健康生活:傷不起的拖延症

As the new semester begins, millions of college students across the country are trying hard to remember how best to write a paper–or, more likely, how best to delay that paper.

新學期伊始，全國數以萬計的高校學生都努力謹記如何交出一篇精彩的論文，或者，大多數人都在想如何儘量拖延時間。

Procrastination is the thief of time and a lot of students suffer from it. They can spend whole days in the library doing nothing but staring into space, eating snacks, surfing the Internet, watching videos and looking at their pretty peers sitting around them, who, most likely, are doing nothing either.

拖延症就像偷竊時光的小偷，令許多學生深受其害。他們整天窩在圖書館裏無所事事，只是發呆、吃零食、上網、看視頻或是看看自己身邊漂亮的同學，這些人也大都無所事事。

Paralyzed by their habit to procrastinate, they write micro blogs about their fears, asking their online friends if they sometimes have the same issue. But this does nothing to break the spell.

拖延習慣令人麻痹無力，他們寫微博來表達自己的恐懼，詢問網友是否有時也會遭遇相同狀況。然而，這種做法無濟於事，無法打破拖延症的魔咒。

According to a recent report by the BBC, 95 percent of us procrastinate at some point and 20 percent of the world's population are chronic procrastinators, complicating their lives with their incessant delaying of tasks.

BBC最新的一份報告顯示，95%的人只是偶爾拖延，20%的人則是習慣性拖延，不斷拖延工作令他們的生活變得一團糟。

The figures are dismal. Procrastinators are less wealthy, less healthy and less happy than those who don't delay. Just look at Hamlet, who is perhaps the world's most famous procrastinator. He is also a university student, and his crippling indecision leads to tragedy on an ePic scale.

這些數據十分可怕。與旁人相比，拖延症患者囊中羞澀，健康堪憂，苦惱也更多。來看看哈姆萊特吧，他可能是世界上最著名的拖延症患者了。他也是一名大學生，而極度優柔寡斷釀成了悲劇史詩。

Procrastinators like to find excuses to justify their behavior, but BBC columnist Rowan Pelling says they are all wrong.

儘管拖延症患者喜歡爲自己的行爲找藉口，但是BBC專欄作家羅曼•佩林則表示他們都錯了。

Many procrastinators tell themselves they are perfectionists who work best under pressure. Pelling says this is nonsense, as work done at the last minute is more likely to have mistakes than work done on time.

許多拖延症患者都會告訴自己，他們是在壓力之下才能高效工作的完美主義者。佩林稱這完全是胡說八道，因爲與按時完成工作相比，拖到最後更容易出錯。

She says the behavior of procrastinators often makes them feel flustered and ashamed, inconveniences others, and annoys loved ones.

她說，拖延症患者的行爲常常令他們感到慌亂和慚愧，令他人不安，也惹惱了愛人。

Pelling also points out that procrastination feels particularly delinquent in a society that views swift action as commendable, and, at times, even as a moral good.

佩林還指出，在一個盛讚雷厲風行、有時甚至以此爲道德標準的社會中，拖延症尤其令人產生過失之感。

Fortunately, social scientists have thrown their weight behind efforts to understand this behavioral flaw and offer strategies to control it.

好在社會科學家們已經聯手致力於破解這種行爲缺陷，並提出一系列防控策略。

Piers Steel, a Canadian social scientist and author of The Procrastination Equation, believes humankind is "designed" to procrastinate. Nevertheless, he suggests a couple of good ways to get through the task at hand.

加拿大社會科學家、《拖延等式》一書的作者皮爾斯•斯蒂爾認爲，人類生來患有拖延症。不過，他提供了幾種儘快完成手頭工作的好方法。

The first one is obvious: Break the task down into small pieces and work your way through them methodically.

第一種方法顯而易見：把你的任務分成小份，並用你自己的方法有條不紊地完成它們。

The second is ingenious: Give a trusted friend a sum of money and tell them that if you don't complete the task you have undertaken by a specific time, they can keep it or donate it to a cause you hate.

第二種方法十分巧妙：給你信得過的朋友一筆錢並告訴他們，如果你不能在規定時間裏完成手頭的工作，他們可以歸爲己有或是把錢捐給那些令你不爽的事情。