科學家稱玩嗨了有助於學習

Like many other students beginning graduate school, I was quickly overwhelmed with responsibilities and had to find time for studying by letting go of many other things I valued.

我和很多其他剛開始讀研究生的同學一樣，一上來就被研究生活的重擔壓垮了，爲了騰出時間學習，我只能放棄很多其他的愛好。

Letting go of football and the violin was, however, self-defeating: it might have bought me more time in the short term, but spending that extra time on work only made me more stressed and less productive.

捨棄踢足球和拉小提琴這兩項活動最終適得其反。短期內我可能的確是騰出了更多時間，但把那些時間花在工作上最終讓我壓力越來越大，效率越來越低。

Towards the end of my MSc program, I started to lose my motivation and curiosity for science and research, as well as my creativity. Spending so much time and energy in the laboratory, and focusing all my attention on my thesis and courses, made me feel down, lethargic and almost totally uninterested in my field — not to mention short-tempered and oversensitive in my personal interactions.

碩士階段接近尾聲，我對科研的興趣減退，動力也越發不足，創造力也逐漸下降。花那麼多時間和精力做實驗、寫論文、上課，讓我整個人都很沮喪，懶懶散散的，對自己的研究領域幾乎完全失去了興趣——人還變得易怒，跟人交往時動不動就發脾氣。

Over time, I learnt from these experiences. When I started my PhD, I focused on balancing academic success with personal time off, and made personal happiness a priority in my weekly schedule. My mentor and I discussed my work–life balance early in my program, and we arranged our lab responsibilities accordingly.

後來我從過往經歷中汲取了教訓。開始讀博的時候，我就注意平衡學術研究跟個人休息之間的關係，我把個人的愉悅感擺在周計劃中很重要的位置。剛一開學，我就跟導師討論了工作和生活的平衡，我倆還依此商定了實驗室工作職責。

I set boundaries for myself in new ways: rather than doing lab work all weekend, I’d play football or the violin, or visit loved ones, before ‘allowing’ myself to work for a few hours. This was hard at first: I worried that it would affect my standing with my peers and superiors. But I had learnt from experience that an overloaded schedule can drain you so much that you become unfocused and start making mistakes or forgetting important details.

我還在生活中劃定了新的界限：不能整個週末都待在實驗室，要踢足球，要拉小提琴，或者去看望家人和戀人，之後可以“允許”自己工作幾小時。剛開始這麼做的時候感覺挺難的：我擔心會影響我在領導和同事心中的形象。但我的經驗告訴我，工作計劃太滿只會榨乾你，然後你的注意力就很難集中，犯錯和忘記重要細節就在所難免。

Since establishing a better work–life balance, I’ve been doing well in graduate school. Outside the lab, I’ve been able to take up a few leadership positions at my university because I’m not as stressed with my work. I serve as our department’s student councilor and am also vice-president academic in the Health Sciences Graduate Students’ Association. My advice is this: a healthy work-life balance isn’t a luxury; it’s a key element of success in graduate programs.

達到工作生活的平衡之後，我做科研也得心應手了。因爲工作沒那麼壓力山大了，在實驗室工作之外，我還能承擔大學裏的幾個領導職務。我擔任了我們系的學生委員，還當了健康科學研究院學生會的學術副主席。我的建議就是：健康的工作生活平衡並非遙不可及；而且它還是取得科研成果的重要因素。

Taking time off from work is crucial for avoiding stress and depression, and their potential consequences.

工作之餘放鬆自己對於舒緩壓力、避免抑鬱和潛在危害來說至關重要。

Graduate students and postdocs, who may equate 'working longer' with 'working better', are particularly prone to working themselves into the ground, says Simon Davy, head of the School of Biological Sciences at the Victoria University of Wellington in New Zealand. Davy, who since his days as a PhD student has vowed not to work on Saturdays, says that he sees students slide easily into working seven-day weeks.

新西蘭惠靈頓維多利亞大學生物科學學院院長Simon Davy稱，研究生和博士後們可能會認爲“工作時間越長”意味着“工作成果越棒”，但他們都格外容易把自己累垮。Davy讀博士的時候就發誓週六絕不工作，他表示自己看到很多學生都難免一週工作7天。

To define this concept, we should first define what work-life balance is not.

要對這個概念下定義，我們首先得釐清它不是什麼。

Work-Life Balance does not mean an equal balance. Trying to schedule an equal number of hours for each of your various work and personal activities is usually unrewarding and unrealistic. Life is and should be more fluid than that.

工作生活的平衡不是絕對的平衡。有人試圖讓不同的工作和個人活動佔用的時長一樣，這麼做不僅效果不佳，而且根本不切實際。你的生活本就很有流動性，很容易變化。

Your best individual work-life balance will vary over time, often on a daily basis. The right balance for you today will probably be different for you tomorrow. The right balance for you when you are single will be different when you marry, or if you have children; when you start a new career versus when you are nearing retirement.

你工作生活的最佳平衡點會隨時間變化，很可能每天都在變。今天的平衡和明天的平衡可能不一樣。單身的時候和結婚之後，或者有了孩子之後，包括剛開始踏入職場和退休之前，平衡點都不一樣。

There is no perfect, one-size fits all, balance you should be striving for. The best work-life balance is different for each of us because we all have different priorities and different lives.

你並不需要追求一個完美且萬能的平衡。因爲每個人的任務優先級都不一樣，也都有自己的生活要過，所以我們的工作生活平衡點也不會相同。

However, at the core of an effective work-life balance definition are two key everyday concepts that are relevant to each of us. They are daily Achievement and Enjoyment.

不過，一個有效定義的核心包含兩個日常概念，它們跟我們每個人都息息相關。這兩個概念是成就感和愉悅感。