Stop Work Overload By Setting These Boundaries

by?Elizabeth Grace Saunders

Why is it that when your friends, your significant other, and especially your mom tell you,?You need to stop working so much!?— you hesitate? On the one hand, you know they have a point. It’s unsustainable to pull 12- to 14-hour days on a consistent basis, and you feel burnt-out and cranky. But when it comes to actually setting boundaries, you stall and tell yourself and others, “It’s just a busy time. It will get better soon…”

當(dāng)你的朋友、愛人，尤其是媽媽不厭其煩地叮囑你，“不要工作那么賣力”時，你會躊躇一下。這是為什么？一方面，你明白他們說得有理。每天連續(xù)工作12到14小時是不行的，這讓你疲憊不堪，情緒暴躁。可一旦面臨需要設(shè)定工作時限時，你就會跟自己和親友們搪塞說，“只是最近比較忙而已，情況很快就會好轉(zhuǎn)的……”

But, it doesn’t. And you find yourself wedged between the fact that you can’t seem to get everything done and the feeling that maybe the problem isn’t the situation — it’s you. You feel guilty that everyone else seems to complete everything, but you can’t. You worry that if you ask for help or say, “No,” to anything that everyone will discover you’re an imposter who doesn’t add enough value.

事實(shí)上，情況不會好轉(zhuǎn)。當(dāng)意識到你可能沒辦法搞定全部工作，而問題的根源似乎是你時，你會左右為難。一方面，看到別人似乎都能完成自己的任務(wù)，你充滿負(fù)罪感；另一方面，你擔(dān)心，如果自己求助于人或一味拒絕任何請求，別人就會認(rèn)為你推卸工作，是個沒有能力創(chuàng)造價值的蠢貨。

Although those fears are understandable, they aren’t necessary valid. As a time coach, I’ve found that one of the biggest keys to achieving balance is to start objectively evaluating the fact-based aspects of your schedule, rather than letting a vague sense of fear drive your decisions. No matter how valuable a team member you may be, no one can fit 100 hours of work into 40 hours a week, or even 60 hours. You can start to make changes once you have confidence that the expectations of yourself and others really?are?unreasonable and that you can set boundaries in a respectful, constructive manner.

盡管這些恐懼可以理解，但這實(shí)在沒必要。作為一名時間管理培訓(xùn)師，我發(fā)現(xiàn)，平衡工作與生活的關(guān)鍵是，基于現(xiàn)實(shí)客觀地評估你的日程安排，而不是用一種模糊的恐懼感支配你的決定。不論你在團(tuán)隊中多重要，沒人能把100小時的工作壓縮到一周40小時或60小時內(nèi)完成。一旦確信自我和外界強(qiáng)加于你的預(yù)期不合理，你就可以著手做出改變。

Here are five steps to gain that confidence, which you can apply on an individual level or a group level if you have responsibility for managing the expectations of your team:

以下，我列出五個步驟，幫助你一步步找回自信。這些點(diǎn)子對于個人與團(tuán)隊都適用，尤其是當(dāng)你負(fù)責(zé)管理團(tuán)隊預(yù)期時。

Step 1: Develop a Time Budget

第一步：制定時間預(yù)算?

People who manage their finances well follow a few consistent principles. For one, they spend only what they have, so they avoid unnecessary debt and the corresponding stress and cost. They also make sure that they allocate their money correctly, so that they have sufficient funds for everything they need to buy. Finally, they cut costs where they can, without a significant negative impact, and make sure to put money into investments where they have a good probability of a return. The same principles apply with effective time investment. To have a clear sense of what you can reasonably handle, you should start out by calculating how many hours you have to “spend” each week. If you tend toward over-allocating time toward work, you can do the calculations in reverse. For example:

通常，理財高手會采用幾項原則。比如，他們只花手頭的錢，避免不必要的欠債，以及隨之而來的壓力與花銷；他們會盡量合理分配金錢，從而留有足夠的資金購買所需；他們在無負(fù)面影響的前提下，盡可能削減開銷，并購買高回報率的投資產(chǎn)品。同樣的原則也適用于有效率的時間投資。要想了解自己究竟能處理多少事情，你首先應(yīng)當(dāng)計算自己每周有多少時間可以用來“花費(fèi)”。如果你傾向于在工作上多分配一些時間，那么可以采取反向計算法。例如：?

Hours/Day to Work=24-(Number of Hours of Sleep)-(Commute)-(Personal Commitments)-(Exercise)-(Self Care)

　　每天用于工作的時間＝24－睡覺時間－上下班時間－私生活時間－鍛煉時間－自我保養(yǎng)時間

By “personal commitments,” I’m referring to items in your schedule that are an essential part of you feeling fulfilled. These vary from person to person but could include family time, volunteer responsibilities, social activities, or personal passions like playing the piano. Also, eating, showering, and getting ready fall under “self care.” Once you have a sense of your daily time budget, you can calculate your weekly time budget by adding up the totals for each day. For some people, each day will look similar. For others, their personal commitments create large variations in their day-to-day time budget.

我所說的“私生活”是指，日程中能讓你產(chǎn)生自我滿足感的部分，它對你而言至關(guān)重要。每個人的私生活各不相同，可以是家庭聚會、志愿服務(wù)、社區(qū)活動或彈鋼琴之類的個人愛好。“自我保養(yǎng)”則包括吃東西、洗澡以及梳妝打扮等。一旦你了解了自己每天的時間預(yù)算，就可以計算出自己一周的時間預(yù)算。對于某些人來說，每天做的事情差不多。但對于另一些人而言，他們每天私人時間的安排大不相同。?

Once you understand the size of your time budget, then you can evaluate the different time costs during your workday. For example, you have “maintenance” activities like answering e-mail or planning, “execution” activities like attending meetings or completing a report, and “development” activities like networking or marketing. I recommend making a list of all the different elements of your workday and then either writing down an initial time estimate or percentage for each one. For instance, 20% of my workday consists of answering e-mail, 50% of project work, and 30% of development activities.

一旦你認(rèn)識到自己的時間預(yù)算額，就可以著手估算每天各種事項的時間量。比如，你要做些“維護(hù)類”的事項，如回復(fù)郵件或制定計劃；“執(zhí)行類”的事項，如開會或完成報告；“開發(fā)類”的事項，如開拓市場或人際網(wǎng)。我的建議是，列出每天不同的活動事項，然后寫下預(yù)計要花的時間或所占的時間比例。舉個例子，我每天工作時可能用20％的時間回郵件，50％的時間做項目，另外30％的時間進(jìn)行開發(fā)類活動。?

Make sure to not only consider the cost for a particular item but also the associated costs. For instance, a one-hour meeting could come with the related expenses of 15 minutes of travel time each way, 30 minutes of prep, and 15 minutes of follow up. That means that the total expense comes to 2.25 hours. So if you work a 9-hour day and want to spend no more than 50% of your time in meetings, then that limits you to an average of two meetings per day and ten meetings per week.

注意，你不光要考慮每項活動所花費(fèi)的時間，還要考慮衍生的時間花銷。比如，一個時長1小時的會議可能往返的路上要花去30分鐘時間，還要花30分鐘做準(zhǔn)備，15分鐘做跟進(jìn)。這就意味著花在這個會議上的總時長是2小時15分。因此，如果你每天有9小時的工作時間預(yù)算，并且不希望利用多于50％的時間開會，那么，你每天平均可以出席2次這樣的會議，每周最多只能參加10個這樣的會議。

Step 2: Make Cuts Where You Can

第二步：能省就省

After developing a time budget, you’ll typically find that you really did expect more of yourself than you could possibly fit into the hours in a day. But that doesn’t mean it’s time to go running to your manager yet. Instead, you need to take a very careful look at how you spend your time and cut where you can, first.

?在制定出時間預(yù)算之后，你通常會發(fā)現(xiàn)，在時間允許的情況下完成的工作量遠(yuǎn)少于預(yù)期的量。但這不代表你應(yīng)立即找主管訴苦。你需要認(rèn)真審視自己的時間安排，并盡可能節(jié)約時間。

One of the readers of my book took this advice to heart when she faced a major time crunch at work. Instead of trying to fight the reality of her time budget, she took this action:

?我的一位讀者深受時間緊張之苦，于是用心學(xué)習(xí)了這項原則。她并未向上司抱怨工作量太大，時間不夠用，而是采取了如下措施：

“I was (once again) up against way too many competing projects with the same deadline and then trying to juggle other on-going & long-term projects too, which was causing lots of stress! So, I thought about what was causing the stress and tried to tackle things I had control of without just defaulting to working a lot of overtime. For example, I contacted one of the project managers with the longer-term project to see if it was possible to ‘pause’ my effort on his project over a two-week period, and he agreed with some negotiations. So that was about 24 hours saved over the two weeks. Then I attacked a few other aspects of the problem by recruiting some more part-time help from another department, adjusting the scope of one project, gaining an extension on another project, etc., etc. Instead of feeling overwhelmed and a victim of the circumstances, I felt SO powerful!”

?“我一再接手截止時間相同的項目，但手頭上還有其他正在進(jìn)行以及長期要做的項目。于是我不得不試著協(xié)調(diào)不同項目的工作時間，這讓我壓力很大！于是，我開始思考是什么原因造成壓力，然后在不一味加班的情況下，著手處理可控范圍之內(nèi)的事情。比如說，我聯(lián)系了一位負(fù)責(zé)長期項目的項目經(jīng)理，詢問有沒有可能把我的工作內(nèi)容暫緩兩個星期。稍事談判后他同意了，這就為我接下來的兩周節(jié)省出24個小時。然后我通過雇用一些其他部門的兼職人員、調(diào)整項目范圍或者為另一個項目爭取延期等方法攻克了其他一些難題。我并沒有感覺自己是個不堪重負(fù)的可憐人，而是覺得自己如此厲害！”

You may need to take such extreme measures in times of work crisis, or you may take more subtle measures, such as?taking yourself out of nonessential meetings, asking your colleagues to review items with you during one-on-one meetings instead of sending you 50 e-mails throughout the week, stepping off of a committee, turning off your e-mail pop-up, or spending less time on items where?spending more time to get them perfect doesn’t add value. Challenge your assumptions on what you should do and how long you should spend on different activities. If possible, only commit to putting tasks on your weekly to-do list if you have space to fit them into your schedule.

?工作危機(jī)臨頭，你或許需要采取一些極端手段，但也可以采取一些更微妙的措施，譬如從不重要的會議中脫身；和你的同事在一對一面談中商議事情，而不是一周發(fā)50多封郵件討論它們；從某個委員會卸職；關(guān)閉郵箱的彈出提醒功能，或在即便追求完美也不會添加價值的事情上減少時間投入。你需要思考自己該做什么，該花多長時間做不同的事情，并時常審視這些預(yù)期是否合理。如果有可能，你應(yīng)該在每周的待辦事項上只添加你能應(yīng)付得來的任務(wù)。

Step 3: Compare Expected Versus Actual

第三步：對比事實(shí)與預(yù)期

Once you’ve started to come to terms with the fact that time is limited and you’ve taken advantage of the quick wins, you’ll need to further refine your estimates to compare expected versus actual time allotments. For instance, maybe you think that e-mail should only take one hour out of your day. But when you actually look at the time you spend, you find that it always takes two. (Any sort of tracking will do, but if you want to be precise, tools like?RescueTime?can help you to know exactly how you spend time on your computer.) When faced with the reality of the situation, you’ll need to see if you can take time-cutting measures like writing more succinct responses, using tools like?TypeIt4Me?or asking for different e-mail strategies at work. If none of those reduce the time allocation, then instead of fighting the reality, you’ll need to increase your budget in that area.

?一旦你接受了時間有限這一事實(shí)，并充分利用了快速見效的方法，你還需要對比實(shí)際與預(yù)期的時間分配情況，進(jìn)一步完善預(yù)估。比如說，你最初認(rèn)為回郵件只需占用一天中一個小時的時間，但當(dāng)回顧實(shí)際用時時，你發(fā)現(xiàn)自己用了兩個小時。（你可以通過多種方式監(jiān)測時間花費(fèi)。如果你想做到精確，可以利用RescueTime之類的應(yīng)用程序幫你記錄在電腦上每項活動所花的時間。）在面對這樣的現(xiàn)實(shí)時，你需要評估自己是否可以寫更簡短的郵件，利用TypeIt4Me等應(yīng)用程序，或采取其他寫電郵的攻略，節(jié)約工作時間。如果以上措施均不能達(dá)到節(jié)約時間的效果，那么與其與現(xiàn)實(shí)抗?fàn)?，你不如增加這方面的時間預(yù)算。

Using the?80/20 rule?can also help you make everything fit within your time budget. But this will require you to more fully embrace the facts that you can’t do everything and you can’t please everyone. For instance, as you start to look at the value from different activities, you may find that declining meetings that people would?like?you to attend, but that keep you from your highest priority tasks, is the correct answer. Or you may discover that you need to spend less time than you might have thought to make the correct amount of impact. For example, showing up for 30-45 minutes at your company happy hour may have almost as much impact as staying for two hours. By cutting out earlier, you can have time to invest an hour in exercise or finishing a proposal, which will have a dramatic return on the time investment. Although some of these choices may make people uncomfortable — especially you — the short-term discomfort caused by changing your natural default response will have a big pay-off in the long term.

?“二八法則”（人們用來完成重要任務(wù)的時間僅占所有時間的20％ ——譯者注）也可以幫助你在預(yù)算內(nèi)安排所有任務(wù)。但是要想利用這一法則，你需要完全接受一個現(xiàn)實(shí)，那就是你不能完成所有事情，也不能取悅每一個人。舉個例子，當(dāng)你衡量每項任務(wù)的價值時，你可能會發(fā)現(xiàn)，婉拒人們希望你出席的會議，以便騰出時間完成優(yōu)先度更高的任務(wù)是明智之舉。你還會發(fā)現(xiàn)，你只利用了比預(yù)期少的時間就獲得了同樣的影響力。打個比方，出席30到45分鐘的同事聚餐活動可能與待上2小時所獲得的影響力相仿。早點(diǎn)離席的話，你就可以投入一小時的時間鍛煉身體或完成一項提案，從而在時間投資上獲得驚人的回報。盡管你做出的某些選擇會使他人尤其是你自己感到不舒服，但改變常規(guī)所帶來的短期不適可以帶來巨大的長期收益。

Step 4: Ask For Direction

第四步：尋求幫助

If you’ve followed the above three steps and still can’t seem to accomplish everything you need to do, it’s time to take courage and ask for help. You can do so in a clear, objective way as outlined below. But before you do, bolster your confidence by looking over the facts of your time budget once more and reminding yourself that you have no reason to feel guilty or like a failure. No one can do the impossible, so the fact that you’re over your time budget isn’t a judgment about you, but a sign that you need to adjust your overall environment.

?如果你采用以上三個步驟，仍不能完成計劃內(nèi)的事情，那么是時候向他人求助了。你可以采取以下清晰、具體的步驟。但在你這樣做之前，千萬別因為自責(zé)或感覺很失敗而失去自信。沒有人可以完成不可能完成的任務(wù)，因此，當(dāng)你的時間預(yù)算透支時，不要擔(dān)心會被人評判能力不足，而要把它看作你需要調(diào)整自己環(huán)境的信號。

Here’s how to approach time budget negotiations with your manager and/or people who try to put more items into your schedule:

?面對你的上司或者想要給你加更多項目的人，以下是如何針對時間預(yù)算進(jìn)行討價還價的方法：

Gather Your Facts:?Have a concise list of projects and a rough estimate of how long the various tasks take you to do. (If you’ve followed the above three steps, you should already have this on hand.)

?收集事實(shí)：通過一個簡明扼要的單子，列舉手頭的項目以及每項花費(fèi)的時間。如果你采取了以上三個步驟，那么你應(yīng)該已有單子在手。

Develop a Visual:?This could look as simple as printing out your weekly calendar after having filled in both meetings and times for tasks, or as complex as displaying a full-scale project plan. The form matters less than the goal of showing the incongruence between the available time and the requested activities.

?視覺展現(xiàn)：這一項可以和打印填滿了會議和任務(wù)時間的周歷一樣簡單，或者和展示出整體的項目計劃一樣復(fù)雜。采取什么格式并不重要，目標(biāo)是顯示出可用時間和工作量的不一致性。

Present the Information:?Instead of seeing this as a battle between you and the people desiring work from you, approach these expectations negotiations as strategic sessions where you are working together to maximize the value you can contribute. Maybe a task could be demoted in priority, be delegated, or be simplified so that you can have more time to focus on the highest priority tasks. When done in this manner, asking for direction with setting priorities doesn’t have to come across as disrespectful or insubordinate, but as a joint effort to work within the reality of your time limitations.

?戰(zhàn)略協(xié)商：與其把協(xié)調(diào)工作的談判當(dāng)作一場戰(zhàn)斗，不如把它當(dāng)作戰(zhàn)略性對話，爭取最大化地貢獻(xiàn)你的價值。或許你可以降低某項任務(wù)的優(yōu)先級，或委托他人來做，要么就簡化它，以便節(jié)省時間來應(yīng)付優(yōu)先度更高的任務(wù)。要想戰(zhàn)略性地解決問題，你應(yīng)該向他人請教如何設(shè)定工作的優(yōu)先級。這樣，你就不會顯得不尊重他人或不服從指令，而是和他人共同努力，解決時間局促的難題。

Step 5: Keep Rebalancing

第五步：反復(fù)平衡

Due to the dynamic nature of life and work, you can’t simply set your schedule and then leave it for the next 10 years. Typically on a daily or weekly (or at the very least a monthly) basis, you will need to balance and rebalance your schedule. This means that if you had an under-allocation of time toward a particular activity one week, like processing e-mail, you will need to spend more time on it the following week. Or maybe one week you need to completely focus on presentation prep, so the next week you catch up on meetings. The realistic goal is to have the correct allocation of time within your workweek — and between your work and non-work time — average out correctly.

?生活與工作充滿了變數(shù)，因此你不能簡單地設(shè)定你的日程表，然后期望一勞永逸地用它十年。通常情況下，你需要每天或者每周（最長每個月）重新衡量和制定你的時間表。也就是說，如果某一周你為某一項活動分配的時間不足，比如說處理郵件這項，那么下周你就可以在這一項上多分配一些時間。或者，可能有一周你需要全身心投入到準(zhǔn)備報告上，那么下一周你就可以補(bǔ)開一些會議。真實(shí)可行的目標(biāo)是在你的工作周內(nèi)（包括工作時間和非工作時間）對時間進(jìn)行恰當(dāng)分配，并取得平衡。

As a final word of encouragement — and warning — practicing what I’ve outlined will not only leave you healthier and happier, but also more humble. When you start to embrace your limits, you’ll need to admit that you aren’t perfect and can’t do everything, especially all at once. If you have always been the go-to perfectionist on the team, this adjustment in your behavior could leave you feeling a bit at a loss in terms of your identity. You’ll need to redefine who you are such as “the person who remains calm and delivers on-time, quality work” instead of “the stressed-out team member who meets ridiculously short deadlines and never says, No.” This transition will take time but will ultimately empower you to enjoy the journey and make life more pleasant for those around you too.

?最后，我想鼓勵并警告大家一下，實(shí)踐我所列出的步驟不僅會讓你更健康快樂，更會讓你變得謙遜。當(dāng)你開始接受自己能力有限的事實(shí)時，你就不得不承認(rèn)自己是不完美的，無法兼顧所有事情。如果你永遠(yuǎn)是隊伍里那個萬事不求人的完美主義者，那么這些行為上的調(diào)整或許會令你對于自己的身份感到有些迷茫。你需要重新定義自我，做“時刻保持冷靜，同時能按時、高質(zhì)量地完成任務(wù)的人”，而不是“經(jīng)常神經(jīng)緊張，能在短得離譜的時間內(nèi)完成任務(wù)，而且從不說‘不’的隊員”。這樣的轉(zhuǎn)變是需要時間的，但最終它會使你更享受事業(yè)之旅，并讓你周圍的人感到快樂。

(譯/康欣葉? ? ?校/陳圓妮 方穎)

伊麗莎白·格雷斯·桑德斯是時間管理培訓(xùn)師、《高效時間管理的三個秘訣》（The 3 Secrets to Effective Time Investment: How to Achieve More Success With Less Stress）一書的作者，也是Real Life E Time Coaching & Training公司創(chuàng)始人。