App-y Life, Happy Life? More Simplicity Apps Don't Necessarily Make Our Lives Simpler, New Study Shows

While frazzled professionals continue to turn to apps like Todoist, Slack, Zoom, and Trello in an effort to simplify their busy lives, a new study from Aprimo reveals that once managers and executives begin integrating more than 10 such apps in their daily routines, the benefits diminish rapidly.

The 2023 Aprimo Survey: The Complex Pursuit of Simplicity, conducted for Aprimo March 3-4 by the third-party survey platform Pollfish, asked 750 U.S. managers and executives about their pursuit of simplicity in their home and work lives?and the apps they used to aid them in this pursuit.

Key findings of the survey include:

• More than three-quarters (77%) of respondents expressed a desire to make their lives simpler, with 39% of respondents saying that their lives are more complex today compared to before the Covid pandemic.
• 65% of respondents said they use at least six different apps to simplify their lives, with 12% saying they use more than 15 apps for this purpose.
• Those using 6-10 apps reported the best results, with those using more or fewer reporting lower satisfaction levels, with the worst results for those using more than 20 apps.
• When apps failed to simplify their lives, 44% of respondents said it was because they could not figure out how to use it in their daily routines, 43% said it was because the app was too complex to use, and 40% said it was difficult to use the app in conjunction with other apps they were using.

"Many professionals are overwhelmed by the demands of daily life today. That's why they seek out apps and tools to help them better organize, prioritize, and collaborate. But as this survey shows, simply downloading more apps will ultimately reach a point of diminishing returns," said Erik Huddleston, chief executive officer, Aprimo. "At Aprimo, we believe what's true for individuals is true for companies as well. The key to simplifying operations is not to keep adding the latest shiny objects to your tech stack, but to streamline your use of technology at a foundational level. In the business of content operations, that means having a single source of truth to be used by all stakeholders in the organization."

Visit the 2023 Aprimo Survey: The Complex Pursuit of Simplicity at Aprimo's website for the complete survey results.

About Aprimo

Aprimo offers industry-leading digital asset management and work management solutions that help your teams spend their time and effort on content and marketing strategies that drive business outcomes and reach customers in the right channels. Its content operations platform provides organizations with a single source of truth to optimize the way they plan, develop, govern, and deliver exceptional brand experiences at scale. Learn more at www.aprimo.com.