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井喷的世界。面向苹果和安卓(Android)设备的应用已经达到100多万个，包括食谱、健身、办公和购物等各个门类。许多应用声称可以让你的生活变得更简单，并且可以节省你人生最宝贵的财富——时间。
But will they? Can they?
但它们是否真的能做到这一点？

“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.
居住在温哥华的个人效率顾问埃莉o戴维斯指出：“很多人过于忙碌，不堪重负。我们都在寻找一些自身之外的东西来减轻自己的负担。”戴维斯专门向客户提供时间管理辅导，但她从来不向客户推荐任何一款效率应用，甚至经常建议他们不要使用这些应用。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，市面上的效率应用数量太多，很多应用关注的是非常细分的领域。TECHnalysis Research公司创始人兼首席分析师鲍伯o奥唐奈尔表示：“这个行业没有进入门槛。”为了在已经十分拥挤的应用生态系统中打造一个能够立足的产品，开发者们“往往想要开发一个独特且醒目的东西，所以它往往会关注一个特定问题。”
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?
鉴于这些细分市场非常小众，哪怕是一些非常流行的应用所试图解决的问题，也未必能够消耗普通人大量时间。比如，如果你在一个新城市住酒店，能知道附近哪儿有一家好吃的匹萨店，固然是挺不错的；但酒店的迎宾同样也能告诉你。在手机上看一份共享的购物清单，可能确实比打电话给老婆问她需要买什么东西方便一点点，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在查看收件箱上。你甚至可能把你的人生都浪费在收件箱上。给你老婆打个电话难道不是更加愉悦的体验吗？
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，很多人的确很依赖移动应用。如果你到了一个陌生的城市，谷歌地图(Google Maps)会很有用。酒店的迎宾会告诉你大致方向，但没法坐在你的车里给你导航。通过银行应用，你只需要给你的支票照张相就可以存钱，而不用开车到网点办理。如果你在一家商店里想购买一款商品，一个能派发优惠券的应用能让你省些钱。从长期来看，这也相当于节省了时间。
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.
虽然很多应用开发者瞄准的都是小众市场，但也有些开发者意识到，做一个包罗万象的应用对人的帮助更大。比如Journl是一款来自英国的效率应用，它综合了清单、日历、笔记等功能，旨在让人们摆脱混杂的系统：日历在一个地方，便签摆放在桌子上，清单在另一个应用中。Journl公司营销总监里娜o汉森表示：“我们用一点清晰和条理取代了这种混乱。”
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.”
这种通过减少应用总数来节省时间的方法其实是很重要的。因为即便某个应用的确具有某种好处，很多复杂的应用混杂在一起，也会产生一个时间成本。奥唐奈尔指出：“这么多的应用，你怎么可能做到一切尽在掌握呢？”安装一款应用需要时间，让你的生活适应这些应用也需要时间。“如果你发现这种情况符合你的实际情况，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.
并非所有人都精通技术，这意味着移动应用永远和“直观”扯不上边。奥唐奈尔表示：“我的妻子还是依赖纸质清单。”我问他“纸质清单”是个什么应用，他回答道：“不是什么应用，就是把事情记录在一张纸上。”人们买了智能手机后，往往会觉得：“既然用了智能手机，我就得下载应用，就得把它用在任何事情上。”其实并非如此。大概有22%的人下载了某一款应用后，就永远不会再打开它。只有大约一半的人会使用一款应用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.
最后，使用旨在节省时间的应用还有个最大的问题：我们很容易分心。戴维斯表示：“这并不全是应用本身的问题，而是它触发的行为所导致的。”你下载一款任务管理应用，本来是想把上面的项目一项项勾掉。但是一旦手里拿着手机，你就开始查看电子邮件，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，都弥补不了这样的损失。
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.
戴维斯向她的客户推荐了两个策略。首先，“记录你的时间都去哪儿了”。你可能会发现，你在健身应用上比较你和你朋友的成绩花掉的那20分钟，还不如花在真正锻炼上。
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，你可以试着删除一些不重要的东西，然后看看你最需要把什么添加回来。戴维斯几乎删掉了所有应用，只重新添加了一款地图应用。有些客户也做了同样的选择，他们表示“获得了相当多的空间时间”。当你的手机变得不那么有意思了，你花在手机上的时间也就少了。如此一来，你就会觉得，你可以把所有时间花在这个真实的世界上。