職場雙語:辦事拖拉的人如何做得更好

You may ask: Why should I want to know how to be a better procrastinator? Being a procrastinator isn't as bad as being, say, a serial killer. But isn't it on the same level as being a shirker, a lazy slug, a worthless idler? Procrastinators are unproductive. No one should want to know how to be more unproductive, right?

你也許會問：我幹嗎得知道辦事拖拉的人如何才能做得更好？辦事拖拉的人固然沒有連環殺手那麼糟糕，但這種人難道不是和偷奸耍滑的人、懶惰成性的人、不成器的遊手好閒之徒相提並論的嗎？拖拖拉拉的人創造不出多少價值，應該不會有人想知道如何創造更少的價值吧，對不對？

But are procrastinators truly unproductive? In most cases, the exact opposite is true. They are people who not only get a lot done but have a reputation for getting a lot done. They don't have neat desks or even neat desktops on their laptops. They spend a lot of time playing catch-up. But they are likely to be creative and on the whole amiable. After all, if you tend to keep people waiting, it makes them crabby; it doesn't pay to make things worse by being crabby yourself.

但是拖拖拉拉的人真的毫無效率嗎？在大多數情況下，事實恰恰相反。做事拖拉的人不僅做完了很多事，而且在他人心目中也是一個做了很多事情的人。他們的書桌凌亂，甚至連他們的筆記本電腦桌面也是亂七八糟。他們的很多時間都是用來追趕進度。然而，他們很可能富有創造力，而且總體而言非常和藹可親。畢竟，如果你老是讓人久等，別人很容易發脾氣，這時就沒必要自己再生氣把情況弄得更糟糕了。

The truth is that most procrastinators are structured procrastinators. This means that although they may be putting off something deemed important, their way of not doing the important thing is to do something else. Like reading instead of completing their expense report before it's due. Nevertheless, such people feel bad about being procrastinators and often annoy others. That is where I think I have something helpful to say.

事實上，大多數拖拖拉拉的人都是結構型的拖拉者。這就是說，雖然他們可能把一些大家覺得重要的事情推遲了，但是他們不作爲的方式是在做別的事情，比如，在該提交費用報表之前不去完成報表，卻在那裏讀書看報。然而，這些人也爲自己的拖拉行爲感到愧疚，也經常惹惱他人，正因爲此，我想我可以給他們一些有用的建議。

First, don't listen to most of the advice offered to procrastinators by people who don't have this particular flaw. For example: 'Keep your commitments to a minimum, so you won't be distracted.' This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being. If a procrastinator doesn't want to work on something, it won't help to have nothing else to do. It's better to have lots of things to do, so you can work on some of them as a way of not doing the task that, for whatever reason, you seek to avoid.

第一，不要理會那些沒有辦事拖拉毛病的人所提的大多數建議。比如：“儘量減少需要關注的事情，這樣你就不會分心。”這種建議只能讓人成爲一個沙發土豆，而不是一個做事有效率的人。如果一個拖拖拉拉的人不想做某件事情，讓他無事分心也是起不了作用的。有很多事情可做還好一些，至少這樣的話，不管你出於什麼原因不想做某件事，你都可以通過做別的事情來取而代之。

Second, don't sit around feeling bad because you lack willpower. That will make you a depressed procrastinator but won't help you get anything done. Most of us lack all kinds of powers. I can't lift my car by the bumper in order to change a tire. That's what jacks are for. I can't add long columns of figures in my head. That's what calculators are for. Tools give us the ability to make up for what we lack in native powers. The procrastinator has tools that allow him to manipulate himself to achieve results he can't get with willpower alone.

第二，不要因爲自己缺乏意志力就坐在那裏感到難受，那樣只會讓你變成一個垂頭喪氣的拖拉者，絲毫不會幫助你完成任何事情。我們大多數人都缺乏各種各樣的能力。我要換輪胎時無法把保險槓舉起來，那是千斤頂乾的活。我不能心算一長串數字的加法，那是計算器做的事情。工具可以彌補我們天生所缺的那些能力，做事拖拉的人是擁有進行自我控制的工具的，可以讓其實現業績，而單憑意志力很難有所作爲。

Suppose you are like me, and once you fire up your laptop to check your email, you are in danger of spending the whole morning on the Net, doing increasingly useless things. Some correspondent mentions Tajikistan; you don't know much about Tajikistan, so you Google it. You read the Wikipedia article. Which leads you to the Basmarchi Revolt. Before long the morning is mostly gone; you have learned a lot about the history of Central Asia but haven't done your expense report, or even finished reading your email.

假設你跟我一樣，一旦打開筆記本電腦查看電子郵件，就有可能把整個上午都用來上網，做很多無用的事情。某位記者提到了塔吉克斯坦，你對塔吉克斯坦知之不多，於是你用谷歌（Google）搜索，你開始讀維基百科（Wikipedia）上的文章，文章又把你引向巴斯瑪奇起義（Basmachi Revolt）。要不了多久，上午的時間就差不多過去了；你瞭解到了很多有關中亞的歷史，但是你還沒有完成你的費用報表，甚至連你的電子郵件都還沒有查完。

The key here is to unplug your laptop when you open your email. After a while, the battery will die. That will break the spell. You won't need to rely on willpower to quit your Net surfing; lack of battery power will do it for you. If you don't use a laptop, take a big drink of water before settling in to answer your email. Your natural alarm clock will break the spell before the whole day is gone.

解決問題的關鍵是你在打開電子郵件的時候要拔去筆記本電腦的電源插頭。過一陣，電池就會耗光，自然就會打破魔咒。你無需依靠意志力來退出網上衝浪；斷電能幫你做到這一點。如果你用的不是筆記本電腦，那在開始回覆電子郵件之前可以先喝一大杯水，你的生物鐘會在一整天被耗去之前幫你解除魔咒。

A third bit of advice: avoid perfectionism. I don't mean avoid doing things perfectly. If you are at all like me, that's not a problem. I mean avoid fantasizing about doing things perfectly. Often procrastination is just a way of giving ourselves permission to do a less-than-perfect job on something that doesn't require a perfect job anyway. Or maybe it's a way of getting those we work with to the point where they say, 'For crying out loud, just give me something!' You need to give your boss a memo that provides the basic facts; it doesn't need to read like Hemingway.

第三條小小的建議：避免完美主義。我的意思不是說不要把事情做得盡善盡美。如果你完全像我一樣，那不成問題。我的意思是不要幻想着要把事情做得十全十美。很多時候，辦事拖拉其實就是允許自己在做一件無需完美的工作時做得不太完美的一個方法。也許它還能把與我們共事的人逼到忍無可忍，對我們說：“拜託，拿點東西出來！”你需要拿給老闆的是一個記載了基本事實的備忘錄，讀起來不必像是海明威（Hemingway）的作品。

Last, but perhaps most important: Learn how to be less annoying to the non-procrastinators around you. For starters, be honest. Admit that you are a procrastinator, and admit that it is a flaw. Maybe someday you will no longer be a procrastinator. After you lose 20 pounds, get in shape, polish up your high-school French, and write that novel, you may get around to pursuing some self-help regimen that will eliminate this flaw from your personality. But for now, don't compound the flaw with denial. If you admit to being a procrastinator, others will probably try hard to find something nice to say about you.

最後，但也許是最重要的一點：努力讓你周圍那些辦事不拖拉的人少厭煩你。首先，要誠實，承認你是一個做事拖拉的人，承認這是個缺點。也許有一天你不再是一個拖拖拉拉的人，在掉了20磅肉、恢復了體型、提高了只在中學學過的法語的水平、寫成了那部小說之後，你也許可以抽出時間去尋找自我救助的辦法，消除這一個性缺點。但是現在，不要否定這個缺點。如果你承認自己是一個做事拖拉的人，別人也許會努力找些關於你其他方面的好話來說。