高效能人士指南

译者 花の雪

Important vs. Urgent: 5 Ways to Focus On What Really Matters

重要VS紧急：五招让你专注于最要紧的事

Written by Jonathan Mead

撰文：Jonathan Mead

Categories: productivity tips

分类：高效小贴士

翻译：Shayne Yeats

One simple fact divides effective and ineffective people: effective people spend the majority of their time working on important rather than urgent things.

一个简单的事实就可以把高效能人士与低效能人士区分开来：高效能人士把大部分时间都用于重要的事情上而不是紧急的事情上。

Have you ever felt like you spend a lot of time being really busy, but at the end of the day you don’t feel like you’ve really accomplished anything? I’ve felt this way on many occasions.

你是否曾感觉自己忙碌了一整天却发现到头来自己什么事也没有完成？在许多情况下，在许多情况下我都有这样的感受。

It’s not that I’ve been lazy or haven’t been productive. I’ve checked my email, responded to everyone, cleaned and organized my desk, filed everything and checked all the social networking sites. Basically I spent a lot of time doing things that kept me very busy and seemed important at the time.

这并不是因为我很懒惰或我做事没有效率。我查收邮件，然后给每一个人回复；我清理打理我的办公桌；编档保存了所有文件，然后把每一个社交网站都逛一遍。

But after finishing all of these tasks, I still had a feeling that I hadn’t really accomplished anything. I didn’t feel any real fulfillment. The reason is while I spent a lot of time working on urgent things, none of them were really important.

但是，当我完成这些任务后，我还是觉得自己好像什么事也没做过。我感觉不到一丝的充实感。其中的原因就是我花费了太多的时间用于紧急的事而不是重要的事情。

A Personal Example

一个亲身实例

Here’s an example of deciphering the important vs. the urgent. One of the things I’ve been struggling with recently is becoming an early riser. I know that if I wake up earlier, I can have more time to work on important projects. More often than not, though, when I wake up I have the urge to just push the snooze button one more time. It feels so good to go back to sleep for a few more minutes. An hour and a half later I will finally drag myself out of bed knowing that can’t push it any further. The whole time wishing I would have just had the willpower to get myself up when I said I would.

这里就有一个破译重要和紧急的一个例子。近来一直让我倍感头疼的事情就是去成为一个早起的人。我知道，如果我能够早点起床的话，我就会有更多的时间用于重要的事情上。然而，实际情况却是，每当闹钟响起的时候，我总是去按下“再响按钮”。躺在被窝里再多睡几分钟的感觉真是太好了。一个半小时后，我终于从床上爬了起来，我知道我很难起得比这更早了。我心里想的唯一一件事就是当我说我可以做到时我希望我有足够的毅力立刻起床。

I know that working on my blog or going to the gym would have had more of a long term impact, but I sacrificed the urgency of wanting more sleep for the importance of having a greater impact. I’ve gradually been able to condition myself to wake up earlier over time. Not by using my willpower, but by raising my awareness of what’s more important to me.

我知道打理我的博客或者去健身房锻炼会给我带来更多长期的积极影响，但我却把如此宝贵的时间用于睡懒觉上了。我渐渐地可以在更早的时候就醒来。不过，我不是在用我的意志力，而是让自己意识到哪些事对我来说才是更重要的。

The problem wasn’t that I didn’t have the discipline to wake up early, it was that I was conditioned to prioritize urgency over importance. My awareness alone has allowed me to get myself out of bed earlier, not grudgingly (okay maybe a little) but willingly – even cheerfully sometimes. That’s because I know that at the end of the day I’ll feel more fulfilled knowing I spent that time working to get closer to making my goals a reality, rather than getting a few more minutes of sleep.

问题并不是我没有足够的自律督促自己在清晨起床，而是出在我划分事情的紧急性和重要性上。仅仅是我的认知就可以让我在更早的时候就起床，我没有勉强自己（或许有那么一点点），而是很自然地就起床了------甚至有些时候还是兴高采烈的呢。那是因为我知道我会在一天结束之时感觉更有充实感，因为我把大部分时间都用于工作而不是睡懒觉。

So how do we raise our awareness of what is truly important? How can we recondition ourselves to have a greater impact? The following are 5 ways I try stay focused on important, rather than simply urgent, tasks each day:

所以，我们如何才能认识到那些真正重要的事情呢？我们如何才能做出调整并让自己成为更棒的自己呢？下文提到的五个方法就有助于让你每天专注于重要的事，而不是简单的而又紧急的事：

5 Ways to Stay Focused on the Important

让自己专注于做重要的事的5个方法

1. Set 3 Most Important Tasks (MITs) for the day. Often the best way to find out what the most important tasks are is to narrow down your three most important items for the day. Ask yourself: “If I could only do three things today, what would I feel the most fulfilled in doing?”

1.列出一天中最重要的三项任务。通常，找到当天最重要的事项的方法就是缩小这三件最重要的事的范围。问一下你自己：“假如我今天只能做三件事，那么去做哪些事会让我最有充实感？”

2. Focus on providing value. One of the easiest ways for me to discover whether I’m working on important or urgent items is asking myself how much value it will provide myself or others. I know going to the gym, writing articles and spending quality time with my wife will have a more long term impact than sorting files, checking my site stats every 30 minutes and playing Tetris. Ask yourself: “How much value will this provide me, or someone else?”

2.专注于提供价值。我所运用的最简单的去发现我是否在做最重要的事的方法之一就是它可以给我带来多大价值。我知道比起整理文件、每隔30分钟就查看一下我的网站或玩俄罗斯方块，如果我去健身房锻炼、写文章或与我的妻子共度美好时光的话，会更有意义。所以，问一下你自己：“我所做的事会给我或给他人带来多大的价值？”

3. Think long-term. Another great way to find out how important the work you’re doing is, is to focus on how long-term of an impact it will have. Clearing out my inbox will have a much shorter impact than writing an article that people will be able to read for years to come. Going to the gym and eating a healthy breakfast will have a much greater impact than the short term rush of drinking a grande soy latte. Ask yourself: “Will this make a difference a week, month or year from now? Five years?”

3.从长远角度来考虑。另一个去发现你所做的事是否是重要的方法就是看它是否能长期地给你带来价值。查收邮件从短期来看有点用处，但是写文章会带来更持久用处，因为人们可以在今后的几年中都可读到这篇文章。到健身房去锻炼或吃一顿健康的早晨，从长期来看，它所带来的价值要远远高于仓促地喝杯豆浆所带来的短期价值。所以，问一下你自己：“我所做的事是否会给我带来一个与众不同的一周，一月，或来年？或者是未来的五年？”

4. First things first. I find the best way for me to complete my MITs is to start on them right away in the morning. When I spend my time working on non-important but urgent items I end up getting caught up in trying to put out the next fire. Also, when I try to work on my important tasks later in the day, there’s usually more distractions and more interruptions. Finishing my most important tasks in the beginning of the day ensures that if the afternoon comes and I get bombarded with busy-work, I can still finish the day feeling that I accomplished what I wanted to.

4.重要的事情优先去做。我发现，在早晨就开始去做重要的事对我而言是帮助我去完成所有任务的最有效的方法。当我在做不重要却紧急的事时，我发现自己总是抓狂地想要去处理下一份文件。同样，当我把重要的任务放在后面去做时，我发现自己总会被各种干扰打断。在一天的开头那段时间里就完成重要的事，意味着就算是在下午还有一堆忙碌的事要我去做，我依旧可以充实满意地度过这天。

5. Have a clear vision. This goes along with setting your most important tasks, but here we’re thinking about our long-term vision. If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. Creating a vision is about seeing objectively where you’d like to be in the next 5, 10 or 20 years. It also can include what accomplishing those objectives will feel like, what it will look like, sound, smell and taste like. When we have a clear vision of what we want the future to look like, it’s a lot easier to stay on task and not get caught up in answering the next email or voicemail. Think about whether or not the work you’re doing is moving you closer to your vision, or if it won’t make much of a difference tomorrow or next week.

5.对未来要有一个清晰的愿景。这与你所设定的最重要的任务有关，而在这里我们要考虑到的是长期的愿景。假如你对这个愿景缺乏了解，你就无法想象它。这个愿景就是要让你清晰的看到未来的自己，比如五年后，十年后，或二十年后，那时的你会处在怎样的人生状态。这也包括那些能让我感觉更实实在在的东西，比如它看上去是什么样的，它听起来是什么样的，它闻起来是什么样的，它品尝起来是什么样的。当我们对未来有了一个清晰的愿景时，我们就可以更加容易地专注于每一项重要的任务，而不是去回复下一份邮件或语音信箱。好好考虑一下，你现在在做的事是否有助于你一步步接近你的愿景，你现在所做的事是否会给你带来不同的一天或一周。

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When we implement vision, priority, importance, thinking long-term, and a focus on providing value, the natural result is we’ll become highly effective. We also fulfill our natural desire to have impacted our lives in a meaningful way. Sometimes just raising our awareness is enough to increase our focus on the important. When we spend the majority of our time doing what’s most important to us, we’ll create a wealth of value for ourselves and others.

当我们对未来有了一个愿景，并且按照重要性来决定做事的优先次序，而且能够从长远角度来看待问题，同时也专注于创造价值，那么我们就会自然而然地变成一个高效能人士。而且，我们在满足了自身欲望的同时也创造了一个丰富多彩的人生。有时，你只需提高一下自己的意识就能够专注于重要的事情。当我们人生中的大部分时间是用于做对自己而言是最重要的事情上时，我们就会给自己和别人创造出无与伦比的价值。

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