時間利用四法則：給更重要的事留出更多時間

There are many important things in life. Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. Reading, learning and growing as person.
生活中有很多重要的事情。你的家庭、朋友，抑或你的愛好。鍛鍊身體，保持健康。閱讀、學習、成長。

But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.
但是找出時間做重要的事情並不總是很容易。有時你會覺得時間不夠用。

But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your time. In this article I’ll share some of the most effective strategies I have found for doing so and for shaking yourself out of a rut and reconsider how you actually spend your time.
但即便你沒有意識到，還是有很多方法能夠讓你更好地利用時間。在這篇文章中，我會和大家一起分享利用時間的一些最有效的策略， 讓你發生改變，重新思考如何利用自己的時間。

1. Focus.
集中注意力

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work on things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or other unhelpful reasons. To become more focused:
對生活中重要的事情缺乏注意力會讓你很容易把時間或精力浪費在漫無目的的行爲或不是很重要的事情上，而你做這些事情往往是出於習慣或其他藉口。要想變得專心：

Write down your top 4 priorities where you see them every day. To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you. So think about it and reduce what is important in your life at this moment to the top 4 most important priorities. Write those four things down on two notes and post one in your workspace and one your night table.
在你每天能看到的地方寫下四個優先事項。要想把注意力放在正確的地方，很有必要每天提醒自己什麼東西對你來說是最重要的。想一想，然後把此刻生活中最重要的事情縮減到4個。把這四件事寫到兩張便條上，一張貼到你工作的地方，一張貼到你的牀頭櫃上。

Reduce distractions. Ask yourself: what are the 3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way? Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by shutting the door to your office, by putting your phone on silent mode for an hour at a time or by having notifications for email shut off.
減少令你分心的事情。問問自己：哪三件是最常見的讓你沒法專心工作的事情？想一想怎樣才能讓這些事情不讓你分心。可能是關上辦公室的門，或把手機調成一小時的靜音模式，或關閉電子郵件的通知。

Find balance. If you just work and work you will quickly become unfocused and the longer the week drags on the more tired you become. To work smarter try using a timer – on your cell phone or use an egg-timer – and set it for 45 minutes. Then put in a drawer or somewhere where you can’t see it.
找到平衡點。如果你一直工作，你很快就無法集中注意力。工作的時間越長，你就越感覺到累。工作時也有技巧，可以使用定時器——可以用手機上自帶的，或是雞蛋計時器——把時間設爲45分鐘，然後把它放到抽屜裏或看不見的地方。

During those 45 minutes dive in and immerse yourself in the no-distraction zone and your work until the clock rings. Then set you timer for a 15 minute break where you get away from your work space if possible. Take a walk, go for a snack or have a conversation about something else than work.
在這45分鐘的時間裏，讓自己沉浸在無干擾的環境中，一直工作直到計時器響起。再把計時器設爲15分鐘，在這段時間內休息一下，有可能的話還可以離開工作區。散散步，拿點兒零食，或和別人聊會兒天，這會兒就別談工作的事情了。

2. Simplify.
簡化生活

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time is to set limits. Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful limits for:
簡化生活、爲生活騰出時間最簡單的一個方法是設定限度。你可以在下面的這幾個關鍵地方設定限度：

Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.
每天的信息攝入量。少看一些博客、新聞、雜誌、圖書俱樂部、播客、電視等裏面的內容，只看那些你真的能從中受益的內容。

Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.
電子郵件。每天僅拿出一小段時間來檢查和處理電子郵件。而不是每天檢查10次或更多次。

Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this year.
社交活動。爲你放學後或下班後要進行的社交活動列一張清單。也許你現在參加的俱樂部或活動沒有以前那麼有趣或有益。也許你今年想重新調整事情的優先級別，想把注意力集中在別的事情上。

3. Minimize or eliminate.
儘量減少或消除一些事情。

What else can you eliminate or minimize besides the things listed above? Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some online forum you hang out on a lot?
除了上面列出的這些事情，還有什麼事情需要你儘量減少或消除的？上班或上學時的會議？去Reddit或其他網上論壇的時間？

Question and reconsider your own habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it what you usually do. See if you want make changes to make more room for things you would honestly get more out of.
不要因爲習慣而沿着舊的軌道前進，要定期質疑並重新考慮自己的習慣。 看看自己是否想改變一下，騰出時間做一些能讓自己受益更多的事情。

4. Find unnoticed free time in your day.
找出每天被忽視的空閒時間。

One final tip. There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year. What will you use your such time for this year? Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or listen to audio books while waiting for a meeting to start or while you are out driving your car.
最後一個小貼士。每年經常有不少戶外旅行的時間或等待時間。你會如何利用這些時間？也許你想在火車上多看點兒書，在等待開會或開車時聽會兒有聲書。

Even if you only have 20 minutes of commuting time each day then you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.
即使你每天上下班在路上的時間僅有20分鐘，那你在一年內還是有好多時間可以用一種新的方式來度過。