时间是靠挤出来的:10招让你拥有更多时间
日期:2012-06-16 19:15

(单词翻译:单击)

We all wish we had just a bit more time.
我们都希望有更多的时间。
Just think what you could do with an extra hour or two each day: you could finally stick to an exercise routine, or spring-clean the house, or write your novel, or learn the guitar, or get a new qualification.
假如每天多出一个或两个小时的时间,我们来想一想会做什么:你可能养成每天锻炼的习惯,对房子做个大扫除,写写小说,学学弹吉他,又或者是考取一个新的资格证书。
I can't magically make all your days 25 hours long. But I can help you find more hours in your day for the things that really matter.
我不能用魔法给你变出一天25个小时来。但我可以帮你从你的生活里找出更多的时间来做真正有意义的事情。
1.Get Out of Bed Earlier
1.早点起床
If you normally get up at 7.30am, try getting up at 7am. That half-hour might not sound like much - but it could be time that you use to meditate, to exercise, to read that book you've been meaning to finish, or simply to get your day off to a calm and organized start.
如果你通常是7:30起床的,那么试着在7点起床吧。这半小时看起来是不多——但那段时间足够你用来冥想、锻炼、阅读那本你一直以来就想读的书、或是就为今天开一个好头,有序平和的开始新一天。
The first hour or half-hour of the day is often a great chance to work on something important, before other demands crowd in on you. And if you need your beauty sleep? Just get to bed half an hour earlier.
在其它各种需求都涌向你之前,每天的头一个小时或半小时常常是着手重要事情的最佳机会。如果你想睡一个美容觉?那就早半个小时上床睡觉。
2.Use Your Commute Productively
2.高效地利用好你上下班路上的时间
How much time do you spend commuting every week? Unless you work from home, you've probably got at least a couple of hours each week when you're traveling between your home and your workplace.
每周你花了多少时间在来回上下班的路上?当你离家工作,你每周都要至少花上好几个小时在来回你家和工作地点之间的路上。
Use your commuting time for something useful. If you drive, you could listen to audio books. If you take the bus or train, you could read a book rather than grabbing a free newspaper. And if your workplace is quite close by, you could try walking or cycling to work - this builds exercise into the natural rhythm of your day.
利用你上下班路上的时间来做点有意义的事情。如果你开车,你可以听有声读物。如果你坐公交或地铁,你可以读书而不是随手抓过来一份免费的报纸。如果你的工作地点离家很近,你可以试着步行或骑车去上班--这可以把锻炼自然纳入你一天的安排中去。
3.Tackle the Important Tasks First
3.要事为先
Once you get to work, take a few minutes to prioritize your tasks. Get the important ones done first (not the easy ones, or even the urgent ones). You can afford to spend at least an hour working on big, important tasks rather than on all those little urgent ones.
一旦你着手工作了,花几分钟把你要做的事做个优先排序。先完成重要的事情(而不是简单的事情,更不是紧急的事情)。你至少要花一个小时在重大的事情上,而不是把时间都花在这些紧急的琐事上。
If you work like this,you'll usually save time: the urgent tasks will still get done, and you won't spend hours procrastinating over the important ones.
如果你按照这样的方式工作,你通常能省下时间:既能完成紧急的事情,而你又不会延误重要的事情。
4.Don't Check Email So Often
4.不要频繁地查看邮件
Your colleagues and clients can wait for a few hours - or even a day or two - for you to reply to their emails. If there's something truly urgent, they'll pick up the phone.
你的同事和客户可以等你几个小时回复他们的邮件——甚至是等你一天或两天。如果他们觉得事情真的紧急,他们会打电话给你。
Keep your inbox closed when you're working, and only open it when you're ready to spend 30 minutes or so dealing with emails. It's much more efficient to batch-process your emails than to keep popping in and out of your inbox to deal with individual ones.
当你在工作时,不要去理你的收件箱。只有当你会有30分钟左右的空闲时,你可以打开你的收件箱并回复你的邮件。成批处理你的邮件会更高效,而不是每次开开关关收件箱只为单独地处理一两封邮件。
5.Reduce Interruptions
5.减少打扰
If colleagues have a habit of hanging around your desk to chat, or if the phone is constantly ringing, you might find that it takes you half the day to finish a simple task like writing a letter. Constant interruptions don't just eat up time - they also break your concentration.
如果同事们会徘徊在你办公桌旁和你闲谈,又或者电话老是响起,你将发现仅仅是去完成一件简单的事就占去你半天时间了,比如写一封信。无休止的干扰不仅仅是耗尽了时间--它们也让你无法集中注意力做事。
When you've got a big task to focus on,let your calls go to voicemail. If you have an office door, close it. If you work in a cubicle, wear headphones: having them on makes it less likely that people will try to strike up a conversation.
当你需要集中精力在一件大事上,那么就把来电转到语音信箱吧。如果你的办公室有一扇门,那么关上它。如果你有一个小的独立工作间,那就戴上你的耳麦:戴着它就不太会有人找你聊天。
6.Stay Focused on Your Work
6.专注你的工作
You might have heard the saying "procrastination is the thief of time." When you want more hours in the day, procrastination can be a real problem. A few minutes chatting, browsing the web, updating your Facebook status, and so on, can easily turn into hours of wasted time over the course of a day.
也许你曾听过这样的说法"拖延是窃取时间的贼"。当你想要更多的时间,那拖延真的是一个问题。几分钟的闲谈,浏览网页,更新脸谱网的状态,如此种种都会轻易地就把一天时间浪费过去了。
When you're working, work. If your concentration is slipping, take a proper break: go and get a glass of water, or stretch your legs a bit. And if you're facing a difficult task, try breaking it into small steps or stages so that it's easier to tackle.
当你在工作的时候,那就工作。如果你走神了,那就休息一下:去喝杯水,或者散散步等等。如果你面对一项艰难的任务,试着把它分解成几个小步骤或阶段,这样完成它就比较容易。
7.Go Home on Time
7.准时回家
If you're supposed to finish work at 4pm, but you never make it out of the office door until 6pm at the earlier, then it's no wonder you don't have enough hours in the day.
如果你理应在4点完成工作,但你甚至还不能在6点以前完成工作离开办公室,那就难怪你会没有多余的时间。
In some jobs, it is difficult to get away on time (if all your colleagues work late, you might feel obliged to do the same). But if you're staying because you only ever seem to get any work done in a mad dash at the end of the day, then your working habits need to change.
对于某些职业,要准时下班是件难事(如果你所有的同事都工作到很晚,你可能觉得也要这样做才行)。但如果你留下来,是因为你要赶在一天结束前匆忙地完成工作,那么你的工作习惯需要改变。
8.Delegate Some Chores
8.放权他人做事
Perhaps you seem to be the only person in your household who's capable of unstacking the dishwasher or ironing the clothes. If your evenings get taken up with a long list of chores, see whether you can delegate some of those.
也许你是家中唯一既要折叠洗碗机又要熨衣服的那个人。如果你的每个晚上都被一大堆的琐事排满了,那么看看你能不能把这些事交给别人去做。
Your partner, housemates, or kids can pitch in and help out. Even if you just free up 20 or 30 minutes every evening, you'll have a bit of extra time to spend on something important to you.
你的伴侣,同住一个屋的室友,或是孩子也能做点贡献帮你解决一点问题。即使每晚你只能多出20到30分钟空闲,你也有了一点多余的时间去做对你而言重要的事情。
9.Eat Dinner at Home
9.在家吃饭
Although going out for dinner might seem like it saves time (after all, you don't have to cook) - you've got the time cost of traveling to the restaurant, ordering the food, waiting for it to arrive, paying the bill ... and it might well be faster just to cook and eat at home.
虽然在外吃饭看起来是省了时间(毕竟,你不需要做饭)——但你却花了时间在去餐馆、点餐、等候以及买单等等事情上。也许在家做饭吃饭反而来的更快些。
If you don't have much time to cook during the week, try making extra portions at the weekend so that you can freeze some. That way, you've got an almost-instant meal (and one that's probably healthier and cheaper than a restaurant meal, too).
如果你在周末没有很多时间用来做饭,试着调整周末其它事情的安排这样你就能腾出一些时间来了。这样的话,你就有时间做饭了(同时这顿饭比起餐馆的饭菜可能更健康也更划算)。
10.Limit Your TV Watching
10.限制看电视的时间
If you put the TV on as soon as you get in from work, it's easy to end up spending hours slumped on the sofa. Instead of watching whatever happens to be showing, try watching just one or two programs each night.
如果你下班一回来就打开电视机,那么结果是你就躺在沙发上看了数小时的电视。不要放任自己无选择地看电视,试着每晚只收看一个或两个电视节目。
You might also want to have at least a couple of TV-free evenings,a great chance to read a good book, or to work on a project around the house.
你大概也想有几个不看电视的晚上;这几个晚上我们可以看看书,或是在家里转转看看可以做些什么。

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重点单词
  • checkn. 检查,支票,账单,制止,阻止物,检验标准,方格图案
  • efficientadj. 效率高的,胜任的
  • guitarn. 吉他
  • conversationn. 会话,谈话
  • meditatev. 想,考虑,计划
  • constantadj. 经常的,不变的 n. 常数,恒量
  • cubiclen. 寝室,小卧室
  • rhythmn. 节奏,韵律,格律,节拍
  • partnern. 搭档,伙伴,合伙人 v. 同 ... 合作,做 .
  • capableadj. 有能力的,足以胜任的,有 ... 倾向的