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治療拖延症的10個妙方(上)

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It's a familiar feeling for almost all of us: we have a project to start, we know the deadline is quickly approaching, we know what we need to do, yet instead of sitting down at the computer or getting out the paint and paintbrush, we decide to do a load of laundry. The laundry leads to cleaning out the basement, which leads to rearranging the cupboards, and before we know it, the day is gone and we haven't made any progress on our project. Yes, this is the dreaded procrastination, and it strikes all of us at one point or another. Whether you experience procrastination only rarely or its your constant companion, curing your procrastination is probably a goal that is relatively high on your list.

很多人可能都會有這種感受,我們要開始做一件事情,清楚要怎麼做,截止日期也即將到來,但我們就是呆坐在電腦前,或者又拿出油漆和刷子,或突然決定大清洗,幹到一半又想清掃地下室、整理櫥櫃。當意識到沒時間後,一天又這麼過去了,而正事沒有一點進度。這就是可怕的拖延症,它不時地困擾着我們。不論你只是偶爾的拖延,或者拖延症是你的“親密同伴”,治療拖延症都應該刻不容緩。

Most procrastinators have tried to beat it in the past, and found that it's tougher than they anticipated. That's because procrastination doesn't have a single cause, nor does it have a single solution. We procrastinate for different reasons that may be related to our personality, our schedules or the specific project we're working on. You may procrastinate at work for different reasons than you procrastinate going to the gym or cleaning the house, for example. To beat procrastination forever, you need to identify what is going on in your brain when you're putting off work, and how you can change the way you think. The following ten tips will help you get more acquainted with your habit of procrastinating, and give you useful tools to change your life.

許多拖延症患者肯定嘗試過改變,但過程遠不及他們所想的那麼簡單。這是因爲拖延症不單單隻由一個原因造成,也並不只有一個解決方法。拖延症有很多原因,有關個人性格、時間計劃表、不同任務。比起推遲去體育館、清理房間,你可能會想出更多的原因拖延工作。若想要永久克服拖延症,你需要認清,當你推遲工作時,你的腦海裏在想些什麼,你如何才能改變這種思維方式。下面的十條小貼士會幫助你清楚地認知拖延症,提出實用的方法,幫助改變你的一生。

tify the Root

10.找到病根

治療拖延症的10個妙方(上)

Most of the time, procrastination isn't a time-management issue, it has a deeper root cause. Take a look at one of the areas in your life where you tend to procrastinate, and think about how you feel when you're experiencing it. Are you fearful of how your life may change if you actually accomplish the task? Are you terrified that you will make mistakes or that your work won't lead to a perfect project? What anxieties are attached to the project, and where do they come from? Are these fears different than ones you experience in relation to a different task you often put off? You may not be able to answer the questions perfectly at first, but just thinking about them is a great first step.

很多時候,拖延症和時間管理關係並不大,而是另有根源。試回想下,當你想要拖延一件事情的時候,你是怎樣的感受。是在畏懼當你完成這項工作時生活發生的改變嗎?還是害怕會造成失誤或是不能完美的完成嗎?你有怎樣的顧慮,它們都源自哪裏?這種恐懼是否根據任務的不同而不同呢?你可能一時想不到如何回答這些問題,但試着想一下吧,邁出良好的第一步。

When you are experiencing fear or anxiety that leads to procrastination, your most likely reaction is to deny it and push it away.

當你的恐懼或者焦慮引起了拖延症,你極有可能否認、推開它。

That's why we busy ourselves with mundane and distracting tasks that don't really need to get done. We don't want to think about the fear or anxiety, so we train our minds to focus on busywork. Even if you are not ready to identify why you're experiencing fear about this particular project, you can take the step of at least acknowledging that you're afraid. Don't push it away. Sit with your fear, give it some attention, and be fully present with it. It may seem counterintuitive, but the more you acknowledge and feel your fear, the less of a hold it will have on you.

所以,你假裝自己很忙,做一些簡單、無關緊要的事情。你不想去考慮那些恐懼和焦慮,所以只是做一些消磨時間的工作。就算你不清楚面對這項工作爲何會恐懼,但至少要承認,你害怕這項工作。不要把它推到一邊,正視自己的恐懼,有耐心一些。這可能看起來違背常規,但你越是承認和感知自己的恐懼,它越不會控制你。

t Changing Habits

9.改善習慣

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Procrastination is a habit, plain and simple, and the way to change is to start replacing it with other, healthier habits. Even after you've identified the fears associated with your procrastination and learn to accept them, you still need to break the habits that have taken hold over years or even decades. Changing a habit as daunting as procrastination can seem like an overwhelming task, and taking on this task may trigger even more desire to procrastinate. It can become a cycle that is quite difficult to break, especially if you are always looking at the big picture.

拖延症是一種常見的習慣,想要改變就得養成其它一些好習慣。即使你已經試着接受拖延症帶來的恐懼,但仍要改掉這種紮根已久的習慣。改掉拖延症似乎看起來不太可能,而且有時會適得其反。這會形成一個難以攻破的惡性循環,如果你總是注重全局,忽略細節。

The key to breaking the procrastination habit is to chunk projects into small, manageable pieces. What is the first thing you usually do when getting ready to start a large project? If you're a procrastinator, you probably tend to think about all the deadlines you need to meet, all the words you need to write, or all the pieces that need to be included in your presentation. It's overwhelming, and it makes complete sense that you don't know where to start and therefore don't start at all. Instead of looking at the big picture at the beginning of a project, just look at the first task that needs to be done. Maybe that's writing one intro piece, or checking out some books to be referenced in your PowerPoint presentation. Once you've identified the first task, it becomes much easier to take that first step. Forming the habit of chunking up projects every single time will lead to less anxiety, which will then lead to less procrastination.

改掉拖延症的關鍵,是把工作分解成小的易完成的碎片。當你準備開始這項工作,你第一件事都會幹什麼?如果你是一個拖延症患者,也許你會思考任務的截止期限,需要寫哪些東西,以及所有在展示中需要的東西。一切都撲面而來,讓你措手不及,完全不知從何下手,所以乾脆什麼都不做。不要在剛開始就想着全部,只需考慮第一步要幹些什麼。也許可以構想一個引言,或者看看展示中需要用到哪些參考書籍。只要清楚首先要幹什麼,就比開始第一步要容易的多。每次養成習慣,把一項工作劃分爲許多小事情,就會少很多焦慮,不再拖延。

ease Focus

8.提高注意力

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We often procrastinate because we become overwhelmed with too many projects and don't know where to start. Are you the type that never says no to anything?

我們會拖延,是因爲有太多事情要做,卻不知從何開始。你是那種不懂得拒絕的人嗎?你是那種不斷幫助別人,但卻知道自己沒有時間完成所有事情嗎?

Are you continuously offering to help others even though you know you don't have the time to get it all done? Do you request too many projects at work, then get stressed when you realize you've overcommitted? Many people procrastinate not because they are poor time-managers, but because they simply can't complete everything they commit to, no matter how skilled they are at managing the time they have.

你是否請纓很多事情,但當你意識到事情太多時又會變得焦慮不安?許多人拖延,並不是因爲他們不善於管理時間,只是因爲他們不能完成他們承諾的所有事情,不論他們多善於安排時間。

One of the keys to beating procrastination is being able to focus on the project at hand, which is extremely difficult to do when you've got ten other projects all clamoring for attention. The first step in this situation is learning how to say no and being honest with yourself about how much you can actually accomplish. The second step, once you have your to-do list pared down, is to choose one task and make a commitment to focuses on it until it's finished. No more hopping from project to project getting a little bit done here and little bit done there. You need to train your brain to focus exclusively on one task and resist the temptation to multi-task. Multi-tasking is not your friend when you're trying to break your procrastination habit! A helpful tool is to set a timer on your phone or watch and commit to no distractions for a certain period of time. You may start out with only five or ten minutes, but you can always build up from there.

打敗拖延症的一個關鍵就是聚焦手頭的事情。你還有很多事情要做時,就會分散你的注意力,很難再做別的。首先,學會說不,對自己誠實,清楚我們自己實際能完成多少。第二步,在要做的清單上選擇一件事情,集中注意力完成。不要想着這件做一點,那件做一點。你需要鍛鍊你的大腦,集中注意力在一件事情上,抵抗多項工作的誘惑。當你想要改掉拖延症時,同時做很多工作對你很不利。一個很有幫助的方法是在手機或手錶上設置一個計時器,在這段時間裏心無旁騖地工作。剛開始也許只能堅持五分鐘或十分鐘,但之後你可以不斷增加時間。

Start

7.學會開始

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Forward momentum is often the key to getting a project started, and for that momentum to get rolling, you have to do something. It doesn't matter what that something is, only that it involves forward progress. Have to clean the entire house before the in-laws come over for dinner? Start by simply picking up the socks that are on the living room floor. Need to write a 3000-word presentation for the meeting tomorrow morning? Start by pulling up a blank word document on your computer. Determine the very first action needed to get the project completed, no matter how small it may seem, and just do it. This makes the task seem more real and gives you that little boost of accomplishment you need to keep going. You're turning a hypothetical 'need to do' into a concrete 'am doing', and that can often make all the different in the world.

向前的動力是我們開始一項工作的關鍵。爲了這個動力,你必須做一些事情。什麼內容不重要,只要它能促使我們前進。親戚們來訪之前必須清掃整間房子?那先撿起臥室地板上的襪子。你需要爲明早的展示寫篇三千字的文章?那先在電腦上建立一個空文檔。確定第一步,不論事情大小,儘管開始吧!這會讓你的任務更加真實,給予你做下去的動力。將“需要做什麼”這些假定的事情變爲“正在做”,將會有很大不同。

For most of us, it's easier not even to start a project than it is to leave one partially completed.

對很多人而言,“不開始”要比“還剩一些”簡單的多。

The sense of urgency that is missing when we haven't started yet returns as soon as we take that first small step. Have you noticed that the hardest thing to do when you want to work out in the morning is simply getting out of bed? Once you're out, everything else seems to fall in place, and before you know it, you're dressed and ready for a jog. That's the beauty of just doing something—once you start, it becomes much easier just to keep going.

我們還未開始時並無緊迫感,然而一旦走出了第一步,緊迫感便會席捲而來。你注意過如果早晨想要完成工作,最難的事情是起牀嗎?只要早起,所有事情都會有條不紊地進行,在你意識到這一切之前,你已經做好跑步的準備了。這就是開始之美,只要開始了,堅持下去就會容易很多。

ve Any Obstacles

6.消除阻礙

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What's getting in your way at the start of your project? No matter how small it may seem, it could be just enough to trigger procrastination. Before you start any project, you need to remove your obstacles and free yourself to perform the task unencumbered. What does this look like? Let's say the task you are putting off is writing a report for work. Every time you start the task, you get distracted by checking new emails as they pop up, straightening your desk that always seems untidy and getting lost researching links to include in your presentation as they always tend to lead you to more articles you want to read.

你的攔路虎是什麼?不管它有多不起眼,都很可能會引起拖延症。在開始任何工作之前,你需要消除阻礙,釋放自己,輕鬆完成工作。這到底是怎麼樣?舉個例子,你一直拖延要寫的工作報告。每次要開始寫時,又要檢查彈出的新郵件、整理髒亂的桌子、搜索展示報告需要的資料鏈接、又會閱讀更多文章,這些都會使你分心。

The trick is to remove those obstacles before you even begin your task. In the above scenario, you would start by not even opening your email program before beginning your report. If it's too much of a temptation, write your report from a location with no internet access. You'd next make sure your desk was cleaned before you began your task, or move to a clear space to work. Finally, research all of your links beforehand and have them handy to insert into your presentation. When you remove obstacles, you're setting yourself up for success and limiting the distractions that always seem to get in your way. It's always more difficult to regain focus than it is to retain it, so limiting anything that may interfere is a key strategy that should help you remain on-task.

祕訣是在開始工作之前,消除這些障礙。上面提到的例子中,若要開始寫報告,你就不應該打開郵箱。如果還是有太多誘惑,那就找個沒有網絡的地方。接下來,開始工作前,確認你的桌子是否整齊,或者找個乾淨的工作環境。然後,提前找好所有需要的資料連接,插入到展示報告裏。當消除這些障礙後,你已經開始邁向成功,消除了那些擋道的阻礙。重新聚集註意力遠要比保持注意力困難的多。所以,消除阻礙是不拖延任務的核心戰略。