I want you to do something. It’s simple: Just look at the number of apps you’ve downloaded to your phone, computer, or tablet to be replaced by native apps that do the same thing in a very similar way.

Already? If you have alternative apps to Google or Apple calendar, pay attention to apps that replace the native email manager, they are definitely there because you want to increase your productivity. I was in this situation myself until recently, but I realized something: I was extremely productive filling out information in apps, but the “real” work was too much for me.

Then I saw something interesting: My partner was doing the same thing in the Notes app on his iPhone that I was doing in a particular app. I started paying attention to using the app this way and also found that I had a different app than before for something very specific that my partner was doing in… Notes again.

And by chance I was reminded of the meme about how we use apps. This means that a naive user is using a pre-installed application on his mobile phone, another is an advanced and I’m disappointed that you have to fill out information for 20 applications and at the other end of the graph, the power user: someone who does everything the power user does, but in the same application that the novice user is already using.

In fact, while talking about this with my colleagues, Javier Lacort shared a perfect visual that summarizes what happened to me:

Unfortunately, I found myself very identified with that frustrated user figure. And half of the apps you use have a design that looks pretty familiar to me. The main problem is that you can’t get rid of it overnight.

Working to complete an application

I am not a minimalist person. I tried, but I love collecting video games and consoles. I also enjoy a lot of other things, so even though I watch a lot of minimalist lifestyle videos, I gave up trying to be something I’m not a long time ago.

But I think there are several types of minimalism, and one that helps me be more productive is digital. I’m telling you it’s not easy, and I’ll use my own work as an example. Before we start this minimalism thingused the following applications:

• Airtable – Article publishing calendar management.
• Fantasy – Calendar.
• Spark – Mail Management.
• Asana – Project management (previously used Trello) and deadlines.
• Todoist – To-do lists.
• Notion – Write articles.
• Spreadsheet – Number of articles written.
• Google Keep – Write down ideas that come to your mind outside the home, thanks to its widget.
• Pomodoro apps.

All of these were for work, because I’ve used a few in my personal life as well. These are great apps that you can get much more from me. Many of them are extremely versatile, but I’ve only used one thing of each. When I first opened them, I remember spending hours structuring every corner, adding new pages and beautifying them to increase my productivity because ultimately these would make me more productive.

They were successful, but only in terms of “filling” those applications. I spent a lot of time completing cells and tasks in these apps throughout the day, which increased my work screen time. In short: I worked for the app, the app ain’t for me.

And it was my fault.

real health

If you’re in this situation, you definitely know what I’m talking about, and like I said, the transition wasn’t easy, but my decision was to remove any alternative to the native app and test how it went for a week. .

So I was left with:

• Notion – For writing, editing projects, and using as a spreadsheet.
• Local Post – No explanation needed.
• Reminders – Todoist’s native iPhone app.
• Calendar – Instead of Fantasy and instead of Asana.
• Notes – These are quick ideas, shopping lists, etc. to note.
• iPhone concentration modes. This is important.

Not only are there fewer apps, but I no longer have duplicate apps since I uninstalled the others. This is true on mobile too, but the same thing happens to me on PC or Mac and I’m using native apps or web versions of the apps I just mentioned. In fact, the only app I downloaded from the Store is Notion, and what I did was to take more advantage of the benefits each app offered me.

Instead of using a new one for every task, I use the native ones and Notion for more things. It might seem silly at first to go the other way, but that’s what these apps are made for: they’re so thoughtful and attractively designed, we want to use them all. They are all suitable for all terrains but are exceptionally good at one specific thing. and what we end up with is a galaxy of multifunctional apps that we use for one thing only.

Like I said, this was killing my productivity because I would spend hours completing the list of tasks I needed to do and get frustrated when I couldn’t achieve goals, all apps would show red icons reminding me that I had accomplished it. I didn’t reach for them, and that left me spending more time on those apps to rearrange tasks in hopes of coming back next week.

I work better without this “pressure”. If I want to focus on a task for a certain amount of time, I don’t need the Pomodoro app because I don’t have much to do beyond focusing on that task. I don’t need to update a tag with its status (if it’s pending, if I’ve started it, if I need to edit it, or if I’ve finished). It’s simply done… or not.

And the same goes for the rest of the apps. I have Mail on my mobile phone and the same app is already installed on my Mac, so if I need to use another Mac for some reason, that app is already there and I just need to log into my account. And it’s the same with all of them except Notion. There are also apps like Reminders and Calendar that are linked together without the need to grant permissions between apps from different companies (and the security risks this introduces).

All in all, I think productivity apps are great (and even more so now that they integrate different uses of AI). They’re there and they’re so popular for a reason, but personally, after using them for years, I’ve found that what works best for me are the apps I already have. In fact, this is something that can be described as the irony of productivity applications.

AND I focused on iOS, but it’s more of the same on Android. It’s actually a little better on Google’s system because I can forget about Notion since Spreadsheets and Docs are ready to use. But hey, that’s what it means to be in the Apple ecosystem.

If you are in the situation I described at the beginning, if you identify with the image shared by my colleague Lacort, and if you have come this far, I recommend you to try that “minimalist productivity”. At least for a few days. If it doesn’t work for you you can always go back, although there are people who enjoy it. My partner, Lacort, before I go any further.

Image | Xataka

in Xataka | Until recently, people were proud of how little they slept; candidates for dementia and Alzheimer’s today.