【告别拖延症】8 ways successful people defeat procrastination Part 2

5. They plan ahead. 5. 他们提前做计划 How often do you, at the start of your work day, sit at your desk and begin looking for things to work on, only to wind up on Reddit or checking email? 在一天工作的开始，有多少次你坐在桌子旁，看着你需要做的工作，最后只是在看看Reddit网站或是查收邮件中结束？ If you get to your work desk and have no idea where to start, it can lead you to work on low-impact tasks (such as checking email) or other worse forms of procrastinating. 如果你到了办公室却不知道怎么开始，那你只能完成低强度的任务（如查收邮件）或是其他更糟糕的工作。 Those without a map, wander. Put together a plan or to-do list before starting work or any project. 那些没有地图的人一直在徘徊。在工作或任何项目开始之前，整合一个计划或任务清单。 The night before is a good time to do this. It allows you to reflect on what you’ve accomplished during the day and then come up with what needs to get done tomorrow. Now, when you start your work day, you know exactly what you need to work on and what’s the highest priority. 前一天晚上非常适合做这项工作。它能让你仔细思考过去的这一天完成了什么工作，明天还有什么需要完成。此时，当你开始工作时，你清楚地知道自己该做什么并且什么是最该优先做的。 6. They commit to at least showing up. 6. 他们承诺至少会出现 After starting a task, you’ll likely stick with it a lot longer than you initially committed to. 在开始一项任务后，你可能比一开始承诺的能坚持更久。 It’s like working out. Half the battle is just showing up to the gym. 就像是锻炼，出现在健身房就成功了一半。 Commit to just showing up and you’ll find yourself completing a lot more tasks. The next time you don’t feel like tackling a task, commit to only working on it for one minute. Set a timer for 60 seconds, then sit down and get to work. More often than not, you’ll find yourself wanting to go beyond the 60 seconds and continue. 只是承诺出现，你会发现自己完成了更多的任务。下一次你不想解决任务时，承诺只工作一分钟。设置60秒的定时，然后坐下来开始工作。通常情况下，你会发现自己想超过这60秒继续工作。 I constantly use this technique to trick myself into working on tedious tasks. 我经常用这种方法欺骗自己去做乏味的任务。 7. They break up large tasks into smaller tasks. 7. 他们把大任务拆分成小任务 The classic but seldom-followed productivity advice to conquering large or overwhelming tasks is to break them up into smaller chunks. Successful people understand that tasks need to be broken down into much more specific and measurable sub-tasks. 当克服很大的或是压倒性的任务时，一个很经典但是却很少被使用的提高效率的建议是，把他们拆分成小块。成功人士知道任务需要被拆分成具体可行的子任务。 For example, an overwhelming to-do list item might be “write book.” Does that item in my to-do list mean I need to write the entire book today, or does only writing one sentence count towards the completion of the task? 例如，一个难办的待办事项条目可能是“写书”。在待办事项中的这个条目是说我今天就要写完一整本书呢？还是只写一句话就算完成？ A better approach would be to set a goal of writing a specific number or words each day, or spend a certain amount of time researching. 一个更好的方法是设置一个目标，明确规定每天要写多少数量或多少字，或是花固定的时间研究。 “Write 1000 words” or “spend 30 minutes researching examples of productive CEOs for book” are much more specific tasks, and therefore easier to tackle. This often encourages me to get more done and feel accomplished and motivated by scratching to-do items off of my list. “写100个字”或是“花30分钟研究高效的CEO写书的例子”是更为具体的任务，也因此更容易处理。这经常能鼓励我完成更多工作，把工作从待办事项的清单中划掉是非常有成就感也是非常鼓舞人的。 8. They give up. 8. 他们会放弃 Just because you already poured hours into a project, doesn’t mean you need to finish it. This is known as the “sunk cost fallacy.” The “sunk cost fallacy” affects gamblers, investors, and even procrastinators. Sometimes, a project just isn’t worth burning more hours over, and you ultimately need to figure out if it’s time to quit. 只是因为你早已在一个项目上花费了好几个小时，并不意味着你必须要完成它。这就是所谓的“沉没成本误区”。“沉没成本误区”对赌徒、投资者、甚至是拖延者都造成了影响。有时候，一项任务不值得花费更多的时间，最终你需要意识到是否到了该放弃的时候。 Take a step back and figure out the reason you’re procrastinating on the project or task. Is it because it’s actually not that important, or doesn’t move you closer to your big picture goal? 后退一步看看你在项目或任务上为什么会拖延。是因为它真的不重要吗？或者是没能让你更接近你的目标蓝图？ Subtraction, instead of addition, is efficient and productive. Maybe you need to focus on doing fewer things. Maybe this project you’re procrastinating on is actually making you much less productive and needs to be dropped. 减法比加法更有效。可能你需要把精力集中在少数的事情上，可能你拖延的这个项目让你变得低效，那么你确实需要放弃它。 Your turn. 轮到你了。 Procrastination can be beat, it just takes some self-awareness and effort. Applying even just a few of any of the above methods can put you on the path to being a much more productive individual. 拖延能被打败，只是需要一些自我意识和努力。应用上面的方法（哪怕只有其中的几个）能帮助你走上更高效的道路。 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: Anan Ryoko - Refrain Zella Day - 1965