高效人士必备7笈

译者 Nuoa

You have more important things to focus on than, um, focusing. Get back on track with these tips.

除了集中注意力，你还有更重要的事情需要关注……吧。下面的秘笈将帮助你回到正轨，重拾焦点！

You probably don’t want to admit it but you love distractions. In fact, just like monkeys, you get a shot of dopamine every time something pulls you in another direction. Why do you think you check your email so much?

你多半不会愿意承认自己实际上爱死分心了吧。其实，就好像猴子一样，人类每每遇到分心的事物，都会产生多巴胺，让自己兴奋一把。不然，你干嘛时常查收邮件哪？

Want to be more productive and get your focus back? There are no secret tricks here… do one thing at a time. Stop multitasking—it’s just another form of distraction.

想要更有效率，重拾焦点？没什么灵丹妙药……只能办事一个一个来。忘记“多任务”吧，那只是“分心”的另外一种形态罢了。

Easier said than done, I know.

可是说起来容易做起来难是吧？我懂的。

Recently I sat down with Tony Wong, a project management blackbelt whose client list includes Toyota, Honda, and Disney, to name a few. He’s an expert in keeping people on task, so I thought he’d be a good person to ask.

最近我跟Tony Wong聊了聊。这位项目管理大拿拥有羡人的客户群，包括丰田、本田、迪斯尼，不一而足。他在让人专注于工作方面颇有一手，所以我觉得他能提供正解。

Here are his tips for staying productive:

1. Work backwards from goals to milestones to tasks. Writing “launch company website” at the top of your to-do list is a sure way to make sure you never get it done. Break down the work into smaller and smaller chunks until you have specific tasks that can be accomplished in a few hours or less: Sketch a wireframe, outline an introduction for the homepage video, etc. That’s how you set goals and actually succeed in crossing them off your list.

1. 逆向分解，把最终目标化解成阶段目标，进而分解成一个个小任务。如果只是在待办事务列表首行写下“创建公司网站”，那你就且等吧，绝对没戏。把目标尽可能分解下去吧，直到你列出了一些能用几个小时甚至更短时间就能完成的具体任务为止：例如给网站画个大框架，给主页上的介绍视频写个大纲啥的。只有这么干，你设定的目标才有可能成功实现。

2. Stop multi-tasking. No, seriously—stop. Switching from task to task quickly does not work. In fact, changing tasks more than 10 times in a day makes you dumber than being stoned. When you’re stoned, your IQ drops by five points. When you multitask, it drops by an average of 10 points, 15 for men, five for women (yes, men are three times as bad at multitasking than women).

2. 别再“多任务”了，真的，赶紧忘了它吧。在任务间快速切换帮不上啥忙。实际上，每天切换10次任务，就足以让你变得比伶仃大醉的时候更蠢。你醉酒的时候IQ值只会下降5点，而你“多任务”时，IQ值平均会下降 10点！具体说来，男性的IQ值会下降15点，而女性会下降5点（是地，男人“多任务”的后果比女性还惨3倍）。  

3. Be militant about eliminating distractions. Lock your door, put a sign up, turn off your phone, texts, email, and instant messaging. In fact, if you know you may sneak a peek at your email, set it to offline mode, or even turn off your Internet connection. Go to a quiet area and focus on completing one task.

3. 对分心事物下狠招。锁上屋门、挂上“非诚勿扰”牌、关闭电话、短信、邮件和即时通信吧。如果你知道自己可能会忍不住偷瞄邮箱，那就索性将其设为离线模式，或者干脆断网。找个安静的地方呆着，专注完成一项工作吧。

4. Schedule your email. Pick two or three times during the day when you’re going to use your email. Checking your email constantly throughout the day creates a ton of noise and kills your productivity.

5. Use the phone. Email isn’t meant for conversations. Don’t reply more than twice to an email. Pick up the phone instead.

5. 该打电话时就打电话。邮件不是用来给人对话的。每封邮件请不要回复两次以上——还是拿起电话一次性解决吧。

6. Work on your own agenda. Don’t let something else set your day. Most people go right to their emails and start freaking out. You will end up at inbox-zero, but accomplish nothing. After you wake up, drink water so you rehydrate, eat a good breakfast to replenish your glucose, then set prioritized goals for the rest of your day.

6. 按自己的步调办事。别让其它什么人或事主宰你每天的生活。多数人每天一开始就径直去看邮箱，结果搞得自己提心吊胆一整天。你没准能消灭所有未读邮件，但结果却可能整日一事无成。起床之后，还是先喝口水润润喉咙，吃顿优质早餐补补葡萄糖，然后把当天的重要目标设定清楚吧。

7. Work in 60 to 90 minute intervals. Your brain uses up more glucose than any other bodily activity. Typically you will have spent most of it after 60-90 minutes. (That’s why you feel so burned out after super long meetings.) So take a break: Get up, go for a walk, have a snack, do something completely different to recharge. And yes, that means you need an extra hour for breaks, not including lunch, so if you’re required to get eight hours of work done each day, plan to be there for 9.5-10 hours.