【告别拖延症】8 ways successful people defeat procrastination Part 1

Everyone procrastinates. Even the most successful people struggle with it every day. But successful people do something that most of us don&`&t -- they push past it. They don’t make excuses or allow it to affect their output. They come up with smart, actionable strategies to break past mental barriers and stay productive. 每个人都会拖延，即使是最成功的人每天也要跟拖延斗争。但这些成功人士做了一些我们大多数人都没有做的事——克服它。他们不为此找借口，或是任由拖延影响自己的工作。他们想出聪明的、可行性高的策略去打破过去的心理障碍，从而保持高效。 Here are eight ways successful people defeat procrastination. 下面就是成功人士战胜拖延的八个方法。 1. They keep themselves accountable. 1. 他们对自己负责 Show yourself commitment to getting things done. Making a commitment to yourself helps keep you accountable. You can do this by writing your goals down, keeping a to-do list with you, and creating reminders in your phone and on your calendar. 给自己许下把事情做完的承诺。对自己许诺能够帮助你保持责任感。你可以通过把目标写下来、随身携带待办事项以及在手机上或日历上设置提醒的方法来实现。 There are other more creative things you can do to keep yourself accountable Change the wallpaper on your phone or computer to something that says “get work done”. Write your tasks and goals on a whiteboard or large sticky you keep on your monitor. Set the new tab screen of your browser to something that reminds you of the day’s priorities using Momentum or Limitless. 你还可以做一些其他更有创造性的事情来让自己保持责任感：把你的手机或电脑屏幕壁纸设置成“做完工作”这样的话，把任务和目标写在白板或是显示屏的便签上。用Momentum或是Limitless在浏览器上建立新标签页，提醒你每天优先做的事。 2. They make themselves accountable to others. 2. 他们对别人负责 If you can’t stay accountable to yourself, you might have more success staying accountable to other people. 如果你不能保持对自己负责，那你可能更容易做到对别人负责。 Tell everyone what you plan to do and talk about your goals. Tell friends, employees and employers your intentions and you won’t want to let them down. For example, if you want to go to the gym every day, ask a friend to text you every evening asking “did you go to the gym today?” 告诉大家你的计划并且谈论你的目标。告诉朋友、员工、雇主你的打算，你并不想让他们失望。比如说，如果你想每天都去健身房，叫一个朋友每天晚上发信息问你：“你今天去健身房了吗？” Another suggestion is to start documenting and sharing your journey. A blog or vlog where you share the projects you’re working on and your progress will encourage you to get things done. Allowing yourself to be under public scrutiny can help light a fire under you. 还有一个建议是开始记录并且分享你的进程。在微博或视频播客上晒出正在进行的项目以及获得的进步将会督促你把事情做完。把自己置于公众的审查之下可以点燃你体内的热情。 3. They tie themselves to the mast. 3. 他们把自己绑在桅杆上 In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus has his ship’s crew tie him to the mast so that he could hear the Sirens’ song without being drawn in and tempted to jump into the sea. If you’re a chronic procrastinator and simply can’t resist the temptations of things like Facebook and Youtube, it might be time to tie yourself to the mast. 在《荷马的奥德赛》一书中，奥德修斯让他的船员们把他绑在桅杆上，这样他就能听到塞壬的歌声而不被引诱并试图跳进海中。如果你是一个慢性拖延症患者，对Facebook和Youtube这类诱惑物没有抵抗力的话，是时候把自己绑在桅杆上了。（塞壬：古希腊传说中半人半鸟的女海妖，惯以美妙的歌声引诱水手，使他们的船只或触礁或驶入危险水域） There are tools such as Rescue Time, SelfControl and Focus that will temporarily block access to distracting websites like Facebook so you can work on the things that matter. It’s an extreme measure but also very effective. 一些类似于Rescue Time、SelfControl、Focus的工具可以暂时阻止你进入Facebook这类让人分心的网站，这样你就能专心做重要的事情。方法比较极端，但确实非常有效。 There are less aggressive tools such as Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator and Distraction Free Youtube. These will allow you to have access to Facebook and Youtube but block the distracting parts of these websites (such as the newsfeed) so you can still use them for business purposes, like managing ads. 还有一些不那么极端的工具，像是Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator和Distraction Free Youtube，这些工具能让你接触Facebook和Youtube，但是会禁用一些让人分心的模块（如新闻供应）。这样一来你仍然可以用它们进行工作，比如管理广告。 4. They have self awareness. 4. 他们有自我意识 Self-awareness is a common trait many successful people have. Having self-awareness allows you to properly understand why you’re even procrastinating in the first place. 自我意识是很多成功人士都有的一个共同特征。拥有自我意识会让你正确地认识到从一开始为什么会拖延。 Once you understand why you’re procrastinating, it will be easier for you to form a plan to beat it. This will allow you to see the root cause of your procrastination, which you can then either solve the problem or formulate a strategy to overcome it. 一旦你明白了自己为什么拖延，制定计划去战胜它就变得比较容易了。这会让你看到拖延的根本原因，之后你可以解决问题或是制定战略克服它。 Becoming aware of why you procrastinate means taking a step back and looking at some of the possible reasons such as boredom, lack of confidence in the project, lack of self-confidence, and feeling overwhelmed. Once you know the reason, it’s a matter of finding things to remedy it and cut your procrastination off at the source. 意识到自己为什么拖延意味着后退一步看看可能出现的原因，比如厌烦、对项目缺乏信心、缺乏自信，或是感觉受打击。一旦你知道了原因，这就是想办法补救的事情了，并且要从源头切断拖延。 本双语文章的中文翻译系沪江英语原创内容。中文翻译仅代表沪江译者个人观点，仅供参考。 Music: Andy McKee - Rylynn Lenka - Free