When going to college many years ago, I decided to challenge myself by setting a goal to see if I could graduate in only three semesters, taking the same classes that people would normally take over a four-year period. This article explains in detail all the time management techniques I used to successfully pull this off.
当多年前上大学时，我决定挑战自己，设定一个目标，看看我是否能在只有三个学期的时间内毕业，而不是通常需要四年的时间。本文详细解释了我成功实现这一目标所使用的所有时间管理技巧。

In order to accomplish this goal, I determined I’d have to take 30-40 units per semester, when the average student took 12-15 units. It became immediately obvious that I’d have to manage my time extremely well if I wanted to pull this off. I began reading everything I could find on time management and putting what I learned into practice. I accomplished my goal by graduating with two Bachelor of Science degrees (computer science and mathematics) in just three semesters without attending summer school. I slept seven to eight hours a night, took care of my routine chores (shopping, cooking, etc), had a social life, and exercised for 30 minutes every morning. In my final semester, I even held a full time job (40 hours a week) as a game programmer and served as the Vice Chair of the local Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) chapter while taking 37 units of mostly senior-level computer science and math courses. My classmates would add up all the hours they expected each task to take and concluded that my weeks must have consisted of about 250 hours. I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and also received a special award given to the top computer science student each year. One of my professors later told me that they had an easy time selecting the award recipient once it became clear to them what I was doing.
为了实现这个目标，我决定每学期要修30-40个学分，而普通学生只修12-15个学分。很明显，如果我想做到这一点，我必须非常好地管理我的时间。我开始阅读关于时间管理的所有资料，并将所学应用到实践中。我在仅仅三个学期内以两个理学学士学位（计算机科学和数学）的成绩毕业，而且没有参加暑期学校。我每晚睡七到八个小时，照顾日常琐事（购物、烹饪等），有社交生活，并每天早上锻炼30分钟。在我的最后一个学期，我甚至还担任全职游戏程序员的工作（每周40小时），同时还担任当地计算机协会（ACM）分会的副主席，修习了37个学分的高级计算机科学和数学课程。我的同学们会把他们预计每项任务所需的时间加起来，得出我的一周大约有250个小时。我以3.9的GPA毕业，还获得了每年颁发给最优秀的计算机科学学生的特别奖项。 后来，我的一位教授告诉我，一旦他们明白了我在做什么，选择获奖者就变得很容易。

I wasn’t considered a gifted child, and this was the first time I had ever done anything like this. I didn’t have any personal mentors helping me, I didn’t know of anyone who’d done anything like this before, and I can’t recall a single person encouraging me to do it. In fact, most people were highly discouraging of the idea when I told them about it. This was simply something I decided to do for myself. If you want a better understanding of where I was at this time in my life and why I decided to attempt such a crazy thing, you might enjoy reading The Meaning of Life: Intro, which includes the full background story and more details about my motivation for doing this.
我并不被认为是一个天才儿童，这是我第一次做这样的事情。我没有任何个人导师帮助我，我也不知道有人曾经做过这样的事情，我也想不起有人鼓励我去做。事实上，当我告诉别人这个想法时，大多数人都对此表示高度反对。这只是我自己决定去做的事情。如果你想更好地了解我在这个时期的处境以及为什么决定尝试这样一个疯狂的事情，你可能会喜欢阅读《生命的意义：导言》，其中包括完整的背景故事和我做这件事的更多细节。

It took a lot of convincing to get the computer science department chair to approve my extra units every semester, and my classmates often assumed I was either cheating or that I had a twin or that I was just mentally unstable (I get accused of that last one pretty much every week, so maybe there’s some truth to it). Most of the time I kept quiet about what I was doing, but if someone asked me how many units I was taking, I didn’t deny it. I was perhaps the only student at the university with a two-page class schedule, so it was easy to prove I was telling the truth if anyone pressed me, but rarely did I ever do so.
说服计算机科学系主任每学期批准我额外的学分花费了很多功夫，我的同学们经常认为我要么作弊，要么有一个孪生兄弟，要么只是精神不稳定（我几乎每周都被指责是这最后一种情况，所以或许有些真实性）。大部分时间我对我在做什么保持沉默，但如果有人问我上多少学分，我不会否认。我可能是大学里唯一一个有两页课程表的学生，所以如果有人追问，很容易证明我说的是真话，但我很少这样做。

I didn’t tell you this story to impress you but rather to make you curious as to how I did it. I pulled this off by applying time management concepts that most people simply didn’t know but that were readily available in books and audio programs at the time (1992-93). The time management habits I learned in college have served me very well in building my business, so I want to share them with you in the hopes that you’ll find them equally valuable. They allowed me to shave years off my schooling while also giving me about $30,000 to start my business (all earned in my final semester as a game programmer, mostly from royalties). Without further ado, here’s the best of what I’ve learned about mastering time management:
我之所以告诉你这个故事，并不是为了给你留下深刻印象，而是为了让你对我是如何做到的感到好奇。我通过应用大多数人并不知道但当时（1992-1993年）在书籍和音频节目中广泛可得的时间管理概念来实现这一切。我在大学学到的时间管理习惯在建立我的事业方面非常有帮助，所以我希望与你分享，希望你也能发现它们同样有价值。这些习惯让我在学业上节省了几年的时间，同时还给了我大约3万美元来创办我的事业（大部分是我作为游戏程序员在最后一个学期赚取的版税）。废话不多说，以下是我在掌握时间管理方面学到的最好的经验：

Clarity Is Key 清晰是关键

The first step is to know exactly what you want. In a Tae Kwon Do studio where I used to train, there’s a huge sign on the wall that says, “Your goal is to become a black belt.” This helps remind each student why s/he is going through such difficult training. When you work for yourself, it’s easy to spend a whole day at your desk and accomplish nothing of value. This almost always happens when you aren’t really clear about what it is you’re trying to do. In the moments when you regain your awareness, ask yourself, “What exactly is it that I’m trying to accomplish here?” You must know your destination with as much clarity as possible. Make your goals specific, and put them in writing. Your goals must be so clear that it would be possible for a stranger to look at your situation objectively and give you an absolute “yes” or “no” response as to whether you’ve accomplished each goal or not. If you cannot define your destination precisely, how will you know when you’ve arrived?
第一步是确切地知道你想要什么。在我曾经训练的跆拳道工作室里，墙上有一个巨大的标志，上面写着“你的目标是成为黑带”。这帮助每个学生记住自己为什么要经历如此艰苦的训练。当你为自己工作时，很容易整天坐在办公桌前却没有完成任何有价值的事情。这几乎总是发生在你对自己要做的事情不够清楚的时候。在你恢复意识的时刻，问问自己，“我到底想要在这里实现什么？”你必须尽可能清楚地知道自己的目的地。把你的目标具体化，并写下来。你的目标必须如此明确，以至于一个陌生人可以客观地看待你的情况，并给出一个绝对的“是”或“否”的回答，判断你是否实现了每个目标。如果你不能准确地定义你的目的地，那么你怎么知道自己何时到达了呢？

The key period I’ve found useful for defining and working on specific goals is ninety days, or the length of one season. In that period of time, you can make dramatic and measurable changes if you set crystal clear goals. Take a moment to stop and write down a snapshot description of how you want your life to be ninety days from now. What will your monthly income be? How much will you weigh? Who will your friends be? Where will you be in your career? What will your relationship be like? What will your web site look like? Be specific. Absolute clarity will give you the edge that will keep you on course.
我发现对于确定和实现具体目标而言，一个有用的关键时期是90天，或者一个季度的长度。在这段时间里，如果你设定了明确的目标，你可以做出戏剧性和可衡量的改变。停下来，写下一个关于你希望自己在90天后的生活状况的简要描述。你的月收入将是多少？你的体重将是多少？你的朋友将是谁？你的职业生涯将处于什么阶段？你的关系将是怎样的？你的网站将是什么样子？要具体。绝对的清晰度将给你带来优势，使你保持在正确的轨道上。

Just as an airplane on autopilot must make constant corrections to stay on course, you must periodically retarget your goals. Reconnect with your clear, written goals by re-reading them every morning. Post them on your walls, especially your financial goals. Years ago (during the mid-90s), I went around my apartment putting up signs in every room that said “$5,000 / month.” That was my monthly business income goal at the time. Because I knew exactly what I wanted, I achieved that goal within a few weeks. I continued setting specific income goals, even amidst occasional setbacks, and I found this process very effective. It wasn’t just that it helped me focus on what I wanted — perhaps even more important is that it made it easy for me to disregard those things that weren’t on the path to my goal. For example, if you set a goal to earn $10,000/month, this can help you stop doing those things that will only earn you $5000/month.
就像自动驾驶的飞机必须不断进行修正以保持航向一样，你也必须定期重新设定目标。每天早上重新阅读你明确而书面的目标，重新与之联系。把它们贴在墙上，尤其是你的财务目标。几年前（在90年代中期），我在公寓的每个房间都贴上了写着“每月5000美元”的标志。那是我当时的月度商业收入目标。因为我清楚地知道自己想要什么，我在几周内实现了这个目标。即使偶尔遇到挫折，我仍然继续设定具体的收入目标，并发现这个过程非常有效。它不仅帮助我专注于我想要的东西，更重要的是，它让我很容易忽视那些不符合我的目标路径的事物。例如，如果你设定了每月赚取10000美元的目标，这可以帮助你停止做那些只能赚取5000美元的事情。

If you aren’t yet at the point of clarity, then make that your first goal. It’s a big waste of time to go through life being unclear about what you want. Most people wallow way too long in the state of “I don’t know what to do.” They wait for some external force to provide them with clarity, never realizing that clarity is self-created. The universe is waiting on you, not the other way around, and it’s going to keep waiting until you finally make up your mind. Waiting for clarity is like being a sculptor staring at a piece of marble, waiting for the statue within to cast off the unneeded pieces. Do not wait for clarity to spontaneously materialize — grab a chisel and get busy!
如果你还没有达到清晰的程度，那就把这作为你的首要目标。在生活中不清楚自己想要什么是一种巨大的浪费时间。大多数人在“我不知道该做什么”的状态中徘徊太久了。他们等待某种外部力量给他们提供清晰度，却从未意识到清晰度是自己创造的。宇宙在等待你，而不是相反，它会一直等待，直到你最终下定决心。等待清晰度就像是一个雕塑家盯着一块大理石，等待内部的雕像脱去不需要的部分。不要等待清晰度自发地出现-拿起凿子开始忙碌吧！

Be Flexible 灵活一点

There’s a key difference between knowing your destination and knowing the path you will take to get there. A typical commercial airplane is off course 90% of the time, yet it almost always arrives at its destination because it knows exactly where it’s going and makes constant corrections along the way. You cannot know the exact path to your goal in advance. I believe that the real purpose of planning is simply so that you remain convinced that a possible path exists. We’ve all heard the statistic that 80% of new businesses fail in their first five years, but a far more interesting statistic is that nearly all of the businesses that succeeded did not do so in the original way they had intended. If you look at successful businesses that started with business plans, you will commonly find that their original plans failed miserably and that they only succeeded by trying something else. It is said that no business plan survives contact with the marketplace. I like to generalize this to say that no plan survives contact with the real world.
知道目的地和知道到达目的地的路径之间有一个关键的区别。一个典型的商业飞机在90%的时间里都偏离航线，然而它几乎总能到达目的地，因为它清楚自己要去哪里，并在途中不断进行修正。你无法提前知道到达目标的确切路径。我认为，规划的真正目的只是让你相信存在一条可能的路径。我们都听说过80%的新企业在前五年内失败的统计数据，但更有趣的统计数据是几乎所有成功的企业都没有按照最初的计划取得成功。如果你看一下那些有商业计划的成功企业，你会发现它们最初的计划彻底失败了，只有通过尝试其他方法才成功。有人说没有一个商业计划能在与市场接触后幸存下来。我喜欢把这个概括为没有一个计划能在与现实世界接触后幸存下来。

Renowned author and business consultant Stephen Covey often uses the expression, “integrity in the moment of choice.” What that means is that you should not follow your plans blindly without conscious awareness of your goals. For instance, let’s say you’re following your plans nicely — so far so good — and then an unforeseen opportunity arises. Do you stick to your original plan, thereby missing the opportunity, or do you stop and go after the opportunity, thereby throwing yourself off schedule? This is where you have to stop and reconnect with your goals to decide which is the better course. No plan should be followed blindly. As soon as you gain new knowledge that could invalidate the plan, you must exercise integrity in the moment of choice. Sometimes you can reach your goals faster by taking advantage of shortcuts that arise unexpectedly. Other times you should stick to your original plans and avoid minor distractions that would take you further from your goals. Be tight on your goals but flexible on your plans.
著名作家和商业顾问斯蒂芬·科维经常使用“选择时的诚信”这个表达。这意味着你不应该盲目地按照计划行事，而是要有意识地了解自己的目标。例如，假设你按照计划顺利进行，一切都很好，然后突然出现了一个意想不到的机会。你是坚持原计划，从而错过机会，还是停下来追求机会，从而打乱自己的计划？这就是你必须停下来重新与目标联系起来，决定哪个是更好的选择的地方。没有计划应该盲目地遵循。一旦你获得了可能使计划无效的新知识，你必须在选择的那一刻保持诚信。有时候，通过利用意外出现的捷径，你可以更快地实现目标。其他时候，你应该坚持原计划，避免那些会让你离目标更远的小干扰。对于目标要坚定，但对于计划要灵活。

I believe that having a clear goal is far more important than having a clear plan. In school I was very clear about my end goal — graduate college in only three semesters — but my plans were in a constant state of flux. Every day I would be informed of new assignments, projects, or tests, and I had to adapt to this ever-changing sea of activity. If I tried to make a long-term plan for each semester, it would have been rendered useless within 24 hours.
我相信拥有明确的目标比拥有明确的计划更重要。在学校里，我对我的最终目标非常清楚——只用三个学期就毕业大学，但我的计划却一直在不断变化。每天我都会得知新的作业、项目或考试，我必须适应这个不断变化的活动海洋。如果我试图为每个学期制定长期计划，它将在24小时内变得无用。

Use Single Handling 使用单一处理

Instead of using some elaborate organizing system, I stuck with a very basic pen and paper to-do list. My only organizing tool was a notepad where I wrote down all my assignments and their deadlines. I didn’t worry about doing any advance scheduling or prioritizing. I would simply scan the list to select the most pressing item which fit the time I had available. Then I’d complete it, and cross it off the list.
我没有使用复杂的组织系统，而是坚持使用简单的纸笔待办事项清单。我的唯一组织工具是一个记事本，我在上面写下所有的任务和截止日期。我不担心提前安排或优先排序。我只是简单地浏览清单，选择最紧迫的任务，并安排好我有的时间来完成它。然后我会完成它，并在清单上划掉。

If I had a 10-hour term paper to write, I would do the whole thing at once instead of breaking it into smaller tasks. I’d usually do large projects on weekends. I’d go to the library in the morning, do the necessary research, and then go back to my dorm room and continue working until the final text was rolling off my printer. If I needed to take a break, I would take a break. It didn’t matter how big the project was supposed to be or how many weeks the professor allowed for it. Once I began an assignment, I would stay with it until it was 100% complete and ready to be turned in.
如果我有一个10小时的学期论文要写，我会一次性完成整个任务，而不是将其分成更小的任务。通常我会在周末完成大型项目。我会在早上去图书馆，进行必要的研究，然后回到宿舍继续工作，直到最终的文本从打印机中出来。如果我需要休息，我会休息。无论项目有多大，教授允许多少周完成，都无所谓。一旦我开始了一个任务，我会一直坚持下去，直到它完成100％并准备好交付。

This simple practice saved me a significant amount of time. First, it allowed me to concentrate deeply on each assignment and to work very efficiently while I worked. A lot of time is lost in task switching because you have to re-load the context for each new task. Single handling minimizes time lost in task switching. In fact, when possible I would batch up my assignments within a certain subject area and then do them all at once before switching subjects. So I’d do all my math homework in a row until it was all done. Then I’d do all my programming assignments. Then I’d do my general education homework. In this manner I would put my brain into math-mode, programming-mode, writing-mode, or art-mode and remain in that single mode for as long as possible. Secondly, I believe this habit helped me remain relaxed and unstressed because my mind wasn’t cluttered with so many to-do items. It was always just one thing at a time. I could forget about anything that was outside the current context.
这个简单的做法为我节省了大量时间。首先，它让我能够专注地完成每个任务，并在工作时非常高效。在任务切换中会浪费很多时间，因为你需要重新加载每个新任务的上下文。单一处理最大程度地减少了任务切换中的时间损失。事实上，如果可能的话，我会将我的作业按照某个特定的学科领域分批处理，然后一次性完成它们，然后再切换到其他学科。所以我会连续做完所有的数学作业，然后再做所有的编程作业，接着是通识教育作业。通过这种方式，我可以将我的大脑置于数学模式、编程模式、写作模式或艺术模式，并尽可能长时间地保持在这个单一模式中。其次，我相信这个习惯帮助我保持放松和不紧张，因为我的思维没有被那么多待办事项所混乱。我总是一次只做一件事。我可以忘记当前上下文之外的任何事情。

Failure Is Your Friend
失败是你的朋友

Most people seem to have an innate fear of failure, but failure is really your best friend. People who succeed also fail a great deal because they make a lot of attempts. The great baseball player Babe Ruth held the homerun record and the strikeout record at the same time. Those who have the most successes also have the most failures. There is nothing wrong or shameful in failing. The only regret lies in never making the attempt. So don’t be afraid to experiment in your attempts to increase productivity. Sometimes the quickest way to find out if something will work is to jump right in and do it. You can always make adjustments along the way. It’s the ready-fire-aim approach, and surprisingly, it works a lot better than the more common ready-aim-fire approach. The reason is that after you’ve “fired” once, you have some actual data with which to adjust your aim. Too many people get bogged down in planning and thinking and never get to the point of action. How many potentially great ideas have you passed up because you got stuck in the state of analysis paralysis (i.e. ready-aim-aim-aim-aim-aim…)?
大多数人似乎天生害怕失败，但失败实际上是你最好的朋友。成功的人也经历了很多失败，因为他们尝试了很多次。伟大的棒球运动员贝比·鲁斯同时保持了全垒打纪录和三振纪录。那些取得最多成功的人也经历了最多的失败。失败并没有错，也没有可耻之处。唯一的遗憾在于从未尝试过。所以在努力提高生产力的尝试中，不要害怕尝试新事物。有时候找出某件事是否可行的最快方法就是立即行动起来去做。你总是可以在路上进行调整。这是一种先射击再瞄准的方法，令人惊讶的是，它比更常见的先瞄准再射击的方法要好得多。原因是在你“射击”一次之后，你有了一些实际数据来调整你的瞄准。太多人陷入了计划和思考的泥潭中，从未采取行动。因为你陷入了分析麻痹状态（即准备-瞄准-瞄准-瞄准-瞄准-瞄准...），你错过了多少个潜在的伟大想法呢？

During college I tried a lot of crazy ideas that I thought might save me time. I continued reading time management material and applying what I learned, but I also devised some original ideas. Most of my own ideas were flops, but some of them worked. I was willing to fail again and again for the off chance I might stumble upon something that gave me an extra boost.
在大学期间，我尝试了很多我认为可能能节省时间的疯狂想法。我继续阅读时间管理的资料，并应用我所学到的知识，但我也想出了一些原创的想法。我自己的大部分想法都失败了，但其中一些却奏效了。我愿意一次又一次地失败，只为了有一丝机会能找到能给我额外推动的东西。

Understand that failure is not the opposite of success. Failure is an essential part of success. Once you succeed, no one will remember your failures anyway. Microsoft wasn’t Bill Gates’ and Paul Allen’s first business venture. Who remembers that their original Traf-o-Data business was a flop? The actor Jim Carey was booed off many a stage while a young comedian. We have electric light bulbs because Thomas Edison refused to give up even after 10,000 failed experiments. If the word “failure” is anathema to you, then reframe it: You either succeed, or you have a learning experience.
理解失败并不是成功的对立面。失败是成功的重要组成部分。一旦你成功了，没人会记得你的失败。微软不是比尔·盖茨和保罗·艾伦的第一个商业冒险。谁还记得他们最初的Traf-o-Data业务是个失败？演员吉姆·卡里年轻时曾被嘘声赶下舞台。我们有电灯泡是因为托马斯·爱迪生在经历了1万次失败实验后依然不放弃。如果“失败”这个词对你来说是个忌讳，那就重新定义它：你要么成功，要么获得了一次学习经历。

Letting go of the fear of failure will serve you well. If you’re excited about achieving a particular goal, but you’re afraid you might not be able to pull it off, jump on it and do it anyway. Even if you fail in your attempt, you’ll learn something valuable and can make a better attempt next time. If you look at people who are successful in business today, you will commonly see that many of them had a string of dismal failures before finally hitting on something that worked, myself included. And I think most of these people will agree that those early failure experiences were an essential contributing factor in their future successes. My advice to anyone starting a new business is to begin pumping out products or devising services and don’t worry much about whether they’ll be hits. They probably won’t be. But you’ll learn a lot more by doing than you ever will by thinking.
放下对失败的恐惧会对你有好处。如果你对实现某个特定目标感到兴奋，但又担心自己可能无法成功，那就勇敢尝试并去做。即使你在尝试中失败了，你也会学到宝贵的经验，下次可以做得更好。如果你看看今天在商业领域取得成功的人，你会发现许多人在最终找到成功之前经历了一连串的惨败，包括我自己。我认为大多数这些人都会同意，早期的失败经历是他们未来成功的重要因素之一。我给任何开始新业务的人的建议是开始推出产品或设计服务，不要太担心它们是否会受欢迎。它们可能不会。但通过实践你会学到更多，比起只是思考。

Do It Now! 现在就去做！

W. Clement Stone, who built an insurance empire worth hundreds of millions dollars, would make all his employees recite the phrase, “Do it now!” again and again at the start of each workday. Whenever you feel the tendency towards laziness taking over and you remember something you should be doing, stop and say out loud, “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!” I often set this text as my screensaver. There is a tremendous cost in putting things off because you will mentally revisit them again and again, which can add up to an enormous amount of wasted time. Thinking and planning are important, but action is far more important. You don’t get paid for your thoughts and plans — you only get paid for your results. When in doubt, act boldly, as if it were impossible to fail. In essence, it is.
W. Clement Stone，建立了价值数亿美元的保险帝国，他会让所有员工在每个工作日开始时反复背诵这句话：“现在就去做！”每当你感到懒散的倾向占据上风，而你记得自己应该做的事情时，停下来大声说：“现在就去做！现在就去做！现在就去做！”我经常把这段文字设为我的屏幕保护程序。拖延会带来巨大的代价，因为你会一次又一次地在脑海中回想起这些事情，这会浪费大量的时间。思考和计划很重要，但行动更重要。你不会因为你的想法和计划而得到报酬，你只会因为你的成果而得到报酬。当你怀疑时，要勇敢行动，就像不可能失败一样。实质上，确实如此。

It is absolutely imperative that you develop the habit of making decisions as soon as possible. I use a 60-second rule for almost every decision I have to make, no matter how big or important. Once I have all the data to make a decision, I start a timer and give myself only 60 seconds to make a firm decision. I’ll even flip a coin if I have to. When I was in college, I couldn’t afford to waste time thinking about assignments or worrying about when to do them. I simply picked one and went to work on it. And today when I need to decide which article to write next, I just pick a topic and begin writing. I believe this is why I never experience writer’s block. Writer’s block means you’re stuck in the state of thinking about what to write instead of actually writing. I don’t waste time thinking about writing because I’m too busy writing. This is probably why I’ve been able to write hundreds of original articles very easily. Every article I write spawns ideas for at least two more, so my ideas list only increases over time. I cannot imagine ever running out of original content.
你必须养成尽早做决定的习惯，这是非常重要的。对于几乎每一个决定，无论大小重要，我都使用60秒的规则。一旦我有了做决定所需的所有数据，我就开始计时器，给自己只有60秒来做出坚定的决定。如果必要的话，我甚至会抛硬币。当我还在上大学的时候，我无法浪费时间思考作业或者担心何时完成它们。我只是选择一个开始做。而今天，当我需要决定下一篇要写的文章时，我只是选择一个主题开始写作。我相信这就是为什么我从来没有遇到写作障碍的原因。写作障碍意味着你陷入了思考要写什么而不是真正去写的状态。我不浪费时间思考写作，因为我太忙于写作了。这可能就是为什么我能够轻松地写出数百篇原创文章的原因。我写的每一篇文章都会引发至少两个更多的想法，所以我的想法列表随着时间的推移只会增加。我无法想象自己会用尽原创内容。

Too often people delay making decisions when there is no advantage to be found in that delay. Usually delaying a decision will only have negative consequences, so even if you’re faced with ambiguity, just bite the bullet and make a decision. If it turns out to be the wrong one, you’ll know it soon enough. Many people probably spend more than 60 seconds just deciding what they’ll eat for dinner. If I can’t decide what to eat, I just grab an apple or a couple bananas and start eating, and sometimes I’m full of fruit before I figure out what I really would like to eat. So my brain knows that if it wants something other than fruit, it had better decide quickly. If you can speed up the pace of making decisions, you can spend the rest of your time on action.
当没有任何好处可以从拖延中获得时，人们往往会推迟做决定。通常推迟决策只会带来负面后果，所以即使面临不确定性，也要下定决心做出决定。如果事后证明是错误的决定，你很快就会知道。很多人可能花了超过60秒的时间来决定晚餐吃什么。如果我无法决定吃什么，我就会拿一个苹果或几个香蕉开始吃，有时在我弄清楚我真正想吃什么之前，我已经吃饱了水果。所以我的大脑知道，如果它想要除了水果之外的东西，最好快速做出决定。如果你能加快决策的速度，你就可以把剩下的时间用在行动上。

One study showed that the best managers in the world tend to have an extremely high tolerance for ambiguity. In other words, they are able to act boldly on partial and/or conflicting data. Many industries today have accelerated to such a rapid pace that by the time you have perfect data with which to make any decision, the opportunity is probably long gone. Where you have no data to fall back on, rely on your own personal experience and intuition. If a decision can be made right away, make the decision as soon as it comes up. If you can’t make a decision right away, set aside a time where you will consider the options and make the decision. Pour the bulk of your time into action, not deciding. The state of indecision is a major time waster. Don’t spend more than 60 seconds in that state if you can avoid it. Make a firm, immediate decision, and move from uncertainty to certainty to action. Let the world tell you when you’re wrong, and you’ll soon build enough experience to make accurate, intelligent decisions.
一项研究表明，世界上最优秀的经理人往往具有极高的容忍度，能够在部分或者相互矛盾的数据基础上果断行动。如今许多行业发展迅猛，当你拥有完美的数据来做决策时，机会可能早已错过。在没有数据可依靠的情况下，依靠个人经验和直觉。如果可以立即做出决策，那就在问题出现时立即做出决策。如果不能立即做出决策，设定一个时间来考虑各种选择并做出决策。将大部分时间投入行动，而不是决策。犹豫不决是浪费时间的主要原因。如果可以避免，不要在这种状态下花费超过60秒的时间。做出坚定、即时的决策，从不确定到确定再到行动。让世界告诉你何时错误，你很快就会积累足够的经验来做出准确、明智的决策。

Triage Ruthlessly 无情地进行分诊

Get rid of everything that wastes your time. Use the trash can liberally. Apply the rule, “When in doubt, throw it out.” Cancel useless magazine subscriptions. If you have a magazine that is more than two months old and you still haven’t read it, throw it away; it’s probably not worth reading. Realize that nothing is free if it costs you time. Before you sign up for any new free service or subscription, ask how much it will cost you in terms of time. Every activity has an opportunity cost. Ask, “Is this activity worth what I am sacrificing for it?”
摆脱一切浪费你时间的东西。大胆地使用垃圾桶。遵循“当有疑问时，就扔掉”的原则。取消无用的杂志订阅。如果你有一本杂志已经超过两个月了还没读，就扔掉吧；它可能不值得一读。认识到，如果花费你时间，那么没有什么是免费的。在你注册任何新的免费服务或订阅之前，问问它会花费你多少时间。每个活动都有一个机会成本。问问自己，“这个活动值得我为之牺牲吗？”

In college I was downright brutal when it came to triage. I once told a professor that I decided not to do one of his assigned computer science projects because I felt it wasn’t a good use of my time. The project required about 10-20 hours of tedious gruntwork that wasn’t going to teach me anything I didn’t already know. Also, this project was only worth 10% of my grade in that class, and since I was previously acing the class anyway, the only real negative consequence would be that I’d end up with an A- in the course instead of an A. I told the professor I felt that was a fair trade-off and that I would accept the A-. I didn’t try to negotiate with him for special treatment. So my official grade in the class was an A-, but I personally gave myself an A+ for putting those 10-20 hours to much better use.
在大学时，当涉及到优先处理时，我非常果断。我曾经告诉一位教授，我决定不做他布置的计算机科学项目，因为我觉得这不是我时间的好利用。这个项目需要大约10-20个小时的乏味苦工，不会教我任何我不已经知道的东西。而且，这个项目只占我这门课程的10%的成绩，而且由于我之前一直在这门课上表现出色，唯一真正的负面后果就是我最终会得到一个A-的成绩，而不是A。我告诉教授，我觉得这是一个公平的权衡，我愿意接受A-。我没有试图与他谈判特殊待遇。所以，我在这门课上的正式成绩是A-，但我个人给自己打了一个A+，因为我更好地利用了那10-20个小时。

Ask yourself this question: “Would I have ever gotten started with this project, relationship, career, etc. if I had to do it all over again, knowing what I now know?” If your answer is no, then get out as soon as possible. This is called zero-based thinking. I know a lot of people that have a limiting belief that says, “Always finish what you start.” They spend years climbing ladders only to realize when they reach the top that the ladder was leaning against the wrong building. Remember that failure is your friend. So if a certain decision you’ve made in the past is no longer producing results that serve you, then be ruthless and dump it, so you can move onto something better. There is no honor in dedicating your life to the pursuit of a goal which no longer inspires you. This is another situation where you must practice integrity in the moment of choice. You must constantly re-assess your present situation to accurately decide what to do next. Whatever you’ve decided in the past is largely irrelevant if you would not renew that decision today.
问问自己这个问题：“如果我现在知道的一切，我会再次开始这个项目、关系、职业等吗？”如果你的答案是否定的，那么尽快离开。这被称为零基思维。我知道很多人有一个限制性的信念，认为“始终要完成你开始的事情”。他们花了多年时间爬梯子，只有当他们到达顶峰时才意识到梯子靠在错误的建筑物上。记住，失败是你的朋友。所以，如果你过去做出的某个决定不再产生对你有益的结果，那么就要毫不留情地放弃它，这样你就可以转向更好的事物。把你的生命奉献给一个不再激励你的目标是没有荣誉的。这是另一种情况，你必须在选择的那一刻保持诚实。你必须不断重新评估你目前的情况，准确地决定下一步该做什么。无论你过去做出了什么决定，在今天如果你不会重新做出那个决定，那么它基本上是无关紧要的。

Identify and Recover Wasted Time
识别和挽回浪费的时间

Instead of watching a one-hour TV show, tape it and watch it in 45 minutes by fast-forwarding through the commercials. Don’t spend a half hour typing a lengthy email when you could accomplish the same thing with a 10-minute phone call. Batch your errands together and do them all at once.
不要看一个小时的电视节目，录下来后通过快进功能在45分钟内观看，跳过广告。不要花半个小时打一封长长的电子邮件，可以用10分钟的电话完成同样的事情。将你的差事合并在一起，一次性完成。

During the summer between my second and third semesters, I found an apartment across the street from campus that was slightly closer to the engineering building than my on-campus dorm room. So I moved out of the dorms and into that apartment, which saved me some walking/biking time every day. I was also moving from a two-bedroom dorm which I shared with two roommates into a smaller single-person studio apartment. This new apartment was much more efficient. For example, I could work on programming assignments while cooking dinner because my desk was only a few steps from the stove.
在我第二学期和第三学期之间的夏天，我找到了一间公寓，就在校园对面，离工程楼比我在校内宿舍的房间更近一些。所以我搬出了宿舍，搬进了那间公寓，每天节省了一些步行/骑车的时间。我也从一个与两个室友共用的两居室宿舍搬进了一个更小的单人工作室公寓。这个新公寓更加高效。例如，我可以在做晚饭的同时做编程作业，因为我的书桌离炉子只有几步之遥。

Trying to cut out time-wasting habits is a common starting point for people who desire to become more efficient, but I think this is a mistake. Optimizing your personal habits should only come later. Clarity of purpose must come first. If you don’t have clarity, then your attempts to install more efficient habits and to break inefficient habits will only fizzle. You won’t have a strong enough reason to put your time to good use, so it will be easy to quit when things get tough. You need a big, attractive goal to stay motivated. The reason to shave 15 minutes off a task is that you’re overflowing with motivation to put that 15 minutes to better use.
试图消除浪费时间的习惯是希望变得更高效的人们常见的起点，但我认为这是一个错误。优化个人习惯应该放在后面。首先必须有明确的目标。如果你没有明确的目标，那么你试图养成更高效的习惯和改掉低效的习惯的努力只会失败。你没有足够强烈的理由来充分利用时间，所以当事情变得困难时很容易放弃。你需要一个巨大而有吸引力的目标来保持动力。缩短任务时间15分钟的原因是你充满动力，想要更好地利用这15分钟。

For example, you might have a career you sort of like, but most likely it’s not so compelling that you’ll care enough about saving an extra 15 minutes here and there, even if your total savings might amount to a few hours each day. But if you’ve taken the time to develop a sense of purpose that reaches deep into your soul, you’ll be automatically motivated to put your time to better use. If you get the highest level of your life in order (purpose, meaning, spiritual beliefs), the lower levels will tend to self-optimize (habits, practices, actions).
例如，你可能有一个你有点喜欢的职业，但很可能它并不那么吸引你，以至于你不会在意节省一点时间，即使你的总节省可能每天达到几个小时。但是，如果你花时间培养出一种深入灵魂的目标感，你就会自动地有动力更好地利用你的时间。如果你把生活的最高层次（目标、意义、精神信仰）整理好，较低层次的事物就会自我优化（习惯、实践、行动）。

Apply the 80-20 Rule
应用80-20法则

Also known as the Pareto Principle, the 80-20 rule states that 20% of a task’s effort accounts for 80% of the value of that task. This also means that 80% of a task only yields 20% of the value of that task. In college I was ruthless in my application of this principle. Some weeks I ditched as many as 40% of my classes because sitting through a lecture was often not the most effective way for me to learn. And I already noted that I would simply refuse to do an assignment if I determined it was not worth my time. There was one math class that I only showed up to twice because I could learn from the text book much more quickly than from the lectures. I only showed up for the midterm and final. I would pop my head in at the beginning of each class to drop off my homework and then again at the end of each class to write down the next assignment. I actually got the highest grade in that class, but the teacher probably had no idea who I was. The other students were playing by the rules, not realizing they were free to make their own rules. Find out what parts of your life belong in the crucial 20%, and focus your efforts there. Be absolutely ruthless in refusing to spend time where it simply cannot give you optimal results. Invest your time where it has the potential to pay off big.
也被称为帕累托法则，80-20法则指出，一个任务的20%的努力占据了该任务80%的价值。这也意味着一个任务的80%只产生了该任务20%的价值。在大学期间，我对这个原则非常严格。有些周我放弃了多达40%的课程，因为坐在讲堂里并不是我学习最有效的方式。我已经注意到，如果我认为某项任务不值得我花时间去做，我会毫不犹豫地拒绝做。有一门数学课，我只去了两次，因为我可以从教科书上更快地学到知识，而不是从讲座上。我只参加了期中考和期末考试。每节课开始时，我会探头进去交作业，然后在每节课结束时再进去写下下一次作业。实际上，我在那门课中得到了最高分，但老师可能完全不知道我是谁。其他学生都在按规则行事，没有意识到他们可以制定自己的规则。找出你生活中属于重要20%的部分，并将你的努力集中在那里。 在拒绝花费时间无法给你最佳结果的地方要绝对无情。将你的时间投资在有巨大回报潜力的地方。

Guard Thy Time 守护你的时间

To work effectively you need uninterrupted blocks of time in which you can complete meaningful work. When you know for certain that you won’t be interrupted, your productivity is much, much higher. When you sit down to work on a particularly intense task, dedicate blocks of time to the task during which you will not do anything else. I’ve found that a minimum of 90 minutes is ideal for a single block.
为了有效地工作，你需要连续的时间块来完成有意义的工作。当你确定不会被打扰时，你的工作效率会大大提高。当你坐下来专注于一项特别紧张的任务时，将一段时间专门用于这个任务，期间不做其他事情。我发现，至少90分钟的连续时间是一个理想的时间块。

You may need to negotiate with the other people in your life to create these uninterrupted blocks of time. If necessary, warn others in advance not to interrupt you for a certain period of time. Threaten them with acts of violence if you must. In school I would lock my bedroom door when I needed to work, so my roommates would know not to disturb me. While each individual bedroom in the two-bedroom dorm suites was designed for two people (four people per suite), I paid a bit extra to have a bedroom all to myself. This way I always had my own private room to work. When I had time to be social, I’d leave the door open, sometimes playing computer games with one of my roommates. If you happen to work in a high interruption environment that’s negatively affecting your productivity, change that environment at all costs. Some people have told me that giving their boss a copy of this article helped convince him/her to take steps to reduce unnecessary interruptions.
你可能需要与生活中的其他人进行协商，以创造这些连续的时间段。如果必要，提前警告他人在一段时间内不要打扰你。如果必要，威胁他们采取暴力行为。在学校时，当我需要工作时，我会锁上卧室门，这样我的室友就知道不要打扰我。虽然两人间宿舍套房中的每个卧室都设计为两个人使用（每套四个人），但我额外支付了一些费用，以拥有一个独立的卧室。这样我就总是有自己的私人空间来工作。当我有时间社交时，我会把门打开，有时和室友一起玩电脑游戏。如果你恰好在一个高度干扰的环境中工作，这对你的生产力产生了负面影响，不惜一切代价改变这个环境。有些人告诉我，给他们的老板一份这篇文章的副本有助于说服他/她采取措施减少不必要的打扰。

While for some people it’s helpful to block off a specific period of time for a task, I find that I work best with long, open-ended stretches of uninterrupted time. I’ll often allocate a starting time for a task but usually not a specific finishing time. Whenever possible I just allow myself to stick with a task as long as I can, until I eventually succumb to hunger or other bodily needs. I will frequently work 6+ hours straight on a project without taking a break. While frequent breaks are often recommended to increase productivity, I feel that suggestion may be an artifact of industrial age research on poorly motivated workers and not as applicable to high-motivation, purpose-driven creative work. I find it’s best for me to maintain momentum until I can barely continue instead of chopping a task into smaller chunks where there’s a risk of succumbing to distractions along the way.
对于一些人来说，为任务设定一个特定的时间段是有帮助的，但我发现我在长时间的、没有干扰的连续时间段内工作效果最好。我通常会为任务安排一个开始时间，但往往不设定具体的结束时间。只要可能，我就让自己尽可能长时间地专注于任务，直到我最终因为饥饿或其他生理需求而不得不停下来。我经常会连续工作6个小时以上，不休息。虽然经常休息被认为可以提高生产力，但我觉得这个建议可能是工业时代对缺乏动力的工人进行的研究的产物，并不适用于高动力、目标驱动的创造性工作。对我来说，保持动力直到几乎无法继续比将任务分割成较小的块更好，因为这样做有可能会分散注意力。

The state of flow, where you are totally absorbed in a task and lose all sense of time, takes about 15 minutes to enter. Every time you get interrupted, it can take you another 15 minutes to get back to that state. Once you enter the state of flow, guard it with your life. That is the state in which you will go through enormous amounts of work and experience total connection with the task. When I’m in this state, I have no sense of past or future. I simply feel like I’m one with my work.
进入心流状态，完全沉浸在任务中并丧失时间感，需要大约15分钟。每次被打断，需要另外15分钟才能回到那种状态。一旦进入心流状态，要用生命来守护它。那是你将完成大量工作并与任务完全连接的状态。当我处于这种状态时，我没有过去或未来的感觉。我只觉得自己与工作融为一体。

While sometimes I suffer from the problem of the task expanding to fill the allotted time (aka Parkinson’s Law), I often find that it’s worth the risk. For example, when I do optimization work on my web site, I’ll frequently think of new optimization ideas while I work, and I’ll usually go ahead and implement those new ideas immediately. I find it more efficient to act on those ideas at the moment of conception instead of scheduling them to be done at a later time.
有时候我会遇到任务会扩大填满所给时间的问题（也被称为帕金森定律），但我经常发现这是值得冒险的。例如，当我在网站上进行优化工作时，我经常会在工作过程中想到新的优化思路，而且通常会立即实施这些新的想法。我发现在构思的那一刻就采取行动比将它们安排在以后完成更加高效。

Work All the Time You Work
一直工作，直到你工作完毕

During one of these sacred time blocks, do nothing but the activity that’s right in front of you. Don’t check email or online forums or do web surfing. If you have this temptation, then unplug your Internet connection while you work. Turn off your phone, or simply refuse to answer it. Go to the bathroom before you start, and make sure you won’t get hungry for a while. Don’t get out of your chair at all. Don’t talk to anyone during this time.
在这些神圣的时间段之一，只专注于眼前的活动。不要查看电子邮件、在线论坛或进行网上冲浪。如果你有这种诱惑，那么在工作时拔掉你的互联网连接。关掉手机，或者干脆拒绝接听电话。在开始之前上厕所，并确保你不会饿上一段时间。一定不要离开你的椅子。在这段时间内不要和任何人交谈。

Decide what it is you should be doing, and then do nothing but that. If you happen to manage others, periodically ask them what their #1 task is, and make sure they’re doing nothing but that. If you see someone answering email, then it should be the most important thing for that person to be doing at that particular time. If not, then relatively speaking, that person is just wasting time.
决定你应该做什么，然后只做那件事。如果你管理其他人，定期询问他们的第一要务是什么，并确保他们只做那件事。如果你看到有人在回复电子邮件，那么在那个特定的时间，这对于那个人来说应该是最重要的事情。如果不是，那么相对而言，那个人只是在浪费时间。

If you need a break, then take a real break and do nothing else. Don’t semi-work during a break if you feel you need rest and restoration. Checking email or web surfing is not a break. When you take a break, close your eyes and do some deep breathing, listen to relaxing music and zone out for a while, take a 20-minute nap, or eat some fresh fruit. Rest until you feel capable of doing productive work again. When you need rest, rest. When you should be working, work. Work with either 100% concentration, or don’t work at all. It’s perfectly fine to take as much down time as you want. Just don’t allow your down time to creep into your work time.
如果你需要休息，那就真正休息，不要在休息期间半工作，如果你感觉需要休息和恢复。查看电子邮件或上网冲浪不是休息。当你休息时，闭上眼睛做些深呼吸，听放松的音乐，放空一会儿，小睡20分钟，或吃些新鲜水果。休息直到你感觉能够再次进行有效的工作。当你需要休息时，休息。当你应该工作时，工作。要么百分之百专注工作，要么不工作。随时休息都没问题。只是不要让你的休息时间侵占你的工作时间。

Multitask 多任务

The amount of new knowledge in certain fields is increasing so rapidly that everything you know about your line of work is probably becoming obsolete. The only solution is to keep absorbing new knowledge as rapidly as possible. Many of the skills I use in my business today didn’t even exist five years ago. The best way I know to keep up is to multitask whenever possible by reading and listening to audio programs.
某些领域的新知识量增长如此迅速，以至于你对自己的工作了解的一切可能都已经过时。唯一的解决办法是尽可能快地吸收新知识。我今天在我的业务中使用的许多技能在五年前甚至都不存在。我知道的最好方法是尽可能地多任务处理，通过阅读和听音频节目。

When watching TV, read a computer magazine during commercials. If you’re a male, read while shaving. I use an electric shaver and read during the 2-3 minutes it takes me to shave each day. This allows me to get through about two extra articles a week — that’s 100 extra articles a year. This habit is really easy to start. Just grab a couple magazines, or print out some articles you wouldn’t otherwise have time to read, and put them in your bathroom. Whenever you go out, carry at least one folded up article with you. If you ever have to wait in line, such as at the post office or the grocery store, pull out the article and read it. You will be amazed at how much extra knowledge you can absorb just by reading during other non-mental activities.
看电视时，在广告时间读一本电脑杂志。如果你是男性，在刮胡子时也可以读书。我使用电动剃须刀，每天刮胡子需要2-3分钟的时间，我就在这期间读书。这样我每周可以多读两篇文章，一年多读100篇文章。这个习惯很容易开始。只需拿几本杂志，或者打印一些平时没有时间读的文章，放在浴室里。每次出门时，至少带一篇折叠好的文章在身上。如果你需要在邮局或杂货店等地排队等候，拿出文章来读。你会惊讶于在其他非脑力活动中阅读可以吸收多少额外的知识。

Listen to educational audio programs whenever you can. When you drive your car, always be listening to an audio program. One of the best ways to save time is to learn directly from people who already have the skills you want to master. Audio programs often contain more practical material than what you would learn by taking classes at a university. Whereas people with degrees in marketing or business have been taught by college professors, you can learn about these subjects from millionaires and billionaires who’ve learned what works in the real world.
尽可能在任何时候都听教育性的音频节目。当你开车时，一直听着音频节目。节省时间的最佳方式之一就是直接向那些已经掌握你想要学习技能的人学习。音频节目通常包含比你在大学上课学到的更实用的材料。而那些拥有市场营销或商业学位的人是由大学教授教授的，而你可以从百万富翁和亿万富翁那里学习到在现实世界中行之有效的方法。

Multitasking was perhaps the most important low-level skill that allowed me to go through college in three semesters. My average weekday involved about seven or eight hours of classes. But on Tuesdays during my final semester, I had classes back to back from 9am until 10pm. Because I was taking about a dozen classes each semester, I would have several tests and projects due just about every week. I had no time to study outside of class because most of that time was used for my job. So I simply had to learn everything the first time it came up. If a teacher wrote out something on the board, I would memorize it then and there; I couldn’t afford to learn things later and risk falling behind. During my slower classes, I would do homework, work out algorithms for my programming job, or refine my schedule. You can probably find numerous opportunities for multitasking. Whenever you do something physical, such as driving, cooking, shopping, or walking, keep your mind going by listening to audio tapes or reading.
多任务处理可能是我能在三个学期内完成大学学业的最重要的低级技能。我平均每个工作日要上七到八个小时的课。但在我最后一个学期的星期二，我从早上9点上课一直到晚上10点。因为我每个学期要上大约十几门课程，所以每周都会有几个考试和项目要完成。我没有时间在课外学习，因为大部分时间都用在了我的工作上。所以我只能在第一次接触到知识的时候就学会它。如果老师在黑板上写了什么，我会当场记住；我不能等到以后再学，以免落后。在我比较慢的课程中，我会做作业，为我的编程工作设计算法，或者调整我的日程安排。你可能会找到很多多任务处理的机会。每当你做一些体力活动，比如开车、做饭、购物或者散步时，通过听音频或阅读来保持思维活跃。

The idea of multitasking may seem to contradict the previous piece of advice to work all the time you work. But whereas the previous tip refers to high intensity work where you must concentrate all your mental resources in order to do the best job you can, this tip addresses low intensity work where you have plenty of capacity to do other things at the same time, like standing in line, cooking dinner, flying on a plane, or walking from point A to point B. Multitasking shouldn’t be used where it will significantly degrade your performance on a crucial task, but it should be intelligently used to take advantage of excess capacity. Take real breaks when you need them, but don’t waste time in a state of partial effort. It’s more efficient to cycle between working flat out and then resting completely.
多任务的概念可能似乎与之前的建议相矛盾，即在工作时要全力以赴。但是，之前的建议是指高强度工作，您必须集中所有的精力来做到最好，而这个建议是针对低强度工作，您在同一时间可以做其他事情，比如排队、做晚餐、乘飞机或从A点走到B点。多任务处理不应在会显著降低您在关键任务上的表现的情况下使用，但应智能地利用多余的能力。当您需要休息时，请真正休息，但不要在部分努力的状态下浪费时间。在全力工作和完全休息之间循环更加高效。

Multitasking allows you to take your productivity to a new level. You might think it would be draining, but many people find it has the opposite effect. For me it was tremendously energizing to be getting so much done. The harder you work, the greater your capacity for work, and the more restorative your rest will be.
多任务可以让你的生产力达到一个新的水平。你可能会认为这会让人筋疲力尽，但很多人发现它有相反的效果。对我来说，能够完成这么多事情让我感到非常有活力。你工作得越努力，你的工作能力就越大，你的休息也会更有恢复力。

Experiment 实验

Everyone is different, so what works for you may well be different than what works for everyone else. You may work best in the morning or late at night. Take advantage of your own strengths, and find ways to compensate for your weaknesses. Experiment with listening to music while you work. I find that classical and new age music, especially Mozart, is terrific for web development work. But for most routine tasks, listening to fast-paced techno/trance music helps me work a lot faster. I don’t exactly know why, but I’m twice as productive when listening to really fast music as compared to listening to no music. On the other hand, music with vocals is detrimental to my productivity because it’s too distracting. And when I really need to focus deeply, I’ll listen to no music at all. Try a simple experiment for yourself, and see if certain forms of music can increase your productivity. For me the difference was dramatic.
每个人都不同，所以适合你的可能与适合其他人的不同。你可能在早上或深夜工作效果最好。充分利用自己的优势，找到弥补自己弱点的方法。尝试在工作时听音乐。我发现古典和新世纪音乐，尤其是莫扎特，非常适合网页开发工作。但对于大多数例行任务，听快节奏的电子音乐可以帮助我更快地工作。我不知道为什么，但是相比于没有听音乐，听快速音乐时我的工作效率提高了一倍。另一方面，有歌词的音乐对我的工作效率有害，因为它太分散注意力。当我真正需要深度专注时，我会完全不听音乐。为自己做一个简单的实验，看看某种形式的音乐是否能提高你的工作效率。对我来说，差别是显著的。

Whenever you come up with a wacky new idea for increasing your productivity, test it and see what effect it has. Don’t dismiss any idea unless you’ve actually tried it. Partial successes are more common than complete failures, so each new experiment will help you refine your time management practices. Even the ongoing practice of conducting experiments will help condition you to be more productive.
每当你想出一个疯狂的新主意来提高你的生产力时，测试一下并看看它的效果。除非你真的尝试过，否则不要轻易否定任何想法。部分成功比完全失败更常见，所以每个新的实验都将帮助你完善时间管理的实践。即使是进行实验的持续实践也将帮助你养成更高效的习惯。

Cultivate Your Enthusiasm
培养你的热情

The word “enthusiasm” comes from the Greek entheos, which means literally, “the god within.” I really like that definition. I doubt it’s possible to master the art of time management if you aren’t gushingly enthusiastic about what you’re going to do with your time. Go after what really inspires you. Don’t chase money. Chase your passion. If you aren’t enthusiastic about your work, then you’re wasting your life. Switch to something else. Consider a new career altogether. Don’t beat yourself up if your current career has become stale. Remember that failure is your friend. Listen to that god within you, and switch to something that excites you once again. The worst waste of time is doing something that doesn’t make you happy. Your work should serve your life, not the other way around.
“热情”一词源自希腊语entheos，字面意思是“内在的神”。我非常喜欢这个定义。如果你对自己将要用时间做的事情没有热情洋溢，我怀疑你是否能掌握时间管理的艺术。追求真正激发你的东西。不要追逐金钱，追逐你的激情。如果你对自己的工作没有热情，那么你正在浪费生命。转行做其他事情。考虑完全换个职业。如果你目前的职业变得乏味，不要自责。记住，失败是你的朋友。倾听内心的那个神，再次转向让你兴奋的事情。最浪费时间的事情就是做一些让你不快乐的事情。你的工作应该为你的生活服务，而不是相反。

If you’re like most people, you can get yourself motivated every once in a while, but then you get caught up and sink back down to a lower level of productivity, and you find it hard to continue with a project. How easy is it to start a new project when your motivation level is high? And how difficult is it to continue once your enthusiasm fades? Since most people are negative to one degree or another, you’ll naturally lose your positive charge over time unless you actively cultivate your enthusiasm as a resource. I don’t believe in pushing myself to do something I really don’t want to do. If I’m not motivated, then getting myself to sit down and work productively is nearly impossible, and the work is almost painful. When you’re highly motivated though, work feels like play.
如果你和大多数人一样，你偶尔会激发自己的动力，但随后你会陷入困境，回到一个较低的生产力水平，发现很难继续进行一个项目。当你的动力水平很高时，开始一个新项目有多容易？一旦你的热情消退，继续进行有多困难？由于大多数人在某种程度上都是消极的，除非你积极培养自己的热情作为一种资源，否则你的积极能量自然会随着时间的推移而消失。我不相信强迫自己做我真的不想做的事情。如果我没有动力，那么让自己坐下来并高效地工作几乎是不可能的，工作几乎是痛苦的。然而，当你高度有动力时，工作就像是在玩耍。

While in college I could not afford to let my enthusiasm fade, or I’d be dead. I quickly learned that I needed to make a conscious effort to reinforce my enthusiasm on a daily basis. I always had my Walkman cassette player with me (there were no portable MP3 players back then), and while walking from one class to the next, I would listen to time management and motivational tapes. I also listened to them while jogging every morning. I kept my motivation level high by reinforcing my enthusiasm almost hourly. Even though I was being told by others that I would surely fail, these tapes were the stronger influence because I never went more than a few hours without plugging back in.
在大学期间，我不能让我的热情消失，否则我就会失败。我很快意识到，我需要每天有意识地努力加强我的热情。我总是随身带着我的随身听（那时还没有便携式MP3播放器），在从一个课堂走向下一个课堂的时候，我会听时间管理和激励录音带。每天早上慢跑时，我也会听这些录音带。通过几乎每小时都加强我的热情，我保持了高度的动力水平。尽管有人告诉我我肯定会失败，但这些录音带的影响更强烈，因为我从未超过几个小时没有重新充电。

If your enthusiasm level is high, you can work so much more productively and even enjoy the normally tedious parts of your work. I’ve always found that whenever I want to take my business to a new level, I must take my thoughts to a new level first. When your thinking changes, then your actions will change, and your results will follow. Unless you’re a naturally hyper person, your enthusiasm is going to need daily reinforcement. I recommend either listening to motivational tapes or reading inspiring books or articles for at least fifteen minutes every day. Whenever I’ve stopped doing this, I’ve found that self-doubt always returns, and my productivity drops off. It’s truly amazing how constantly feeding your mind with positive material can maintain your enthusiasm indefinitely. And if you multitask, you can get this benefit without investing any extra time into it.
如果你的热情水平很高，你可以更加高效地工作，甚至享受通常枯燥的工作部分。我一直发现，每当我想将我的业务提升到一个新的水平时，我必须先将我的思维提升到一个新的水平。当你的思维改变时，你的行动也会改变，结果也会随之而来。除非你天生就是一个过度兴奋的人，否则你的热情需要每天加以强化。我建议每天至少花十五分钟听激励录音或阅读鼓舞人心的书籍或文章。每当我停止这样做时，我发现自我怀疑总是会回来，我的工作效率也会下降。真的很神奇，不断用积极的材料滋养你的思维可以无限期地保持你的热情。而且如果你同时处理多个任务，你可以在不额外投入时间的情况下获得这个好处。

Eat and Exercise for Optimal Energy
为了获得最佳能量，饮食和锻炼

During the summer before my last semester in college (1993), I became a lacto-ovo vegetarian, and I noticed a decent boost in my energy and especially in my ability to concentrate. Four years later (1997) I became a complete vegan (no animal products at all), and this yielded an even bigger boost. For details on why I made this change, see the article Why Vegan?
在我大学最后一个学期之前的夏天（1993年），我成为了一名乳蛋素食主义者，我注意到我的能量和专注力都有了相当大的提升。四年后（1997年），我成为了一名纯素食主义者（完全不食用动物产品），这带来了更大的提升。关于我为什么做出这个改变的详细信息，请参阅文章《为什么选择纯素食？》。

What you eat can have a profound effect on your productivity. Animal products take significantly more time and energy to digest than plant foods, and when your body must divert extra energy to digestion, it means you have less energy available for productive mental work. Effectively your work will seem harder while you’re digesting meals containing animal products, and you’ll be more inclined to succumb to distractions. So if you find yourself having a hard time focusing on mentally intense work after lunch, your diet may very well be the culprit. Even Benjamin Franklin credited eating lightly at lunch time as being a significant factor in his productivity. While his colleagues were sluggish and sleepy in the afternoon, he could continue to work productively the rest of the day.
你所吃的食物对你的工作效率有着深远的影响。动物产品的消化时间和能量消耗要比植物食物多得多，当你的身体必须将额外的能量用于消化时，意味着你可用于进行有生产力的脑力工作的能量就会减少。事实上，在消化含有动物产品的餐食时，你的工作会变得更加困难，你更容易分心。所以，如果你发现午餐后很难集中精力进行脑力工作，那么你的饮食很可能是罪魁祸首。甚至本杰明·富兰克林也将午餐时轻饮食归功于他的高效工作。当他的同事们在下午感到疲倦和困乏时，他能够继续全天高效地工作。

Regular exercise is also necessary to maintain high energy and mental clarity. In college I would go running for 30 minutes first thing every morning before breakfast. And of course I’d be listening to motivational and educational tapes at the same time. This daily renewal kept me in good physical condition and helped me maintain my ideal weight. Furthermore, my class schedule kept me zigzagging around campus each day to attend all my classes, and I’d usually have to carry a 20-30 pound backpack full of textbooks with me. So even though I spent most of my weekdays sitting in classrooms, I still got plenty of daily exercise.
保持高能量和思维清晰也需要定期锻炼。在大学期间，我每天早餐前都会先跑30分钟。当然，我同时还会听激励和教育录音带。这种日常锻炼让我保持良好的身体状况，帮助我保持理想体重。此外，我的课程安排每天都要在校园里穿梭，上完所有课程后，我通常还要背着一只装满教科书的20-30磅的背包。所以，即使我大部分时间都坐在教室里，我仍然每天都有足够的锻炼。

If you want to master time management, it makes sense to hone your best time management tool of all — your physical body. Through diet and exercise you can build your capacity for sustained concentrated effort, so even the most difficult work will seem easier.
如果你想掌握时间管理，磨练你最好的时间管理工具——你的身体是有道理的。通过饮食和锻炼，你可以增强持续集中努力的能力，这样即使是最困难的工作也会变得更容易。

If you currently find yourself overweight, take a trip to a local gym or a sporting goods store, and find a dumbbell (or two) that weighs as much as the excess fat you’re carrying around. Pick it up and walk around with it for a while. Become aware that this is what you’re carrying around with you every day. Imagine how much lighter and easier everything would be if you could permanently put that weight down. Carrying some extra weight for training purposes is one thing, but if that weight is in the form of body fat, then you’re never able to put it down and enjoy the benefits of that training. Make a committed decision to shed those extra pounds, and enjoy the lifelong benefits of living in a more efficient physical vehicle.
如果你目前发现自己超重，去当地的健身房或运动用品店，找一根哑铃（或两根），它的重量要和你身上多余的脂肪一样重。拿起它并且走一段时间。意识到这就是你每天要扛着的东西。想象一下，如果你能永久放下这个重量，一切会变得多么轻松和容易。为了训练目的而承担一些额外的重量是可以的，但如果这个重量是身体脂肪的形式，那么你永远无法放下它，并享受到训练的好处。下定决心减掉那些额外的磅数，并享受在一个更高效的身体中生活的终身好处。

Maintain Balance 保持平衡

I don’t think it’s easy to sustain long-term productivity, health, and happiness if your life is totally unbalanced. To excel in one area, you can’t let other areas lag behind and pull you down. While in college I made an effort to take off a full day each week to have a personal life. I exercised, went to parties, attended club meetings, played computer games and pool, and even had time to vacation in Las Vegas during my final semester. The high turnover rates at the end of “death march” projects are caused by a lack of balance. To focus exclusively on your primary work at the expense of every other area of your life will only hurt you in the long run. Maintain balance by paying attention to every area of your life. As you grow in your career, be sure that your personal life grows as well.
如果你的生活完全不平衡，我认为要保持长期的生产力、健康和幸福并不容易。要在某个领域取得优秀成绩，就不能让其他领域落后并拖累你。在大学期间，我努力每周休息一整天，拥有自己的个人生活。我锻炼身体，参加派对，参加俱乐部会议，玩电脑游戏和台球，甚至在最后一个学期还有时间去拉斯维加斯度假。在“死亡行军”项目结束时高员工流动率是由于缺乏平衡。只专注于主要工作而忽视生活的其他方面只会在长远来看对你造成伤害。通过关注生活的每个方面来保持平衡。随着事业的发展，确保个人生活也得到发展。

Probably my biggest regret about going through college in three semesters is that I never had a girlfriend during this time. While I had plenty of good friends (both male and female), got involved in clubs, and enjoyed fun social activities every week, I didn’t have enough time to pursue an intimate relationship on top of everything else. I remember one instance where a girl I knew was clearly interested in pursuing a relationship with me, and she started machinating to spend more time alone with me, but I couldn’t take the bait because I just didn’t have time for dating. I wouldn’t have made a very good boyfriend at the time.
在三个学期里上大学，我最大的遗憾可能就是在这段时间里从未有过女朋友。虽然我有很多好朋友（无论男女），参加了各种社团活动，每周都有愉快的社交活动，但我没有足够的时间去追求一段亲密的关系。我记得有一次，一个我认识的女孩明显对我有兴趣，她开始策划如何与我独处更多时间，但我无法上钩，因为我根本没有时间约会。那时的我不会是一个很好的男朋友。

If I had to do it all over again, I think my college experience would have been even better if I’d stretched it to four or five semesters and allowed myself time for a girlfriend. It would have been great to have someone else to share my life with, not to mention all the other benefits of intimacy. At least I had plenty of time for dating after graduating. Within a few months I had a steady girlfriend, and four years later we were married. She and I actually went to the same college at the same time, but we never happened to meet while we were there, although it turned out we had a few mutual acquaintances.
如果我能重新开始，我觉得我的大学经历会更好，如果我把它延长到四到五个学期，并给自己留出时间找一个女朋友。有一个人可以与我分享生活将会很棒，更不用说亲密关系的其他好处了。至少在毕业后我有足够的时间约会。几个月后，我找到了一个稳定的女朋友，四年后我们结婚了。她和我实际上在同一所大学同时上学，但我们在那里从未碰面，尽管事实证明我们有一些共同的熟人。

I believe the main goal of time management is to give you the power to make your life as juicy as you want it to be. By getting clear about what you want and then developing a collection of habits that allow you to efficiently achieve your goals, you’ll enjoy a much richer, more fulfilling life than you would otherwise. When I look back on my college days from more than a decade in the future, I feel a sense of gratitude for the whole experience. I set an enormous stretch goal and grew tremendously as a person in the pursuit of that goal. It was one of the best times of my life.
我相信时间管理的主要目标是给你力量，让你的生活变得如你所愿。通过明确你想要的东西，然后培养一系列习惯，使你能够高效地实现目标，你将享受到比其他情况下更丰富、更充实的生活。当我回顾我大学时代的日子，已经过去十多年了，我感到非常感激整个经历。我设定了一个巨大的目标，并在追求这个目标的过程中获得了巨大的成长。那是我生命中最美好的时光之一。

If you wish to become more productive, then do so with the intention of improving the totality of your life from top to bottom. The reason to master time management is to take your good life and transform it into an exceptional one. Time management is not about self-sacrifice, self-denial, and doing more of what you dislike. It’s about embracing more of what you already love.
如果你希望变得更加高效，那就以改善你整个生活为目标去做。掌握时间管理的原因是将你美好的生活变成卓越的生活。时间管理不是自我牺牲、自我否定和做更多你不喜欢的事情。它是关于更多地拥抱你已经喜爱的事物。