时间管理 | 管理精力而非时间（双语）
译注：
当工作量增加时，绝大多数人决定增加工作时间。但是利用「不专注」（unfocus）的休息时刻，可能才是在更短的时间内完成更多工作的关键。
原标题：Why you should manage your energy, not your time
文：Madeleine Dore
译：清单待完成
For ten years, Lisa Congdon’s days were packed like a “can of sardines.” Juggling between five and 20 projects at any one time, the artist and author, based in Portland, Oregon in the US, tried to squeeze as much into her daily work schedule as she could.
十年来，丽莎·康登（Lisa Congdon）的生活被挤压成一罐「沙丁鱼」，这位来自美国俄勒冈州波特兰市的艺术家兼作家，每时每刻都要兼顾5到20个项目，她尽可能地为自己的日常工作时间表里安排进更多的事项。
Finally, in the tenth year of her career, she started to have physical symptoms as a result of the stress – chronic back pain, upper neck pain and headaches.
最终，在她职业生涯的第十年，她开始因压力而出现身体症状--慢性背痛、上颈疼痛和头痛。
“I was waking up with anxiety, feeling a sense of tension in the pit of my stomach, and I had trouble sleeping,” she says.
「当我醒来时，感到焦虑、胃部紧张，且无法入眠。」她说。
Many of us will have had that sense of there just not being enough hours in the day to do everything we need to do. Tasks that should take only a few minutes can stretch into hours, all while other work mounts up.
许多人都会有这样的感觉：我们需要做的事情在一天内没有足够的时间来完成。本来只需几分钟即可完成的任务，拖了几个小时还没做完，同时其他要做的事情也在不断叠加。
For most, the solution is to work later into the evening or even over the weekend, which leaves many of us feeling exhausted, stressed and burned out.
But what if working less were the key to getting more done?
对于大多数人来说，解决方案就是工作到深夜，甚至周末继续加班，这让我们感到疲惫不堪、压力重重、精疲力竭。
①
The time management myth
时间管理的迷思
Previously, Congdon would often work from eight in the morning until seven at night without a break.
从前，Congdon 经常从早上8点一直工作到晚上7点，中间没有休息。
It’s an easy trap to fall into – it’s drilled into us that working solidly for eight or more hours will increase our output and impress our colleagues and managers. But in reality, even the traditional nine-to-five workday is not conducive to productivity.
这是一个很容易掉入的陷阱--只要我们坚持工作8个小时或以上，就能增加我们的工作成果，并给同事和经理留下好印象，这种观念已经刻在我们的骨子里。但实际上，即使是传统的朝九晚五的工作方式，也无益于生产力水平的提升。
A workplace study found an average working professional experiences 87 interruptions per day, making it difficult to remain productive and focused for a full day.
一项对工作场所的研究发现，职业人员平均每天的工作有87次被打断，这使得他们很难一整天保持高效和专注。
Knowing something had to give, Congdon began to adjust her approach to work and restructured her day to achieve the same amount of output, without working around the clock. She decided to split her day into fewer 45-minute segments, and aimed to maximise her productivity within those strict time sessions.
Congdon 知道必须做出改变了，因而开始调整她的工作方式，重新安排工作时间以达到同样的工作成果，而不必昼夜不停地工作。她决定把一天的工作时间，分隔成45分钟的时间段，以期在这些严格分配的时间段内，充分利用生产率。
The key to maintaining focus and energy in shorter bursts was to apply flexibility to those segments – she could use some for exercise, some for meditation, some for work. Getting rest within her workday helped lower stress levels and therefore achieve better results within the allotted time for working, Congdon found.
在短时间内保持注意力和精力的关键在于，对这些时间段的灵活运用--她可以将一些时间用来锻炼、一些用来冥想、另一些用来工作。 Congdon 发现，在工作日内休息，有助于降低压力，因而能够在规定的工作时间段内取得更好的工作成果。
This makes sense in the light of research that has found our productivity has less to do with the amount of hours we squeeze out of the working day, and more to do with the rest we have.
从研究的角度来看，这是有道理的。因为研究发现我们的工作效率与工作时间的多少没有太大的关系，而是与我们的休息时间有关。
In 2014, the social networking company The Draugiem Group used a time-tracking productivity app to study what habits set their most productive employees apart.
2014年，社交网络公司 The Draugiem Group 使用了一个追踪时间的生产率应用程序（app），来研究哪些习惯使得他们最高效能的员工与众不同。
Surprisingly, the top 10% of employees with the highest productivity didn’t put in longer hours than anyone else – often they didn't even work eight-hour days. Instead, the key to their productivity was that for every 52 minutes of focused work, they took a 17-minute break.
令人惊讶的是，工作效率最高的10%的员工，其工作时间并不比其他人长--甚至连8小时的工作时间都没有。相反，他们工作效率的关键在于--每专心致志工作52分钟后，就会休息17分钟。
While our culture may be pushing us towards working 24/7, Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, a Silcon Valley consultant and author of Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less, believes this is not helping us to be more productive or to come up with creative solutions.
虽然我们的文化可能会促使我们24/7不间断地工作，Alex Soojung-Kim Pang--硅谷的一名顾问以及《休息：减少工作量完成更多工作》（Rest: Why You Get More Done When You Work Less）一书的作者--他认为这种文化并不能帮助我们提高工作效率，也无助于发现创造性解决方案。
The research instead points towards the importance of rest, he says.
这项研究反而指出了休息的重要性，他表示。
“Generally, short bursts of long hours do lead to increases in productivity, but over time those gains disappear,” says Pang. “The odds of costly mistakes rise, and as a result the gains that come from working longer hours disappear.
「一般来说，长时间脉冲式的工作确实会提高生产力，但随着时间的推移，这些收益逐渐消失。一些会带来严重后果的失误，其发生几率开始上升。因此长时间工作带来的收益，不复存在了。」
One study from Illinois Institute of Technology by Raymond Van Zelst and Willard Kerr in 1951 found that scientists who spent 25 hours per week in the workplace were no more productive than those who spent just five.
伊利诺理工大学的 Raymond Van Zelst 和 Willard Kerr 在1951年所做的一项研究发现，每周工作25小时的科学家，并不比那些只工作5个小时的科学家更有效率。
In fact, as few as one to three hours of concentrated work could serve to be as effective as a traditional workday. For Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, this is because being busy is simply a proxy for productivity.
事实上，每天1到3个小时的全神贯注的工作，可以和传统的8小时工作时间拥有同样效果。《深度工作：在分心的世界中专注成功的规则》（Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World）一书的作者卡尔·纽波特（Cal Newport）表示，这是因为保持忙碌是衡量生产率的一个简单指标。
“In the absence of clear indicators of what it means to be productive and valuable in their jobs, many workers turn back toward an industrial indicator of productivity: doing lots of stuff in a visible manner,” says Newport.
「由于缺乏明确的指标，来衡量工作的效率和价值，许多劳动者就会转向工业生产率指标--以可见的方式完成大量的工作。」纽波特表示。
Working for show, it seems, is also futile. A study of consultants by Boston University’s School of Business found that managers could not tell the difference between employees who actually worked 80 hours a week and those who just pretended to.
装模作样的工作，似乎不是徒劳无功的。波士顿大学商学院对咨询师进行的一项研究发现，管理者无法区分每周实际工作80小时的员工和那些滥竽充数假装工作的。
②
Deflecting distraction
转移分心
To combat the trap of putting such a premium on being busy, Newport recommends building a habit of ‘deep work’ – the ability to focus without distraction.
为了克服这种把黄金时间浪费在忙碌上的陷阱上，纽波特建议养成一种「深度工作」（deep work）的习惯--即专注而不分心的能力。
There are a number of approaches to mastering the art of deep work – be it lengthy retreats dedicated to a specific task; developing a daily ritual; or taking a ‘journalistic’ approach to seizing moments of deep work when you can throughout the day. Whichever approach, the key is to determine your length of focus time and stick to it.
掌握「深度工作」（deep work）的方式有很多种：预留长段时间以致力于一项特定任务；养成日常习惯；或者采取新闻调查式的方法，在一天中尽可能抓住那些能够进行深度工作的时刻。无论哪种方法，关键在于确定专心致志的时间的长度，并坚持下去。
Newport also recommends ‘deep scheduling’ to combat constant interruptions and get more done in less time. “At any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month. Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor’s appointment or important meeting,” he writes.
纽波特还建议采用「深度安排」（deep scheduling）的方式，以应对接连不断的干扰，并在更短的时间内完成更多的工作。他写到，「在任何时候，我都会为接下来的一个月安排深度工作的时间。一旦出现在日历上，我就会像遵守医生预约或重要会议那样严格执守。」
Another approach to getting more done in less time is to rethink how you prioritise your day – in particular how we craft our to-do lists.
Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, points to a study in the early 1980s that divided undergraduates into two groups: some were advised to set out monthly goals and study activities; others were told to plan activities and goals in much more detail, day by day.
另一个在更短时间内完成更多工作的方法，就是重新思考、安排你的优先事项--特别是关于如何制定「待办事项清单」（to-do lists）。
《混乱：改变我们生活的混乱的力量》（Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives）一书的作者提姆·哈福德（Tim Harford）指出，在20世纪80年代早期的一项研究中，将大学生分成两组：一些人被建议设定每月的目标和学习活动；另一些则被告知要制定更为详细的每日的目标和活动。
While the researchers assumed that the well-structured daily plans would be most effective when it came to the execution of tasks, they were wrong: the detailed daily plans demotivated students. Harford argues that inevitable distractions often render the daily to-do list ineffective, while leaving room for improvisation in such a list can reap the best results.
尽管研究人员认为，在执行任务时，详尽的每日目标是最为高效的，但他们错了：详细的每日计划让学生失去了动力。
哈福德认为，不可避免的干扰，经常会使每日待办事项清单失效；而在这样一份清单中，预留一些以供即兴创作的空白空间，反而能收获最好的结果。
In order to make the most of our focus and energy, we also need to embrace downtime, or as Newport suggests, “be lazy.”
为了最大限度地利用我们的注意力和精力，我们还需要拥抱休息时间，或正如纽波特所说的那种「闲散」（idleness）。
“Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body… [idleness] is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done,” he argues.
「闲散，不只是休假、放纵或恶习；闲散对大脑的重要性来说，就像维生素D对身体那样不可或缺。闲散，与其名字相矛盾，反而是完成任何工作所必需的。」他认为。
Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, believes this counterintuitive link between downtime and productivity may be due to the way our brains operate. When our brains toggle between being focused and unfocused on a task, they tend to be more efficient.
哈佛大学医学院精神病学助理教授斯里尼·皮莱（Srini Pillay）认为，休息时间和工作效率之间的这种反直觉的关联，可能是由于我们大脑的运作方式造成的。当我们的大脑在「专注」和「不专注」于某项任务之间切换时，往往会更有效率。
“What people don't realise is that in order to complete these tasks they need to use both the focus and unfocus circuits in their brain,” says Pillay, who has written a book on the subject called Tinker, Dabble, Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind.
皮莱表示，「人们没有意识到，为了完成这些任务，他们需要同时使用大脑中的专注和非专注回路。」她写了一本关于这个主题的书，叫做《修补、涉猎、涂鸦式尝试：开启非专注思维的力量》（Tinker, Dabble, Doodle Try: Unlock the Power of the Unfocused Mind）。
This is something exploited by some of the world’s highest achievers.
这是世界上成就最高的一些人所采用的方式。
“Serena Williams, for example, has often spoken about how in tennis it's important to be both focused and relaxed,” says Pillay. Warren Buffett is also known for having days in his calendar where nothing is scheduled because he finds sitting and thinking has a much higher priority than filling every minute of his day. It is an approach that Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, has borrowed from the billionaire investor.
「举个例子，塞丽娜·威廉姆斯（Serena Williams）就经常谈到，在网球比赛中，专注和放松同样重要。」皮莱表示。沃伦·巴菲特（Warren Buffett）也因为在其日程表中留有空白时间而闻名，因为他发现，坐下来思考，比填满日程表的每一分钟更为重要。微软联合创始人比尔·盖茨（Bill Gates）也向这位亿万富翁投资者借鉴了此种方法。
③
Using the slumps
在精力疲弱时进行放松
According to research by Harvard University psychologists Matthew Killingsworth and Daniel Gilbert, we spend 46.9% of our time not thinking about what is happening in front of us.
根据哈佛大学心理学家 Matthew Killingsworth 和 Daniel Gilbert 的研究，我们有46.9%的时间，不回去思考眼前发生的事情。
The key to being productive might be found in using that time effectively through embracing the slumps in our day – those moments when your productivity begins to ebb away, usually in the midmorning, directly after lunch or midafternoon.
提高工作效率的关键在于，通过在精力疲弱时进行放松，以此来有效的利用这段时间。工作效率开始衰退的时刻，通常是在上午十点左右，午饭后或下午三点左右。
In the past, Justin Gignac, co-founder of freelance network Working Not Working, left little room in his routine to be lazy. Now, he believes it is important to build time to kick back and let his brain think by itself, and is one of many successful people debunking the myth that working more equals working best.
过去，自由职业者网络 Working Not Working 的联合创始人贾斯汀·吉格纳克（Justin Gignac），在其日常工作表中几乎没有留下任何闲散的时间。现在，他认为有必要腾出时间来放松，让大脑自行思考；他也开始和其他众多成功人士一样，驳斥了工作越多等于工作越好的迷思。
Recently he started lying in his newly-bought hammock each night after work.
最近，每天下班后的晚上，他开始躺在新买的吊床上。
“I light a couple of candles and then I just lie in the hammock and don’t do anything,” he says. “It's amazing. Giving my brain that space is so crucial and has helped me to learn to survey the whole field, not just the thing that is directly in front of me.”
「我点燃几根蜡烛，然后躺在吊床上，什么也不做。」他说。
「这太神奇了。给大脑留一些清空时间是如此的重要，这也帮助我学会了俯瞰了整个人生，而不是纠结一些眼前的事情。」
——END——
原文：bbc.com/capital/story/20170612-why-you-should-manage-your-energy-not-your-time?utm_source=pocket&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pockethits
本文基于知识共享（Creative Commons），由「清单待完成」翻译发布，仅供个人学习交流使用。
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