The hidden cost of using too many “small” apps

Every day, I find myself doing very small digital tasks.

Resize an image.
Merge a PDF.
Quickly calculate something.
Edit a bit of text.

Individually, these tasks take seconds. But what surprised me over time was how much overhead comes around them.

For each tiny task, there’s often a separate app:

something to install

something to update

permissions to approve

storage to manage

For a 10-second job, we end up maintaining a full application.

That friction adds up quietly.

What made me rethink this was realizing that most of these tasks don’t actually need “apps” in the traditional sense. They don’t require accounts, sync, notifications, or long-term state. They just need to be done — quickly — and then forgotten.

For workflows like that, heavy tools feel mismatched.

Another thing that started bothering me was privacy. Many apps ask for far more access than the task itself justifies. For something simple, that tradeoff feels unnecessary, especially when the same work can often be done without accounts or uploads.

Lately, I’ve been thinking more in terms of effort per outcome:

If a task takes less than a minute, the ideal flow is:

open

do the thing

close

move on

No setup, no residue.

I’m curious how others here think about this:

Do you actively try to reduce the number of tools you rely on?

Where do you draw the line between a “real app” and a disposable utility?

Have you seen users push back against tool overload, or is it mostly invisible friction?

Would love to hear how others approach this — especially from a product or workflow perspective.