Bartleby

巴特爾比

Your inner dawdler

內(nèi)心的拖延者

dawdler：n.?游手好閑的人,懶人

How to get things done—eventually

如何最終把事情做完

1 “IF YOU WANT to change the world, start off by making your bed,” Admiral William McRaven told the graduating class of 2014 at the University of Texas, Austin. What the US Navy counts as “making your bed”—square corners, centred pillow, blanket neatly folded at the foot of the rack—is idiosyncratic. Yet the admiral’s broader point is universal: whether you are a sailor, a salesperson or a CEO, “if you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day.” His commencement speech went viral.

"如果你想改變世界，就從整理床鋪開始，"威廉-麥克拉文上將在德克薩斯大學奧斯汀分校的2014屆畢業(yè)典禮上說。美國海軍認為的整理床鋪的標準—90°的被角、居中的枕頭、整齊疊放在床架底部的毯子—這些是特殊的標準。然而，這位海軍上將更廣泛的觀點是普遍的：無論你是水手、銷售人員還是CEO，"如果你每天早上整理你的床鋪，你就完成了一天的第一個任務"。他在畢業(yè)典禮上的講話被傳為佳話。

2 Everyone must battle the temptation to temporise every now and again; millions of beds go unmade each morning even on a looser definition than the navy’s. That is also true of people who, like your columnist, a guest Bartleby, more often suffer from the inverse affliction—having trouble putting things off even if they probably ought to be. Still, as someone with a perennial itch for completion, she has some tips for self-professed dawdlers who wish to make their lives more naval.

每個人都必須不時地與臨時性的誘惑作斗爭；即使按照比海軍更寬松的標準，每天早上也有數(shù)百萬張床沒有鋪好。像你們的專欄作家、嘉賓巴特爾比一樣的人也是如此，他們更經(jīng)常遭受相反的痛苦—難以推遲那些可以被推遲的事情。不過，作為一個常年渴望完成工作的人，她對那些希望讓自己的生活更有活力的認為自己磨蹭的人有一些建議。

3 Start off by not calling yourself a procrastinator. Indeed, if you do, you are probably already the opposite. In “Out of Sheer Rage” (1998), Geoff Dyer elevates dilly-dallying to an art form. The book chronicles how the author was wasting his time instead of writing a study on D.H. Lawrence. “All over the world people are taking notes as a way of postponing, putting off and standing in for,” Mr Dyer writes, including supposedly about himself. If only he could make a start, he laments. Given that he managed not just to start but also complete, publish and market a brilliant book—even if the subject matter was less lofty than intended—the lamentations were in fact cogs of productivity.

首先，不要說自己是個拖延者。事實上，如果你這樣做，你很可能并不是一個拖延者。杰夫-戴爾（Geoff Dyer）在《一怒之下》（1998年）中，將磨蹭提升為一種藝術形式。這本書記錄了作者如何浪費時間，而不是去寫一份關于D.H.勞倫斯的研究報告。戴爾先生寫道："全世界的人都把做筆記，作為推遲、推延和替代工作的一種方式，"據(jù)說包括他自己。他感嘆道，如果他能開始做一件事就好了。鑒于他不僅成功地開始，而且還完成、出版和銷售了一本成功的書--即使主題沒有預期的那么崇高--他的感慨實際上是自己的生產(chǎn)力。

4 The easiest way to get things finished is to get going in the first place. The reason busy people never stop moving is because their constant movement generates further momentum. This is, obviously, easier said than done—especially if you find a task unpleasant. The more objectionable something seems, the more time you spend thinking about just how awful it is. That in turn makes you even less likely to broach it— and so on. Being aware of this vicious circle does not guarantee you will break out of it. But it is, well, a start.

完成事情的最簡單方法是首先開始行動。忙碌的人之所以從未停止過行動，是因為他們不斷的行動產(chǎn)生了進一步的動力。顯然，說起來容易做起來難--尤其是當你發(fā)現(xiàn)某項任務令人不快的時候。越是令人反感的事情，你就越是要花時間去想它有多可怕。這反過來又使你更不想提起它--如此循環(huán)。即使意識到這個惡性循環(huán)并不能保證能夠走出它。但是，意識到這個循環(huán)是做事情的開始。

5 In practical terms, getting going can mean something as simple as opening an email. Two decades ago, in “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-Free Productivity”, an American time-management consultant, David Allen, warned readers that “the in-basket is a processing station, not a storage bin”. The email inbox, whose contents do not pile up on the desk, is even easier to confuse for a garbage can than a tabletop in-tray. Electronic correspondence is the starting point of most work projects, ever more so in the era of hybrid work. So just click it. And if you still find yourself avoiding things on your to-do list that make you anxious, involving others can help. Discussing tasks with colleagues can suppress the tendency to dodge the parts of your job you like the least.

在實際情況中，開始行動可能意味著像打開一封電子郵件這樣簡單的事情。二十年前，美國時間管理顧問大衛(wèi)-艾倫（David Allen）在《搞定:無壓工作的藝術》"中警告讀者，"收件箱是一個處理站，而不是一個儲存箱"。電子郵件收件箱，其內(nèi)容不會堆積在桌面上，甚至比桌面上的收件盤更容易被混淆為垃圾桶。電子信件是大多數(shù)工作項目的起點，在工作涉及多方面的時代更是如此。所以，只要點擊收件箱就可以了。如果你仍然發(fā)現(xiàn)自己在逃避你的待辦事項清單上讓你感到焦慮的事情，讓別人參與進來會有幫助。與同事討論任務可以抑制自己逃避最討厭的工作部分。

6 Once you have got moving, consider your waypoints. That may mean breaking a job down into smaller, more readily achievable chunks. A seminal paper from 2005 by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology examined how conceptual knowledge is processed. The authors found that the brain prefers concrete and discrete tasks to broad and abstract ones. Set your sights on completing a document first, rather than starting out with the goal of crafting a complete strategy. Whatever you do, resist the urge of the overly concrete, like sharpening pencils.

一旦你開始行動，考慮你的停留點。這可能意味著將一項工作分解成更小的、更容易實現(xiàn)的部分。麻省理工學院的研究人員在2005年發(fā)表了一篇開創(chuàng)性的論文，研究了概念性知識的處理方式。作者發(fā)現(xiàn)，大腦更喜歡具體和獨立的任務，而不是廣泛和抽象的任務。把你的目光先放在完成一份文件上，而不是一開始就以制定一個完整的策略。無論你做什么，都要抵制過于具體的沖動，如削鉛筆。

7 Procrastination lies between logic and emotion, between ambition and achievement. Bridging that gap can be difficult, even when you know full-well that if you do, the dreaded task will no longer lurk at the back of your mind like an unwanted squatter. Quick progress is difficult but rewarding, offering a high that is undiscoverable to those who leave things till the very end.

拖延橫亙在邏輯和情感之間，野心和成就之間。即使你清楚地知道它們的間隙，彌合它們可能是困難的。如果你這樣做了，可怕的任務將不再像一個不受歡迎的釘子戶一樣潛伏在你的腦海中?？焖偬幚硎抢щy的，但也是有價值的，這種方式提供了那些把事情留到最后的人所無法發(fā)現(xiàn)的成功的愉悅。

8 Putting something off doesn’t make it go away. That trivial truth is worth repeating. Just ask the central bankers who kept delaying interest-rate rises even as economists warned of rising inflation. Now they must ratchet rates up further and faster, at the risk of provoking a recession. Most workplace decisions are not nearly as consequential but firms can still suffer material losses if employees put off tasks and decisions. So if that email arrives first thing in the morning, read it and reply—even if that means leaving your bed unmade.

拖延并不能使事情消失。這個微不足道的事實值得重復。問問那些中央銀行家就知道了，他們一直在推遲加息，即使經(jīng)濟學家警告說通貨膨脹會上升?，F(xiàn)在，他們必須進一步加快加息，并冒著引發(fā)經(jīng)濟衰退的風險。大多數(shù)工作場所的決定幾乎沒有那么大的影響，但如果員工推遲任務和決定，公司仍然會遭受重大損失。因此，如果那封電子郵件在早上第一時間到達，請閱讀它并回復--即使這意味著你并沒有收拾自己的床鋪。