My father used to say, “If the tool is not right, the mechanic is not bright.” His point was simple: efficiency requires the proper tools for the task at hand. Too few tools, or the wrong ones, make work unnecessarily difficult or impossible.
I have come to believe, however, that an excess of applications can prove equally counterproductive. Beyond the obvious subscription fees, we often overlook the hidden costs: time spent evaluating new software, the steep curve of learning complex features, the constant need for data migration, and more. We also pay a significant maintenance tax involving security updates, privacy management, and the friction of troubleshooting broken integrations or syncing errors.
One of the hidden cost is the cognitive load. We run the risk of suffering from what Barry Schwartz termed the paradox of choice, wherein an abundance of options produces anxiety, decision paralysis, and diminished satisfaction with whatever selection one ultimately makes.
The research supports this conclusion. A 2022 Harvard Business Review study (subscription required) found that knowledge workers toggle between applications approximately 1,200 times daily. This creates “attention residue,” where the brain remains connected to the previous task, leading to a loss of nearly four hours weekly–the equivalent of five working weeks annually. Furthermore, a 2025 Lokalise survey of 1,000 workers revealed that 56 percent experience weekly productivity loss specifically from tool fatigue.
I have come to believe that mastering a few tools is more productive than maintaining a superficial familiarity with many. Depth of competence within a rigorously curated group produces greater efficiency than a library of fifty or more.
I accomplish 95 percent of my work and entertainment within a relatively small group of apps: Music, Podcasts, Preview, iPhone Mirroring, Photos, Numbers, Keynote, Logos, AI tools (Claude and Gemini), OmniOutliner, FreeForm, DEVONthink, Zotero, Ulysses, Pages, Voice Memos, Drafts, Apple Notes, Messages, Calendar, Reminders, Safari, and Mail. I have MS Office when I must open a Word or Excel document.
I maintain only a few incidental applications for the remaining five percent–such as Canva (which I have yet to learn), Pixelmator Pro, and a few others. These remain on the edges of my work rather than at the center of it.
Obviously, everyone’s needs differ, requiring an individualized mix and quantity of applications. Furthermore, those of us not self-employed cannot always control the tools we are required to use. Nevertheless, I suspect many of us have succumbed to the temptation to collect more apps than we truly need, resulting paradoxically in being less productive. The insidious thing is, we don’t always realize that we’re being less productive because we’re having fun. Nothing wrong with fun, of course. 
As we embark on our annual ritual of end-of-year app and workflow reassessment, let’s consider that, sometimes, less is more.
Just my 2 cents!
, and Ivory all are invaluable on my Mac. DayOne and the NYT Games are regularly used.
