How often have you had a work day when, as mid-afternoon races toward late-afternoon, you realize that you haven't really gotten anything done?

你工作时是否经常感到，下午甚至什么都没做，就已经到傍晚了？

Painfully often, if you're like many of the professionals we talked to for a recent study on everyday work life through Harvard Business School.

Getty Images如果你和最近我们通过哈佛大学商学院（Harvard Business School）对日常工作进行的一项研究中采访的许多专业人士一样，那么这种情况应该是经常在你身上发生。

Not only do unproductive days like this detract from the success of your projects, your team and your organization; they can endanger your own well-being.

这种低效率不仅会降低你所在团队和组织的项目成功率，还会威胁到你自身。

We discovered that nothing makes people feel happier and more engaged at work than making meaningful progress on something they care about. We call that the progress principle. But this progress principle has a serious downside: Nothing makes people feel worse than being stalled in their work and this negative effect is much stronger.

我们发现，没有什么比在自己关心的事情上取得有意义的进展更让人高兴和干劲十足的了。我们称这为进展原则。但这种进展原则还有另外一面：没什么比工作停滞不前更让人感到沮丧的了，而且这种负面影响比正面的影响要大得多。

Most often, the cause of an unproductive day is fragmentation trying to juggle many competing, and usually unexpected, demands on your time. It's what happens when you've worked like crazy all day, and still you have the sense that you haven't been productive. Sound familiar?

工作效率低下最常见的原因是时间被分割得七零八落──试图平衡彼此冲突而且经常是预料之外的时间需求。当你每天疯狂地埋头工作，却仍感觉效率不高时，就是这种情况。听上去很熟悉吧？

Work-life management experts Tony Schwartz, David Allen, and others have useful techniques for setting up routines to get more done. But how can you save a day where you simply haven't been able to get to the work that matters most?

工作时间管理专家托尼•施瓦茨（Tony Schwartz）、戴维•艾伦（David Allen）和其他人有一些有用的技巧，能帮你建立事半功倍的工作习惯。那么如果你实在来不及完成最重要的工作，如何才能补救呢？

1. Carve out a time-oasis. (20 minutes) If possible, move something off your schedule for the remainder of the day, protecting just 20 minutes to focus uninterrupted on that meaningful project. More time is better if you can manage it, but 20 minutes can still make a difference.

1、 划出时间空档。（20分钟）如果可能的话，从日程表中划去当天剩下的某项工作，以保证自己有20分钟不被打扰，以专心投入那项有意义的工作。如果你能办得到，那么留出更多时间更好，但20分钟已足以令工作效率有所改观。

If you have to, leave a non-essential meeting 20 minutes early, or stay at the office 20 minutes later. (You would use tactics like this if you had an urgent business call, right? Well, getting to your most important work is an urgent business issue.) Turn off your email and phone. Find an unoccupied conference room or cubicle where no one can find you.

如果实在不行，那么就把不重要的会议提前20分钟，或加20分钟班。（如果你有紧急商务电话，也会用这种策略，不是吗？去做最重要的工作是紧急要务。）切断电子邮件，关掉电话，去一间没人能找到你的空会议室或小房间。

2. Note your progress for the day. (Two minutes) Use a work diary to keep track of the progress you made that day.

2、标出当天的工作进展。（2分钟）用工作日记记录你当天的工作进展。

It's natural to focus on what you didn't get done and what tasks remain; but, to get the boost of happiness and engagement, you should spend a minute taking stock of what you did accomplish. Even if you simply outlined next steps on that creative project, make note. And, if you weren't able to carve out that 20-minute time-oasis, then make note of any achievement you had during the day, however small. It may not have been work you planned, and it may have been solving someone else's problem, but if you got anywhere on anything useful, that really is meaningful progress, so write it down.

专心做你还没做的工作和剩下来的工作是很自然的事。但为了提升幸福感和努力程度，你应该花一分钟记录你已经完成的工作。即使你只是概述某个创意项目接下来的步骤，也应记录下来。如果你能留出20分钟的时间空档，那么就记下你当天的成就，不管有多微小。这可能不是你计划的工作，也可能是解决其他人的问题，但如果你做了有用的工作且确有实际进展，那么就把它记录下来。

Allow yourself to savor the sense of accomplishment, and recognize that you made a difference.

让自己享受成就感，并意识到自己有所作为。

3. Set up for progress tomorrow. (Three minutes) Use a trick that Ernest Hemingway and other writers have relied on: Leave off in the middle. When you have to stop work for the day on your most important project, end in mid-paragraph, mid-sentence, mid-routine, whatever as long as you have a pretty good sense of how you will finish that paragraph. That way, you'll be able to just slide back into the task the next day even if all you get tomorrow is your 20-minute oasis.

3、为明天继续工作做好准备。（3分钟）使用欧内斯特•海明威（Ernest Hemingway）和其他作家的小窍门：干到一半时停下来。当你必须停下最重要的工作，半途而止时，那么停下就好，只要你清楚该如何完成剩下的工作。通过这种方式，你第二天可以迅速进入工作状态，即使你第二天得到的只有20分钟的空档。

Readers: We'd love to hear about your own techniques for saving an unproductive day. What works for you? Join the discussion below.

读者们，我们希望听到你对工作效率低下的补救技巧。你有什么管用的技巧呢？请加入下面的讨论。