治疗拖延症的10个妙方(上)

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.

很多人可能都会有这种感受，我们要开始做一件事情，清楚要怎么做，截止日期也即将到来，但我们就是呆坐在电脑前，或者又拿出油漆和刷子，或突然决定大清洗，干到一半又想清扫地下室、整理橱柜。当意识到没时间后，一天又这么过去了，而正事没有一点进度。这就是可怕的拖延症，它不时地困扰着我们。不论你只是偶尔的拖延，或者拖延症是你的“亲密同伴”，治疗拖延症都应该刻不容缓。

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.

许多拖延症患者肯定尝试过改变，但过程远不及他们所想的那么简单。这是因为拖延症不单单只由一个原因造成，也并不只有一个解决方法。拖延症有很多原因，有关个人性格、时间计划表、不同任务。比起推迟去体育馆、清理房间，你可能会想出更多的原因拖延工作。若想要永久克服拖延症，你需要认清，当你推迟工作时，你的脑海里在想些什么，你如何才能改变这种思维方式。下面的十条小贴士会帮助你清楚地认知拖延症，提出实用的方法，帮助改变你的一生。

tify the Root

10.找到病根

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.

很多时候，拖延症和时间管理关系并不大，而是另有根源。试回想下，当你想要拖延一件事情的时候，你是怎样的感受。是在畏惧当你完成这项工作时生活发生的改变吗？还是害怕会造成失误或是不能完美的完成吗？你有怎样的顾虑，它们都源自哪里？这种恐惧是否根据任务的不同而不同呢？你可能一时想不到如何回答这些问题，但试着想一下吧，迈出良好的第一步。

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

当你的恐惧或者焦虑引起了拖延症，你极有可能否认、推开它。

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，你假装自己很忙，做一些简单、无关紧要的事情。你不想去考虑那些恐惧和焦虑，所以只是做一些消磨时间的工作。就算你不清楚面对这项工作为何会恐惧，但至少要承认，你害怕这项工作。不要把它推到一边，正视自己的恐惧，有耐心一些。这可能看起来违背常规，但你越是承认和感知自己的恐惧，它越不会控制你。

t Changing Habits

9.改善习惯

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.

拖延症是一种常见的习惯，想要改变就得养成其它一些好习惯。即使你已经试着接受拖延症带来的恐惧，但仍要改掉这种扎根已久的习惯。改掉拖延症似乎看起来不太可能，而且有时会适得其反。这会形成一个难以攻破的恶性循环，如果你总是注重全局，忽略细节。

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.

改掉拖延症的关键，是把工作分解成小的易完成的碎片。当你准备开始这项工作，你第一件事都会干什么？如果你是一个拖延症患者，也许你会思考任务的截止期限，需要写哪些东西，以及所有在展示中需要的东西。一切都扑面而来，让你措手不及，完全不知从何下手，所以干脆什么都不做。不要在刚开始就想着全部，只需考虑第一步要干些什么。也许可以构想一个引言，或者看看展示中需要用到哪些参考书籍。只要清楚首先要干什么，就比开始第一步要容易的多。每次养成习惯，把一项工作划分为许多小事情，就会少很多焦虑，不再拖延。

ease Focus

8.提高注意力

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?

我们会拖延，是因为有太多事情要做，却不知从何开始。你是那种不懂得拒绝的人吗？你是那种不断帮助别人，但却知道自己没有时间完成所有事情吗？

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.

你是否请缨很多事情，但当你意识到事情太多时又会变得焦虑不安？许多人拖延，并不是因为他们不善于管理时间，只是因为他们不能完成他们承诺的所有事情，不论他们多善于安排时间。

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.

打败拖延症的一个关键就是聚焦手头的事情。你还有很多事情要做时，就会分散你的注意力，很难再做别的。首先，学会说不，对自己诚实，清楚我们自己实际能完成多少。第二步，在要做的清单上选择一件事情，集中注意力完成。不要想着这件做一点，那件做一点。你需要锻炼你的大脑，集中注意力在一件事情上，抵抗多项工作的诱惑。当你想要改掉拖延症时，同时做很多工作对你很不利。一个很有帮助的方法是在手机或手表上设置一个计时器，在这段时间里心无旁骛地工作。刚开始也许只能坚持五分钟或十分钟，但之后你可以不断增加时间。

Start

7.学会开始

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.

向前的动力是我们开始一项工作的关键。为了这个动力，你必须做一些事情。什么内容不重要，只要它能促使我们前进。亲戚们来访之前必须清扫整间房子？那先捡起卧室地板上的袜子。你需要为明早的展示写篇三千字的文章？那先在电脑上建立一个空文档。确定第一步，不论事情大小，尽管开始吧！这会让你的任务更加真实，给予你做下去的动力。将“需要做什么”这些假定的事情变为“正在做”，将会有很大不同。

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

对很多人而言，“不开始”要比“还剩一些”简单的多。

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.

我们还未开始时并无紧迫感，然而一旦走出了第一步，紧迫感便会席卷而来。你注意过如果早晨想要完成工作，最难的事情是起床吗？只要早起，所有事情都会有条不紊地进行，在你意识到这一切之前，你已经做好跑步的准备了。这就是开始之美，只要开始了，坚持下去就会容易很多。

ve Any Obstacles

6.消除阻碍

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.

你的拦路虎是什么？不管它有多不起眼，都很可能会引起拖延症。在开始任何工作之前，你需要消除阻碍，释放自己，轻松完成工作。这到底是怎么样？举个例子，你一直拖延要写的工作报告。每次要开始写时，又要检查弹出的新邮件、整理脏乱的桌子、搜索展示报告需要的资料链接、又会阅读更多文章，这些都会使你分心。

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.

秘诀是在开始工作之前，消除这些障碍。上面提到的例子中，若要开始写报告，你就不应该打开邮箱。如果还是有太多诱惑，那就找个没有网络的地方。接下来，开始工作前，确认你的桌子是否整齐，或者找个干净的工作环境。然后，提前找好所有需要的资料连接，插入到展示报告里。当消除这些障碍后，你已经开始迈向成功，消除了那些挡道的阻碍。重新聚集注意力远要比保持注意力困难的多。所以，消除阻碍是不拖延任务的核心战略。