試試欺騙你的大腦來對抗拖延症

It’s just a few days into the new year. How are you doing on your resolutions? Wait: Have you even started on them yet?
新的一年剛過去幾天，你的新年計劃完成得如何？等等：你開始實施這些計劃了嗎？

Recognizing that the hardest part of many tasks is beginning them at all, two researchers have sought to determine whether certain outside cues can jump-start us toward reaching our goals. Such cues, which manipulate our perception of time, are simple yet effective, according to a recent article in the Journal of Consumer Research.
由於認識到對於許多任務，最困難的部分就是開始執行，兩名研究人員試圖確定，一些外部提示能否快速啓動我們的計劃，讓我們向着目標邁進。根據《消費者研究學刊》(The Journal of Consumer Research)最近的一篇文章，這種提示能夠操控我們對時間的感知，簡單、有效。

In one study, conducted in 2010, the researchers asked two groups of farmers in India to set up a bank account and accumulate a certain amount of money by a deadline, offering extra money as an incentive. One group was approached in June, with a deadline of December that year. The second group was approached in July with a deadline of January the next year.
在2010年的一項研究中，研究人員讓印度的兩組農民開設一個銀行賬戶，並在截止日期之前積攢一定的資金，而且還給他們提供了額外的資金作爲獎勵。研究人員於6月找到其中一組農民，給他們設定的截止日期是當年12月，又於7月找到另一組人，給他們設定的截止日期是次年1月。

The farmers in the first group were more likely to set up an account immediately, even though both groups had the same amount of time. That’s because the deadline was in the same year as the assignment and therefore seemed more like the present, said Yanping Tu, a Ph.D. candidate at the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago. She performed the research along with Dilip Soman, a marketing professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. (Lest you think that only farmers in India would benefit from this approach, the two researchers also found similar results among undergraduates and M.B.A. students in North America.)
第一組中的農民更傾向於快速開設一個賬戶，儘管兩組人擁有的時間一樣多。這是因爲，截止日期與佈置任務的時間在同一年，所以看起來更接近現在，在芝加哥大學布斯商學院(University of Chicago Booth School of Business)攻讀博士學位的塗豔蘋說。她與多倫多大學羅特曼管理學院(Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto)的營銷學教授迪利普·索曼(Dilip Soman)一起進行了這項研究。（兩位研究者在北美的本科生和MBA學生中，也得出了相似的結果，以免你認爲只有印度農民會受益於這種辦法。）

So the inventors of the New Year’s resolution were on the right track when they had people set new goals on Jan. 1 rather than Dec. 31. But clearly that’s not enough, since the past is littered with unachieved resolutions. Fortunately, there are other time-related cues that can give people that in-the-present feeling.
所以，如果讓人們在1月1日，而非12月31日來設定新目標，那麼新年計劃的制定者就走上了正確軌道。但是，這顯然還不夠，因爲過去充斥着太多未完成的計劃。幸運的是，還有一些與時間相關的提示，能讓人產生活在當下的感覺。

In a separate study, the researchers also found that people were “more likely to start working on a task whose deadline is in the current month than in the next month,” even though the number of days to finish the task was the same, Ms. Tu said.
研究人員還在另一項研究中發現，“與截止日期在下個月的任務相比，人們更傾向於開始執行截止日期在當月的任務”，儘管完成任務的天數一樣，塗豔蘋說。

Color can also influence the perception of time, she said. She and Professor Soman found that simply by coding a stretch of calendar days in the same color — say, blue — with an assignment occurring on the first “blue” day and the deadline set for the last “blue” day, people were more likely to complete the tasks. Once again, this serves to make the future deadline seem more like the present. (Managers, are you listening? Get out your crayons.)
她說，顏色也會影響人們對時間的感知。她和索曼發現，僅僅通過給一系列日曆天標上同樣的顏色——比如藍色——在第一個“藍色”的日子分配任務，截止日期設在最後一個“藍色”的日子，人們完成這些任務的可能性就會增加。所以，這也能讓未來的截止日期顯得更加迫近。（管理者們，你們在聽嗎？請拿出你們的彩筆。）

Research into procrastination has noted that people have much less concern about their future selves than their present selves — and are willing to sell their future selves down the river for the sake of present ease. But when the present marches into the future, and we are confronted with the work that our past selves refused to do, we pay the price in unmet deadlines, all-nighters and general torment.
對拖延症的研究指出，與未來的自己相比，人們對現在的自己的關注程度要高很多——而且爲了目前的舒適，他們願意背叛未來的自己。但是，當現在走向未來，當我們面對着過去的自己所拒絕完成的工作時，我們就要在沒完成任務的最後期限付出代價，通宵達旦，忍受折磨。

So if a few little tricks can manipulate us into thinking that time is of the essence, why not give them a try?
因此，既然一些小竅門能讓我們意識到時間的寶貴性，爲什麼不試一試？