A few years ago, my obsession with productivity got so bad that I suffered an episode of burnout that scared the hell out of me.
几年前，我对生产效率的过度执着导致我那段时间精疲力竭，这把我自己彻底吓到了。
I'm talking insomnia, weight gain, hair loss -- the works.
我经历了失眠，发胖，脱发--但依旧在工作。
I was so overworked that my brain literally couldn't come up with another idea.
由于劳累过度，我的大脑真的一个新点子都想不出来。
That indicated to me that my identity was linked with this idea of productivity.
那表明了我的个人身份认同是与生产效率联系在一起的。
Do you feel guilty if you haven't been productive enough during the day?
你会不会因为觉得自己白天不够高效而产生负罪感？
Do you spend hours reading productivity hacks, trying new frameworks and testing new apps to get even more done?
你是否曾花费数小时阅读那些提高生产力的小窍门，尝试新的工作框架和新的app（应用程序）以达到完成更多工作的目的？
I've tried them all -- task apps, calendar apps, time-management apps, things that are meant to manage your day.
所有这些方法我都试过了--任务管理app，日历app，时间管理app，那些用来帮助你管理时间的工具。
We've been so obsessed with doing more that we've missed the most important thing.
我们对完成更多这个目标的痴迷让我们忽略了最重要的一点。
Many of these tools aren't helping. They're making things worse.
其实这些工具中的大多数并不能帮到我们。它们反而让事情变得更糟了。
OK, let's talk about productivity for a second.
我们来谈一谈生产效率这个概念。
Historically, productivity as we know it today was used during the industrial revolution.
我们现在提到的生产效率曾被用在工业革命时期。
It was a system that measured performance based on consistent output.
那是一个根据持续产出从而衡量工作表现的系统。
You clocked into your shift and were responsible for creating X number of widgets on the assembly line.
你准时打卡上班，负责在流水线上生产X件零部件。
At the end of the day, it was pretty easy to see who worked hard and who hadn't.
到了每天结束的时候，很容易就能知道哪些人工作比较认真，以及哪些不那么认真。
When we shifted to a knowledge economy, people suddenly had tasks that were much more abstract,
当我们转变到知识经济时代，人们的工作任务忽然就变得更抽象了，
things like writing, problem-solving or strategizing, tasks that weren't easy to measure.
像是写作、解决问题，或是制定策略，这些都是不能被轻易衡量的工作。
Companies struggled to figure out how to tell who was working and who wasn't,
企业也发现辨别谁在工作，谁在偷懒变得更难了，
so they just adopted the old systems as best as they could,
所以他们只能尽可能采用那套旧系统来衡量，
leading to things like the dreaded time sheet where everyone is under pressure
由此导致了诸如令人心生恐惧的考勤表等事物的诞生，
to justify how they spend every second of their day.
让大家为了解释自己怎么利用工作中的每分每秒而倍感压力。
There's just one problem. These systems don't make a lot of sense for creative work.
这只是其中一个问题。这些系统并不适用于创造性的工作。
We still think of productivity as an endurance sport.
我们现在仍然把工作效率视为一种耐力运动。
You try to churn out as many blog posts or we cram our day full of meetings.
我们试图写出尽可能多的博客文章，或用各种会议来塞满我们的一天。
But this model of constant output isn't conducive to creative thought.
但是这种持续产出的模型并不有益于创造性思维。
Today, knowledge workers are facing a big challenge.
现在，知识工作者面临着一项巨大的挑战。
We're expected to be constantly productive and creative in equal measure.
我们被要求一直维持在一个有同等效率和创造力的状态。

But it's actually almost impossible for our brains to continuously generate new ideas with no rest.
但是让我们的大脑持续不断地迸发出新点子且不停歇是几乎不可能的。
In fact, downtime is a necessity for our brain to recover and to operate properly.
事实上，适当的休息对恢复我们的大脑，并让其正常运转是必要的。
Consider that according to a team of researchers from the University of Southern California,
根据南加州大学一个研究者团队的研究，
letting our minds wander is an essential mental state that helps us develop our identity,
让我们的大脑开会小差是一种必要的精神状态，它可以帮助塑造我们的身份认同，
process social interactions, and it even influences our internal moral compass.
处理人际交往，它甚至能影响我们心灵内部的道德罗盘。
Our need for a break flies in the face of our cultural narrative about hustling, in other words,
我们对于休息的需要与我们对忙碌的文化叙述相违背，换句话说，
the stories that we as a society tell each other about what success looks like and what it takes to get there.
我们身处的社会告诉我们每个人成功是什么样的，以及为了达到成功需要付出什么。
Stories like the American Dream, which is one of our most deeply rooted beliefs.
像美国梦这样的故事，是我们最根深蒂固的信仰之一。
This tells us that if we work hard, we'll be successful. But there's a flip side.
它告诉我们只要我们努力工作，我们就会成功。但它有隐含的另一面。
If you aren't successful, it must mean that you're not working hard enough.
如果你不成功，那么这一定是因为你还不够努力。
And if you don't think you're doing enough,
如果你觉得自己做的不够，
of course you're going to stay late, pull all-nighters and push yourself hard even when you know better.
那么你当然会开始加班，开夜车，尽管知道这样做不好却依然把自己逼得很紧。
Productivity has wrapped itself up in our self-worth,
工作效率把自己包装成了我们自我价值的一部分，
so that it's almost impossible for us to allow ourselves to stop working.
造成我们几乎不可能会允许自己停下工作的脚步。
The average US employee only takes half of their allocated paid vacation leave,
平均而言，每位美国员工只会用掉一半的带薪假，
further proving that even if we have the option to take a break, we don't.
进一步证明了就算我们有选择来休息一下，我们也不会这么做。
To be clear, I don't think that productivity or trying to improve our performance is bad.
事先说明下，我并不认为工作效率或者试图提高我们的工作表现是不好的。
I'm just saying that the current models we're using to measure our creative work don't make sense.
我只是说现有的用来衡量创造性工作的模型并不合理。
We need systems that work with our creativity and not against it.
我们需要能促进我们创造力的系统，而不是与之相对的系统。
There is no quick fix for this problem. And I know, I know, that sucks.
解决这种情况并没有什么快方法。我也知道，这很糟糕。
No one loves a good framework or a good acronym better than me.
没有人能比我更喜欢一个好的工作框架或一个好的缩略词了。
But the truth is everyone has their own narratives that they have to uncover.
但是事实是每个人都有自己的工作节奏，需要每个人自己去发现。
It wasn't until I started digging around my own beliefs around work that I began to unravel the root of my own work story,
直到我开始挖掘我自己关于工作的信仰，我才发现我自己工作方式的根源，
finally being able to let go of destructive behaviors and make positive, long-lasting changes.
并最终舍弃了那些有害的行为方式，转而做出一些积极长期的改变。
And the only way to do that is by asking yourself some hard questions.
而唯一能达到这种状态的方法就是问自己一些比较残酷的问题。
Does being busy make you feel valuable? Who do you hold up as an example of success?
忙碌能让你感觉很有自我价值吗？谁是你心中成功的榜样？
Where did your ideas of work ethic come from? How much of who you are is linked to what you do?
你都是从哪儿学到那些工作道德的？你的身份认同在多大程度上与你做的工作相关？
Your creativity, it has its own rhythms. Our energy fluctuates daily, weekly, even seasonally.
你的创造力有它自己的节奏。我们的能量在每天、每周，甚至每个季节都会上下波动。
I know that I'm always more energetic at the beginning of the week than at the end,
我知道自己在一周的开头，通常精力更加充沛，而非一周的末尾。
so I front-load my workweek to account for that fact.
所以我相应的就把大部分工作都移到一周的开头。
As a proud night owl, I free up my afternoons and evenings for creative work.
我很自豪的说我是一个夜猫子，所以我把下午和晚上的时间都留给创造性的工作。
And I know I'll get more writing done in the cozy winter months than during the summer. And that's the secret.
我也知道自己通常在舒适的冬季比夏天能写出更多的文章。而这就是秘诀。
Dismantling myths, challenging your old views, identifying your narratives
拨开迷雾，质疑你原有的观念，发现你自己的工作节奏，
this is the real work that we need to be doing.
这才是我们真正需要做的。
We aren't machines, and I think it's time that we stopped working like one.
我们并不是机器，我认为是时候停止像机器一样工作了。