(guān)注一個特定問題?！?Since these niches are, well, small, problems that even popular apps

6、attempt to solve may not be huge issues that devour peoples time. For instance, if youre in a hotel in a new city, its nice to know theres 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 mor

7、e efficient to look at a shared grocery list compared with calling your spouse to ask if she needs anything, but in most peoples lives, saving two minutes doesnt help much. Youll spend those additional two minutes in your inbox. You could spend your life in your inbox. How much more pleasant to call

8、 your spouse instead? 鑒于這些細分市場非常小眾，哪怕是一些非常流行的應(yīng)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么東西方便一點點，但在大多數(shù)人的生活中，節(jié)約兩分鐘的意義并不大。何況你節(jié)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

9、 apps. If youre in an unfamiliar city, Google Maps is helpful; the hotel concierge can give you directions but isnt 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 youre in a store and want to purchase an item, an app t

10、hat 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(yīng)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，但沒法坐在你的車里給你導航。通過銀行應(yīng)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(wǎng)點辦理。如果你在一家商店里想購買一款商品，一個能派發(fā)優(yōu)惠券的應(yīng)用能讓你省些錢。從長期來看，這也相當于節(jié)省了時間。 While many app-makers aim for nich

11、es, 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 separa

12、te app, and so forth. “Were replacing all that chaos with a bit of clarity and calm,” says Lina Hansson, Journls chief marketing officer. 雖然很多應(yīng)用開發(fā)者瞄準的都是小眾市場，但也有些開發(fā)者意識到，做一個包羅萬象的應(yīng)用對人的幫助更大。比如Journl是一款來自英國的效率應(yīng)用，它綜合了清單、日歷、筆記等功能，旨在讓人們擺脫混雜的系統(tǒng)：日歷在一個地方，便簽擺放在桌子上，清單在另一個應(yīng)用中。Journl公司營銷總監(jiān)里娜o漢森表示：“我們用一點清晰和條理取代了這種混

13、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?” ODonnell asks. Setting up an app takes time, a

14、s does adjusting your life to the apps process. “If you find one that works for your style, great,” he says, “but thats tough.” 這種通過減少應(yīng)用總數(shù)來節(jié)省時間的方法其實是很重要的。因為即便某個應(yīng)用的確具有某種好處，很多復雜的應(yīng)用混雜在一起，也會產(chǎn)生一個時間成本。奧唐奈爾指出：“這么多的應(yīng)用，你怎么可能做到一切盡在掌握呢？”安裝一款應(yīng)用需要時間，讓你的生活適應(yīng)這些應(yīng)用也需要時間?！叭绻惆l(fā)現(xiàn)這種情況符合你的實際情況，那當然好，但那很難。” Some peoples st

15、yles arent technical, which means an app will never be intuitive. “My wife swears by her paper list,” ODonnell 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 u

16、se them for everything,” but thats 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. 并非所有人都精通技術(shù)，這意味著移動應(yīng)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(zhì)清單?！蔽覇査凹堎|(zhì)清單”是個什么應(yīng)用，他回答道：“不是什么應(yīng)用，就是把事情記錄在一張紙上?！比藗冑I了智能手機后，

17、往往會覺得：“既然用了智能手機，我就得下載應(yīng)用，就得把它用在任何事情上。”其實并非如此。大概有22%的人下載了某一款應(yīng)用后，就永遠不會再打開它。只有大約一半的人會使用一款應(yīng)用4次以上。 Finally heres the biggest issue with using apps to save time: we are easily distracted. “Its not always the app itself,” Davies says. “Its the behavior it triggers.” You go into your to-do list app with the

18、best intentions of crossing something off. But with device in hand, you check email and get sucked into a crisis that doesnt 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，使用旨在節(jié)省時間的應(yīng)用還有個最大的問題：我們很容

19、易分心。戴維斯表示：“這并不全是應(yīng)用本身的問題，而是它觸發(fā)的行為所導致的?！蹦阆螺d一款任務(wù)管理應(yīng)用，本來是想把上面的項目一項項勾掉。但是一旦手里拿著手機，你就開始查看電子郵件，上Pinterest看照片，或是花45分鐘看萬圣節(jié)服裝。不管節(jié)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 friends on a fitness app could have been used to actually exer