2022年经济学人 如何戒拖延？（1）

（单词翻译）

Business

商业版块

Bartleby: Your inner dawdler¹

巴托比：内心的懒人

How to get things done—eventually

怎样最终把事情做好

“If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed,” Admiral William McRaven told the graduating class of 2014 at the University of Texas, Austin.

海军上将威廉·麦克雷文曾在得克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校对2014届毕业生说：“如果你想改变世界，就从铺床开始吧。”

What the US Navy counts as “making your bed”—square corners, centred pillow, blanket neatly² folded at the foot of the rack—is idiosyncratic.

美国海军所说的“铺床”——四角方正、枕头居中、毯子整齐地叠在床架底部——是有些非比寻常。

Yet the admiral’s broader point is universal: whether you are a sailor, a salesperson³ or a CEO, “if you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished⁴ the first task of the day.”

但这位海军上将更为广义的观点很通用：无论你是水手、销售人员还是首席执行官，“如果你每天早上整理床铺，你就完成了一天的第一项任务。”

His commencement speech went viral.

他的这次毕业典礼演讲风靡一时。

Everyone must battle the temptation to temporise every now and again; millions of beds go unmade each morning even on a looser definition than the navy’s.

每个人都必定会时不时地与拖延的诱惑做斗争；即使按照比海军更宽松的标准来看，每天早上也有数百万张床没有整理好。

That is also true of people who, like your columnist⁵, a guest Bartleby, more often suffer from the inverse⁶ affliction—having trouble putting things off even if they probably ought to be.

撰写本文的巴托比专栏作家这样的人也是如此，这类人遭受的折磨多半与普通人相反——即使有些事情很可能就应该晚点再做，他们也很难拖延。

Still, as someone with a perennial⁷ itch⁸ for completion, she has some tips for self-professed dawdlers who wish to make their lives more naval⁹.

尽管如此，作为一个常年渴望完成任务的人，本文作者有一些建议，想献给那些自称懒散又希望自己活得像海军一样更有条理的人。

Start off by not calling yourself a procrastinator¹⁰.

首先，不要称自己为拖延症患者。

Indeed, if you do, you are probably already the opposite.

事实上，如果你这样叫自己，你很可能已经患上与拖延症截然相反的病了。

In “Out of Sheer Rage” (1998), Geoff Dyer elevates dilly-dallying to an art form.

在1998年出版的《一怒之下》中，杰夫·戴尔将拖拖拉拉拔高成一种艺术形式。

The book chronicles how the author was wasting his time instead of writing a study on D.H. Lawrence.

这本书记录了作者是如何没有写成一篇关于D.H.劳伦斯的研究，而是浪费了时间的故事。

“All over the world people are taking notes as a way of postponing¹¹, putting off and standing¹² in for,” Mr Dyer writes, including supposedly about himself.

戴尔写道：“全世界的人都把记笔记作为拖延、推迟和替代正经任务的一种方式。”据推测他也是其中之一。

If only he could make a start, he laments¹³.

他哀叹道，要是他能写出开头就好了。

Given that he managed not just to start but also complete, publish and market a brilliant book—even if the subject matter was less lofty than intended—the lamentations were in fact cogs of productivity.

而他不仅写出了开头，还写完、出版并卖出了一本杰出的书--尽管主题没有预期的那么崇高--由此可见，这些哀叹实际上是生产力的齿轮。

The easiest way to get things finished is to get going in the first place.

要想把事情做完，最简单的方法就是从一开始就开干。

The reason busy people never stop moving is because their constant movement generates further momentum¹⁴.

忙碌的人之所以从不停止行动，是因为他们持续不断的行动会产生更大的动力。

This is, obviously, easier said than done—especially if you find a task unpleasant.

显然，这说起来容易做起来难——当你发现一项任务令人不快的时候尤其如此。

The more objectionable something seems, the more time you spend thinking about just how awful it is.

一件事情看起来越令人反感，你在思考它有多讨厌上花的时间就越多。

That in turn makes you even less likely to broach¹⁵ it—and so on.

这反过来又会让你更不可能开始处理这件事——就这样形成一个循环。

Being aware of this vicious circle does not guarantee you will break out of it.

意识到这一恶性循环并不能保证你能够打破它。

But it is, well, a start.

但这至少是一个开始。