雙語閱讀：別讓他人浪費你的時間

摘要：關鍵所在，是不要將你的主張侷限於利己方面(“我根本沒時間處理這種沒意義的事兒”)，而要將其擴展爲對於公司和共同任務的投入。“我想要確保我們所有人都發揮了最大的效率，”你可以這樣說，“這就是爲什麼我覺得確信我們尊重彼此的時間非常重要。”最終，這就能成爲別人難以抗拒的有力信息了。

We’re all too busy, spending our days in back-to-back meetings and our nights feverishly respondingto emails. (Adam Grant, a famously responsiveWharton professor, told me that on an “averageday” he’ll spend 3-4 hours answering messages.)That’s why people who waste our time have becomethe scourge of modern business life, hampering ourproductivity and annoying us in the process.

白天要開一個接一個的會議，晚上則是狂熱地回郵件，我們都太忙了。(Adam Grant是一位能夠及時回覆的沃頓商學院教授，他告訴我，他“平均每天”要花上3到4個小時迴應信息。)這就是爲何浪費我們時間的人，如今已經成爲現代商業生活的害羣之馬，既妨礙了我們的生產力，也讓我們在此過程中備受其擾。

Sometimes it’s hard to escape, especially when the time-waster is your boss (one friend recallsa supervisor who “called meetings just to tell long, rambling stories about her college years” andwould “chastise anyone who tried to leave and actually perform work”). But in many othersituations, you can take steps to regain control of your time and your schedule. Here’s how.

有時，這實在難以避免，尤其是當浪費你時間的人是你老闆的時候(我的一位朋友想起了一名主管，他“召集大家開會，僅僅是爲了講他大學時期的那些又長又雜亂的故事”，而且他會“責罵那些想要試圖離開去認真工作的人”)。但在其他很多情況下，你能夠採取措施，重新掌控你自己的時間和日程。你可以這樣做：

State your preferred method of communication. For years, millennials have famously eschewedphone calls — but almost everyone has a communication preference of some sort. ReginaWalton, a social media and community manager, told me that she, too, hates talking on thephone, a habit she developed after years of living abroad; email is almost always better for her,as “I can respond when I have time and usually am very fast to reply.” You can often limitaggravation (and harassment via multiple channels) by proactively informing colleagues aboutthe best way to reach you, whether it’s via phone calls, texts, emails, or even tweets.

明確你更喜歡的溝通方式。多年來，千禧一代是公認的不愛接打電話，但幾乎所有人都有某一種更偏好的溝通渠道。Regina Walton(一位社交媒體與社區經理)告訴我，她也同樣討厭在電話裏交談，這一習慣源於她多年的海外生活經歷。對她來說，電子郵件無疑總是更好，因爲“我能夠在有時間的時候回覆它們，而且我的回覆速度通常很快。”你能夠通過主動地告訴同事聯繫你的最佳方式，來減少傷腦筋的情況(以及多種渠道所導致的煩擾)，無論這一方式是電話、信息、電子郵件還是推特。

Require an agenda for meetings. Pointless or rambling meetings account for a disproportionateshare of workplace time leakage. Here’s a solution: insist on seeing an agenda before youcommit to attending any meeting, “to ensure I can contribute fully.” You can model the practiceby writing an agenda for any meetings you chair, and offering to share the template withothers. In fact, you could push to establish company norms that include best practices such aseliminating generic “updates” (which can usually be emailed in advance) and clearly indicatingthe decisions that need to be made as a result of the meeting. “Discuss expansion strategy”would be a murky and perhaps unproductive agenda item; “Decide whether to open a Tampaoffice” can guide the conversation much more clearly.

要求一份會議議程。不得要領或是散漫的會議佔據了很大一部分的工作時間浪費。解決方式如下：在確認參加任何會議之前，堅持先看議程，“以確保我能夠全心投入”。你能夠通過爲你所主持的會議寫好議程，以及主動與他人共享這一模式來進行實踐。實際上，你能夠推動公司常規的建立，讓這些常規包括最佳的實踐方法，比如說去掉一般的“更新內容”(這些內容往往能夠通過電郵提前通知)和清楚地表明在會議最終要做出的決定。“討論擴張戰略”可能會是一個模糊、甚至無成果的議程條目;“決定是否在坦帕新開一個辦事處”則能夠更加清晰地引導對話。

Police guest lists. Meetings are also dangerous when their list of invitees has been wantonlyconstructed, filled with irrelevant people and lacking decisionmakers with the authority to getthings moving. If you’ve been invited, ask two critical questions. First, do I need to be there?Looking at the agenda (which you’ve insisted they provide), you can gauge whether your inputwould be valuable or if you can just find out details afterwards. Second, will the (other) rightpeople be there? If you’re theoretically deciding on the Tampa expansion strategy and theexecutive in charge of Southeast operations isn’t in the room, it’s likely you’ll have to repeatthe whole process again for her benefit. Make sure you understand who the realdecisionmakers are, and don’t waste your time (or other people’s) until they can be present andparticipate.

認真關注與會人員名單。當被邀請人的名單是隨意擬定，充斥着不相關的人、卻又缺少擁有足夠權限的決策者來推動進程的時候，這種會議是很危險的。如果你被邀請了，問問兩個關鍵性問題。首先，我需要來這兒嗎?看看議程(這一你堅持讓他們提供的東西)，你就能夠估計你的參與是否具有價值或是你能否在事後確定細節。其次，其他合適的人會參加嗎?假設你們正在對坦帕的擴張戰略做出決定，而管理東南地區運營的主管卻並不在，那爲她着想，你很可能必須向她重複整個流程。確保你知道真正的決策者是誰，如果他們不能夠到場並參加會議，那就別浪費你自己(或是其他人)的時間了。

Force others to prepare. We all hope and expect that others will prepare for meetings with risingly often, they don’t. Even when they’re requesting the meeting, they may have donevery little research and waste our time with extremely basic questions they could haveGoogled. Instead, we need to force others to prepare in advance. “Force” is a harsh word, andthat’s intentional ­— because it’s not burdensome for people who would have preparedanyway, yet it effectively weeds out the uncommitted. Debbie Horovitch, a specialist inGoogle+ Hangouts, has long offered complimentary initial strategy sessions, but realizedthat some people were taking advantage with irrelevant discussions.

強制他人提前做好準備。我們都希望並且預期別人會和我們一起爲會議做準備。但往往出人意料的是，他們並不會這麼做。即便是他們自己要求開會，他們也可能只做了非常少的研究，並且以那些在網上搜索就能夠得到答案的、極其基礎的問題來浪費我們的時間。因此比起放任自流，我們必須強制別人提前做準備。“強制”是一個聽起來很刺耳的詞，而選擇這個詞是故意的，因爲對於總是會提前準備的人而言，這算不上負擔，但它能夠有效地淘汰那些不負責任的人。Debbie Horovitch(Google+視頻羣聊項目的專家)，一直有提供免費的初始型戰略會議，但卻發現有些人利用其進行無關的討論。

She’s adopted a new policy: “Everyone who wants a call/chat with me must fill in anapplication” with specific questions about what will be discussed. “Now that I’ve set myboundaries and expectations of the people I work with, it’s much easier to identify the timewasters.” Similarly, when people request informational interviews with me, I’ve begun sendingthem a document with links to articles I’ve written about their area of interest (becoming aconsultant or speaker, reinventing their careers, etc.) and asking them to get back in touchafter they’ve read them to see what questions they still have. Most never get back to me, whichis just as well ­— I only want to speak with people who are interested and committed.

因此，她開始採取一種新的策略：“所有想要給我打電話或是與我交談的人，必須填寫一份申請表”，說明將要討論的具體問題。“現在我已經設下了界限，以及對於與我一起工作的人的期望，因此我更加容易辨別那些浪費我時間的人。”相同的，當人們想要與我進行信息調查面談的時候，我開始給他們發送一份文件，文件裏包含了那些關於他們感興趣的領域，我所寫的文章的鏈接(比如說成爲一名諮詢顧問或是發言人，重塑職業生涯等等。)，並且請他們在看完這些文章之後再聯繫我，看看他們還有什麼問題。大多數人都再也沒有找過我，當然這也無妨，畢竟我只想和那些真正感興趣並且投入其中的人交談。

Will you face blow-back by toughening up and putting clear boundaries around your time?Inevitably. But you may also find that people start to respect you ­—and your time ­— a lot of us wish we could control our schedules better. If you’re willing to step up and arguefor smarter policies (like requiring all meetings to have agendas), that benefits everyone. Thekey is to frame your advocacy not as purely self-interested (“I don’t have time for thisnonsense”), but instead as a manifestation of your commitment to the company and yourshared mission. “I want to make sure we’re all as productive as possible,” you could say, “andthat’s why I think it’s important to make sure we’re respecting each other’s time.” In the end,that’s a hard message to resist.

你會因爲強硬起來，給自己的時間設定清楚的界限而不得不面對非議嗎?這當然不可避免。但你也會發現，別人開始更加尊重你和你的時間。我們中的大多數人都希望我們能夠更好地控制自己的日程。如果你願意採取措施、尋求更明智的策略(比如說要求所有會議都設置議程)，就能夠造福每個人。關鍵所在，是不要將你的主張侷限於利己方面(“我根本沒時間處理這種沒意義的事兒”)，而要將其擴展爲對於公司和共同任務的投入。“我想要確保我們所有人都發揮了最大的效率，”你可以這樣說，“這就是爲什麼我覺得確信我們尊重彼此的時間非常重要。”最終，這就能成爲別人難以抗拒的有力信息了。

　　時間的價值

We have more compromises,but less time;

我們妥協更多，時間更少;

Treasure Every Moment That You Have! Yesterday Is History. Tomorrow Is Mystery.

珍惜你所擁有的每一刻時間。昨日已成歷史，而明日仍是個謎。

Today is a gift. That's why it's called “the present”

今天則是珍貴的禮物，那是它爲何被稱做『禮物』的原因。

To realize the value of one year:

要想知道一年的價值

Ask a student who has failed a final exam.

那就去問期末考試不及格的學生。

To realize the value of one month:

要想知道一個月的價值

Ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.

那就去問生了早產兒的母親。

To realize the value of one week:

要想知道一週的價值

Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.

那就去問週報的編輯

To realize the value of one hour:

要想知道一小時的價值

Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.

那就去問等待見面的戀人

To realize the value of one minute:

要想知道一分鐘的價值

Ask a person who has missed the train, bus or plane.

那就去問誤了火車、汽車或者飛機的人

To realize the value of one second:

要想知道一秒鐘的價值

Ask a person who has survived an accident.

那就去問大難不死的人

To realaize the value of one millisecond:

要想知道一毫秒的價值

Ask the person who has won a silver medal in the Olympics.

那就去問奧運會獲得銀牌的人

Time waits for no one.

時間不等人

Treasure every moment you have

你擁有的每一刻都要珍惜。