Do productivity apps boost your performance at work?

Faced with a lack of productivity or a sudden drop in efficiency, it can be tempting to seize the first productivity app that comes your way in the hopes of finding a quick and easy solution to the problem. These apps may have their uses, but they’re no silver bullet. In fact, they may make the issue worse rather than better.

What do you do when you feel you’re no longer as productive as you used to be? For some people, the kneejerk reaction is to go straight to the App Store or Google Play looking for the latest supposedly “life-changing” app. But if you’re trying to save time, is it really wise to spend hours looking for a miracle solution that may not actually exist? Productivity apps may be useful, but they should always be thought of as a means rather than an end. Technology can’t fix everything.

That’s a lesson you’ve no doubt learnt from ChatGPT. In late 2022, the firm OpenAI released a beta version of artificial intelligence software called ChatGPT. This chatbot quickly attracted attention for providing detailed and fairly well-articulated responses in various fields. You may have already tested it to see if it can answer your questions and save you the effort of boring internet searches. The prototype is genuinely impressive, but it’s no replacement for a human worker (yet). That means people have spent many hours trying out the software rather than trawling through their files, and their searches haven’t been helpful enough to eliminate all human effort.

Unreasonable certainty that machines can solve every problem is called technological bias.

Technological bias – a new productivity disruptor

Unreasonable certainty that machines can solve every problem is called technological bias. Technological bias is when individuals have a tendency to overestimate the reliability, accuracy or capacities of an automated system, an algorithm, or technology in general.

Overconfidence in technology can have serious consequences, as it causes us to surrender too much power to technological systems and “obey” them without considering the risk of being manipulated, or any errors that may have occurred. ChatGPT is a new phenomenon, and one we are still getting to grips with. And yet, in many ways, it’s simply the next step along a path we’ve been travelling for several years: faced with a difficulty, one of our first reactions is to turn to the internet or apps in search of the easy miracle solution.

There’s no shortage of apps in the “productivity” category – in fact, there are so many that it’s hard not to “waste” a lot of time looking for that perfect time-saving app. Plus, no app will tell you why you’re losing productivity in the first place, but you’ll have to address the causes if you want to make a lasting change.

No app will tell you why you’re losing productivity in the first place, but you’ll have to address the causes if you want to make a lasting change.

Bearing in mind that productivity apps are neither useless nor harmful, here are seven reasons to think carefully before downloading one.

1. An endless source of distraction

You’re probably using more than one smartphone app already. So, does this situation sound familiar? You pick up your phone to reply to a Slack message, but soon find yourself reading your emails, checking social media and replying to the latest messages on your favourite WhatsApp groups. A task that should have taken 30 seconds ends up lasting over 10 minutes.

With so many apps clamouring for your attention, it’s difficult to follow through on your reason for picking up your phone in the first place. And each app has its own purpose and way of working, forcing you to constantly adapt to different user experiences. But every time you switch environment, you lose concentration and drain your mental battery. Ultimately, for every 15 minutes on your smartphone, you need around an hour to properly refocus on your initial task. Not exactly ideal.

2. Tech burnout

Productivity apps, like all apps, are designed to encourage you to use technology at a frenetic pace, based on a marketing promise of quick and easy results. But just like a fad diet or express exercise programme touting overnight changes, it’s hard to stick to that pace over the long term. As a result, we soon feel burned out and any gains we make are quickly lost. The same happens with apps. If we can’t keep up with the schedule they impose, we feel guilty and tend to give up, letting our hard work go to waste. This ends up worsening our productivity – the opposite of the desired effect.

3. Your app isn’t tailored to you

Time-management technologies generally impose a one-size-fits-all schedule with no regard for your personality or physiology. Some people are early birds; others are night owls. Some are motivated by an impending deadline; others think there’s nothing as anxiety-inducing as a ticking clock. The greater the disconnect between the timetable imposed by the app and your natural circadian rhythm, the more the app will harm your productivity rather than help it.

Time-management technologies generally impose a one-size-fits-all schedule with no regard for your personality or physiology.

Plus, apps aren’t designed to account for the overlapping timetables we each have to juggle every day, from bus times to children’s activities, colleagues’ work patterns and more.

All of which means that trying to shoe-horn your life into the framework imposed by your app is a pretty silly idea.

4. You can have too much of a good thing

Nowadays, there are apps for anything and everything, whether you want to count your steps, track your water consumption or monitor your screen time. It’s easy to fall into the trap of downloading lots of apps, doubling up on some of the features on offer. Do you really need two meditation apps? Or three different apps for to-do lists?

If you think an app isn’t working for you, and you’re caught in a spiral of downloads, you’ll immediately look for a new one without considering whether it actually meets your needs.

Having too many apps leads to decision fatigue and information being spread too thinly, making it difficult to organise and complete the tasks all those apps were supposed to help you accomplish. By spreading our activity across a range of apps, we completely lose sight of the bigger picture and end up feeling discouraged.

The best way to avoid that is to stick with one app and use it to its full potential. Unfortunately, jumping from one app to the next is a difficult habit to break. It takes time to learn the basics of a new app and even longer to fully master it. That can quickly harm your productivity, especially if you use several apps simultaneously. So before you download an app you might not need, stop for a moment to ask yourself whether you’re ready to invest the time it takes to learn to use it properly.

5. More apps, more notifications

Notifications are one of the biggest barriers to personal productivity. Each little buzz or ding breaks your concentration and takes you away from the task at hand. And as we’ve already seen, it takes a while to refocus.

Installing new apps on your devices only means more notifications and distractions.

Installing new apps on your devices only means more notifications and distractions. If you want to increase your productivity, one of the first things you should do is identify the apps that send you lots of notifications and block any that aren’t essential.

You can also set up and use the focus mode on your smartphone so your apps can only send you notifications within certain timeslots.

6. Your wallet will thank you

Some apps can have knock-on effects for your financial well-being as well as your productivity. There are plenty of free productivity apps on offer, but some will ask you to pay for access to the full suite of features. And naturally, the features that seem most appealing tend to come at a cost.

While some of these apps are worth the investment, others are not – or, at least, not for you. Before spending your hard-earned cash, make sure the app meets your needs. Do some research and try out a free version first if you can.

7. Apps create dependency

A dip in performance can have many possible causes. Turning to your phone as soon as your productivity starts to fall can quickly leave you over-dependent on technology. Productivity apps are no silver bullet for your problems. In fact, they’re designed to hog your attention. By focusing on them too much, you run the risk of spending more time on your phone and less on the task they were supposed to help you accomplish. Worth bearing in mind!

Productivity apps aren’t all bad, but it’s important to realise that technology is a means to an end rather than an end in itself. Before mindlessly downloading an app and all the distraction that comes with it, try to identify the reasons for your lack of productivity. There are lots of strategies to improve your productivity without relying on apps. If they don’t cut it for you, it goes without saying that you can try an app (just one!), so long as it doesn’t distract you when you’re working on an important project.

This article is a part of the folder Special feature: well-being at work