治療拖延症的10個妙方(下)

Realistic

5.腳踏實地

Are you procrastinating because you've realized you've gotten in over your head and you know you'll never be able to get the job done? Being realistic when taking on projects is an important proactive tool to avoid procrastination. This tip relates to the above suggestion to increase focus. However, it also refers to the fact that some of us take on projects that we are unqualified for, or that we don't have the resources to complete.

你之所以拖延，是因爲你意識到自己沒有能力完成一項工作？開始工作時，腳踏實地是避免拖延症的重要方式。這個方法和上文提到的提高注意力有關。但是，它也和有些人承擔一些不能力所能及的任務有關，或是我們沒有方法完成的工作。如果提交一份質量不合格的工作，

We may be worried that the person we accepted the task from will 'see through us' if we turn in subpar work, so we decide not to turn it in at all. After all, many of us would rather be seen as someone who did not meet a deadline as opposed to someone who had inferior knowledge or skills.

我們可能擔心那些給我們工作的人會“看穿我們”，所以我們選擇不完成。畢竟，很多人寧被認爲不遵守截止日期，也不想被當作沒有能力的人。

To overcome this habit, you need to be realistic and honest with yourself before you take on a project. Ask yourself if you have the knowledge, training or skills necessary to complete it. If you don't, can you collaborate with someone who does and are they available to help? If you find yourself continually wanting to take on work that you can't complete, this could be a sign that you need to take additional classes or seek out training to help improve your skillset. You gain nothing by saying yes to projects you know you'll never be able to succeed at, but you can learn from this and use it as a roadmap to guide you on a path to self-improvement.

爲了克服拖延症，你需要對自己誠實，腳踏實地。試問自己是否有足夠知識儲備和能力完成這項工作。如果沒有，你可以和願意幫助你的人合作完成嗎？如果你只是一味想要接手一些你沒有能力完成的工作，這也許暗示着你需要上培訓班，或尋求幫助提高能力。單純的接受一項自己無能爲力的任務是不會有收穫的，但你可以把它當作地圖，引領自己不斷提升。

gnize that You're Procrastinating

4.認清問題

Sometimes procrastinating shows up in ways that aren't easily recognizable. If you don't know you're doing it, how can you take measures to stop? Recognize that you're procrastinating when you're doing things such as starting your day with a low priority task from your to-do list, or reading emails several times without deciding what to do with them. Many times, we're not avoiding work by simply staring out the window or endlessly wiping down our clean desks and computer monitors. In fact, procrastinating can look an awful lot like staying extremely busy. The difference is, when we're being productive, we're focused on the tasks we need to get done to accomplish an overall goal. When we're procrastinating, on the other hand, we're busying ourselves with mundane tasks or busywork that could easily be accomplished by someone else or at a later time.

有時，我們不能辨別什麼是拖延。如果你不知道自己在拖延，你怎麼採取措施制止呢？當你做一些無關緊要的事開始一天時，瀏覽郵件多次卻不做任何決定時，記住，這些情況都是拖延。我們推遲工作，不只是凝視着窗外、又或是永無止境地擦着乾淨的桌子和電腦屏幕。其實，你看起來很忙，卻不停拖延工作。但區別在於，我們集中注意力在一項需要完成的工作，纔是真正的高效。但拖延時，我們只是做一些簡單的事情，而這些都可以稍後完成，或由別人替代。

Would you rather make coffee than get down the nuts and bolts of why your most recent promotional campaign failed? Most executives would probably answer this question with a no. If they wanted to make coffee, they would have stayed a secretary instead of going into sales. However, their actions tell a different story. Making coffee is a task easily accomplished while finding the holes in your latest strategy is far more difficult. Understand that the necessary task might not be the easy one, and realize that responding to an email from a business colleague or offering to take your co-worker's shirt to the cleaners is just another way to put those tasks off.

你寧願衝咖啡，也不願分析爲什麼最近的促銷活動失敗了？許多管理者的回答肯定是不。如果他們想衝咖啡，那他們應該選擇祕書職位，並非銷售。但是，他們都是言語不一致。和找出銷售策略的漏洞相比，衝咖啡要簡單的多。我們要明白，重要的任務往往不易，而且回覆同事的郵件或是幫把同事的襯衫帶到洗衣店，只是拖延工作的另一種方式。

rd Your Progress

3.獎勵自己

Waiting until the end of a project to get a reward can seem like a very long time, especially if your project is a large one. No wonder you're waiting to start on a project when you know you won't be able to celebrate the completion of it for weeks or even months. In these cases, setting up a continuous rewards system can help you nip procrastination in the bud. Associating reward with only the final goal does not help with motivation throughout the project. It can also lead to a feeling of discontent once the project is over, the reward has been received, and you're back to square one.

等一項工作做完，特別是一些大項目，是需要很長一段時間。我們清楚，數週及數月內我們不可能獎勵自己，這也難怪我們會拖延。所以，設置一套連續獎勵制度，可以幫助我們掐掉拖延的苗頭。完成整項工作後才獎勵自己，並不能提高我們的積極性。有時，即使完成工作後得到了獎勵，我們也不會感到滿足，一切又回到了原點。

Most of the time, we most need to be rewarded in the early stages of projects, when motivation is low and the finish line seems like it's miles away. When we develop a continuous reward system, we shift our focus away from the final goal, and focus on our small chunks we need to accomplish to get there. We stop looking at the final product and instead look at rewarding the effort and performance it will take to get there. The main goal of continuous rewards is to change the way we think, and associate work, not the completion of work, with something desirable.

大多時候，在我們積極性低落、任務結束尚早的早期階段，我們就需要獎勵。設置一套連續獎勵制度，把我們的注意力從最終目標上轉移到需要完成的小目標上。我們不再過分在意最終目標，而是讓不斷獎勵的好影響促使我們到達終點。連續獎勵制度的主要目標是爲了改變我們的思考方式、同時將工作與獎勵結合，不只是簡單地完成一項工作。

If your project is to write a 25-page report on your company's newest product launch and the marketing efforts associated with it, reward yourself for every five pages you write. If your project is making 100 cold calls in a week to potential customers, reward yourself every time you make 20, regardless of the result.

如果你要寫一份二十五頁的工作報告，關於公司新產品開發和市場影響，那每五頁就獎勵一下自己；如果你在一週內要給潛在客戶打一百個推銷電話，那無論結果如何，每二十個電話就獎勵一下自己。

to Your Future Self

2.和未來的自己對話

If you're procrastinating, you're having a hard time tapping into the 'feel good' emotions that come from the project. Why not do a little time travel and project yourself into the future? Have a talk with your future self and ask how good it feels now that the project is completed. Think about how your future self might be different if you keep putting off the project and never get it done, or turn in subpar work because you did everything at the last minute. Try not just to see what your future self says, but also how that self feels.

如果你習慣了拖延工作，那麼你很難體會到完成後的愉悅感。爲什麼不來一場時光旅行，走進自己的未來呢？和未來的自己來場對話吧，試問下未來的自己完成這項工作後，會有怎樣的感覺。想想如果一直拖延着這項工作，或是提交一份不合格的工作，只因爲自己是在最後時刻才完成，未來的自己又會是怎樣？試着不要只看未來的自己怎麼回答，而是有何感想。

It can be very difficult to put off short-term pleasures in exchange for long-term feelings of satisfaction. When a huge project is staring you in the face, it doesn't seem like much fun to type out hundreds of words or call dozens of people who might hang up on you.

推遲短暫的快樂換取長期的滿足是很困難的事情。當有一項大任務需要完成，碼字或是打給那些可能掛斷你電話的人就不那麼有趣了。

What sounds like much more fun is getting another cup of coffee, or watching your favorite movie, or even gaining the small satisfaction that comes from completing an easy and probably unnecessary task. This is human nature. To fight it, you need to use your imagination. Is that cup of coffee going to give you as much satisfaction as knowing you put in a lot of hard work and turned in a report that will further your career? Just this small switch in thinking could be enough to convince present self to delay some gratification so that future self can be happy.

有些事情看起來比較有趣，比如，衝一杯香濃的咖啡，看最喜歡的電影，或是完成一些無足輕重又簡單的工作獲得小小的滿足感。這是人的本性。與之戰鬥吧！發揮你的想象。試想，一杯咖啡給予你的滿足感能和完成許多有難度的任務、提交一份有利於自己職業發展的工作報告相比嗎？換個角度思考，也許就能說服你現在的自己去推遲短暫的滿足感，換取未來的快樂。

Trying to Be Perfect

1.直視不完美

Perfectionists, beware! You are the most likely type of person to suffer from procrastination. Why? Because you're more focused on perfect results than you are on quality of effort. It's a misconception that procrastinators are lazy and just don't want to do the work. In fact, most procrastinators are so concerned with doing the work and doing it perfectly that they just can't stand the thought of doing anything less than 100%. Unfortunately, it's rare that you turn in perfect work every time, no matter how hard you work on it, and this is what gets to the perfectionist. They battle feelings of wondering why it's even worth the time or effort if they can't be perfect, and they opt for being known as the person who misses deadlines instead of the person who turns in a less-than-perfect performance.

完美主義者最可能患有拖延症，要注意了！爲什麼？因爲完美主義者更要求結果完美，而不只是盡力完成。有一個誤區，人們都認爲拖延症患者非常懶惰，他們只是不想完成工作。其實，許多拖延症患者都要求工作盡善盡美，他們不能忍受沒有百分之百的努力。遺憾的是，無論多麼努力，並不是每次都能提交完美的工作。他們不停在思想鬥爭，花費了時間和精力也不能做到完美，這樣值得嗎？所以他們寧願錯過截止日期，也不願工作有任何缺陷。

Like most of the tips on this list, battling perfectionism is about changing how we think. Though it will probably be an uphill battle, you must convince yourself to focus on the quality of the effort involved, and let go of the result. Most of the time, we can't control results anyway. Even if we complete a project that is perfect in our minds, our bosses or colleagues may not feel the same way. When you focus on the effort rather than result, you take away your need for perfectionism and open yourself up to creativity.

正如上面提到的建議，克服完美主義，要改變我們的思維方式。這將會是一段漫長的過程，你要說服自己，注重過程，看輕結果。許多時候，我們不能掌控結果。就算我們完成了一項完美的工作，但我們的老闆和同事不一定也這麼想。但當你注重過程並非結果時，你就會克服完美主義，激發創造力。

Conclusion

結論：

The procrastination bug has bitten us all from time to time, and some of us live with the constant struggle of putting off projects until they reach crisis stage. We opt to clean off the kitchen counter for the tenth time that morning or print out pictures from our vacation three years ago instead of facing the blinking cursor on our computers.

拖延症時不時的侵蝕着我們，有些人到任務結束的最後一刻，仍不停的與拖延作鬥爭。我們寧願一早上擦洗十次流理臺、打印三年前度假時候的照片，也不想面對電腦上閃爍着的光標，開始工作。

It's important to realize that procrastination is not a matter of poor time management, nor is it the sign of laziness. Instead, we must realize that it's simply a series of bad habits that stem from a root cause that was established somewhere in our past. When we're able to recognize what this cause is, we can then start changing habits to facilitate healthier choices and actions.

我們要清楚地意識到，拖延症不是不善於管理時間，也不是懶惰，而是從過去養成的一系列壞習慣。我們瞭解了原因是什麼，就要改掉這個壞習慣，養成一些有益的行爲。

For true procrastinators, the act of putting off tasks has become a part of their personality and so ingrained in their self-image that it can be very difficult to change. Just as smokers have a tough time picturing themselves as non-smokers and overweight individuals cannot see themselves as slim, procrastinators just don't know who they would be if they didn't put off what needed to be done. True change comes from awareness, and being aware that you have a problem and that you can do something about it is where you must begin. By utilizing our ten tips to end procrastination forever, you can realize why this has become a part of your personality and finally take actions to change.

對於真正的拖延症患者來講，推遲任務已經根深蒂固的存在於他們的性格中，難以改變。就像吸菸者很難戒掉煙，體重超標者很難想想自己苗條的樣子，拖延症患者不知道他們不再拖延任務的樣子。真正的改變來源於察覺，認識到你的問題，開始做些相應的改變。利用上面的十條小建議，改掉拖延症吧！你也會認識到爲何拖延症會成爲自己的一部分，如何才能採取行動，改掉這個壞習慣。