五款可以提升工作效率的應用程序
What do the men and women who govern us do all day? They sit in front of their screens and gawp at Twitter, Facebook, Gmail, YouTube, Amazon, eBay, Flickr and TripAdvisor. A list released last year of the websites most visited by British MPs reveals that what they get up to at work makes them no different to the rest of the population: they cyberloaf.
那些爲我們當家做主的男士和女士們整天在做什麼？答案是他們整天呆坐在屏幕前，盯着推特(Twitter)、Facebook、Gmail、YouTube、亞馬遜(Amazon)、eBay、Flickr、以及TripAdvisor等網站。就在去年，有人公佈了一個英國議員最常去網站的清單。該清單披露了一個事實：這些英國議員上班時所做的事和其他人沒什麼兩樣——他們也在同樣網上閒逛。Even the young bankers who work such long hours that their employers have started banning them from coming to the office for the entire weekend seem to do more loafing than lending. At a recent conference I heard the heads of HR at two top investment banks complaining that data from these bankers’ computers show that less than half of their time in the office was spent on work. A study from Kansas State University backs this up: the average US worker spends 60-80 per cent of their time online at work doing things that are quite unrelated to their jobs.
再看看另一個羣體——年輕的銀行家。這些銀行家的工作時間如此之長，以至於他們的僱主已開始禁止他們在週末上班。然而即使對於他們來說，花在網上溜達的時間似乎也比花在借貸業務上的時間長。在最近的一次會議上，我曾聽到兩家頂級投資銀行人力資源部門的主管抱怨說，從這些銀行家的電腦中獲得的數據表明，他們上班時只有不到一半的時間用於工作。堪薩斯州立大學(Kansas State University)的研究也支持這一結論：美國員工平均有60%到80%的上班時間被用於在網上做與工作沒什麼關係的事。David Ryan Polgar, a US pundit and lawyer, has come up with a metaphor to describe our new affliction. He says we are getting mentally obese: we binge on junk information, with the result that our brains become so sluggish they are good for nothing except more bingeing.
身爲律師的美國專家戴維•瑞恩•波爾格(David Ryan Polgar)曾用一個比喻來形容我們所受的新式折磨。他表示，我們正患上一種心理肥胖症：對垃圾信息的瘋狂攝入令我們的大腦變得如此遲鈍，以至於除了繼續攝入更多垃圾信息，其他什麼事都做不了。
The obvious answer is to go on a crash diet, reducing the amount of junk information we consume. Having tried – and failed – over the past couple of years to resist the temptation of Twitter through mere willpower, I’m in search of something stronger. Various readers and colleagues have pointed me towards the hundreds of apps that are supposed to help with the addiction, but until now I have resisted on the grounds that the answer to technology overload surely cannot be still more technology.
對於這個問題，顯而易見的答案是實行一次強力“節食計劃”，減少我們對垃圾信息的消費量。過去幾年，我曾試圖只依靠意志力抵禦推特的誘惑，結果沒能成功。所以，我開始尋找更有效戒除網癮的辦法。讀者和同事們向我推薦了幾百種旨在幫人戒除網癮的應用。不過，到目前爲止我一直在抵制這些工具，因爲我認爲對於技術過載的問題，解決辦法當然不能是依賴更多技術工具。Now recognising myself as mentally obese, I have decided to give them a go. The target is simple: to maximise work done in the office and minimise time spent looking at pictures on Twitter of people carrying dogs in baby slings. I don’t want to go cold turkey on cyberloafing, as tests have shown that in small quantities it perks you up. I just want to learn moderation.
如今，在認識到我患上心理肥胖症之後，我決定試試這些工具。我的目標很簡單：一方面儘可能提升我上班時的工作量；另一方面則是要把我在推特上觀看無聊照片（比如某人用嬰兒揹帶背小狗之類的照片）的時間壓縮到最短。我並不想突然之間完全戒除上網閒逛的習慣，我只想學會有節制地上網。因爲有測試表明，人只要上網逛一小會就能感覺精神飽滿。To this end I started 2014 by downloading five apps: Workrave, Rescue Time, Nanny for Google Chrome, Focus Booster and Remember The Milk. The initial result was disappointing. The computer wouldn’t sync to my BlackBerry and I kept forgetting the login details for the different sites. Worse still, a whole new way of being unproductive opened up to me: I started obsessively checking my progress on the productivity apps.
出於這個目標，2014年伊始我下載了五款應用：Workrave、Rescue Time、Nanny for Google Chrome、Focus Booster和Remember The Milk。初步實驗結果令人失望。電腦無法與我的黑莓(BlackBerry)同步，我總是忘記不同網站的登陸信息。更糟糕的是，我又出現了一種全新的低效行爲：我開始着魔似地查看那些增效應用，看自己取得了多大進步。Nanny for Google Chrome
“Nanny for Google Chrome”The first one I tried was Nanny for Google Chrome – which does for information what the Atkins or the Dukan diet did for food, by outlawing or restricting certain websites. My own Bermuda triangle of productivity is Twitter, email and eBay, and so I told the app to allow me respectively 15, 30 and five minutes on each. Alas such limits were broken almost at once, causing a message to flash up that said in huge, shouty type: “Shouldn’t you be working? The site you are attempting to access has been blocked by Chrome Nanny.” My wrist thus slapped, I became at once a bolshie teenager. How dare my computer tell me what to do? After some searching, I found a button to disable it, which I clicked with glee. Twitter seemed more tempting than ever.
我測試的第一個應用是Nanny for Google Chrome。對於信息的攝入來說，這個應用的做法就像阿特金斯減肥法(Atkins diet)和杜坎減肥法(Dukan diet)對人們攝取的食物所做得那樣，它禁止或限制人們對特定網站的訪問。對我來說，降低工作效率的三大敵人是推特、電子郵件和eBay，因此我把該應用設置爲使用這三者的時間上限分別爲15分鐘、30分鐘和5分鐘。時間上限差不多要突破時，一條消息閃耀着蹦出來，用震耳欲聾的聲音吼道：“還不工作麼？您要上的網站已被Chrome Nanny封禁。”於是，我就像是捱了板子，一瞬間就變成了一個不聽話的十幾歲小孩。我的電腦怎麼敢指使我該做什麼？於是我找了半晌，總算找到一個能禁用該軟件的按鈕。接着，我欣然點擊這個按鈕。就這樣，推特似乎又變得前所未有地吸引人。Workrave
“Workrave”The next kind of information diet works by getting you off the screen altogether. Workrave is a bit like the 5:2 diet – which forces you to fast two days a week. It features a cute little lightbulb with a smiley face that warns: “Time for a micro-break”, followed by increasingly shrill and distracting warnings, culminating in the whole system freezing up so you have to take a break, like it or not. This is maddening, especially when it happens at the very moment you had finally stopped skiving and were getting down to some work.
第二種信息節食方案的思路是讓你乾脆離開屏幕。Workrave的原理有點像5比2節食法(5:2 diet)，它迫使你每週保證兩天的高效率工作。該應用的一大特性，是一個帶有笑臉的可愛小燈泡，該燈泡會警告說：“休息一會吧”。接着，就是越來越刺耳、越來越擾亂人心的警告，直到將整個系統凍結。於是，不論你喜歡不喜歡，你都不得不休息一會。這種做法讓人完全無法接受，而如果這種狀況就出現在你剛剛停止閒逛，正要乾點活兒的時候，就更加令人瘋狂了。Remember The Milk
“Remember The Milk”Having decided that apps which rely on stick were not my thing, I turned to those that use carrot. Remember The Milk is a glorified system of online lists, which invites you to write down everything you want to get done and set a deadline. When you have done them you tick them off, and send bragging tweets about how well you are doing.
在確信“大棒”式應用不是我的菜之後，我開始試用“胡蘿蔔”式應用。Remember The Milk是網上各種推薦清單裏備受推崇的一個系統，它會讓你寫下每件想做的事，並設置一個截止日期。每完成一件事就劃掉一項，併發出一條誇耀自己成就的推特消息。Remember The Milk is a relatively sound concept, though not as sound as writing a list on a piece of paper – which requires no password or logging on, and the action of crossing something off a list with a pencil is much more satisfying than clicking a box on the computer. A list has the even bigger advantage that you cannot automatically shower your followers with junk tweets that say: “I completed 2,401 tasks with @rememberthemilk in 2013.”
Remember The Milk的理念聽上去比較合理，不過它的可行性不如一紙清單——往紙上寫字不需要登錄和輸入密碼，而且在紙上劃掉一項比在電腦上點擊方格能產生更大的滿足感。比起該應用，紙製清單更大的優勢在於，你不能自動刷屏、讓粉絲們看到“2013年我用@rememberthemilk完成了2401項任務”之類垃圾推特消息。Rescue Time
“Rescue Time”More promising is Rescue Time, which is the Weight Watchers of information diets. It is a data-gathering system with targets, which monitors everything you do on the computer and displays the results on a pretty dashboard. A “productivity pulse” records how hard you work at different times during the day, and how well you are doing compared with your targets and with previous days’ performance. Thus I discover that I am unproductive in the early afternoon – which I knew anyway – and that today I did better than yesterday, which I also knew already. The app encourages you to spend too long poring over the data, which is not terribly productive. Also, the data show if I am emailing, but do not know whether I am doing productive emailing or gossiping with a friend.
相比之下更有戲的應用是Rescue Time，該應用是慧儷輕體(Weight Watchers)節食計劃的信息版。該應用是一個設立了目標的數據收集系統，它會監控你在電腦上做的所有事，並把結果顯示在一個漂亮的面板上。在一個名爲“效率脈搏(prudctivity pulse)”的項目下，記錄着你在一天不同時段工作的努力程度，把它與你的目標以及你頭一天的表現相比較，並記錄下比較的結果。就這樣，我發現我在下午早些時候效率很低——不過這一點我已經知道了。我還了解到我今天比昨天表現好——這一點我同樣已經知道了。這個應用會鼓勵你花大量時間仔細審視統計數據，這不利於提高效率。此外，這些數據能顯示出我是否在發送電子郵件，卻無法判斷我是在發送與工作有關的電子郵件，還是在與朋友閒聊。Focus Booster
“Focus Booster”Having rejected four diets, I have at last found one that works for me. Focus Booster is beautifully simple and involves neither stick nor carrot.
在拒絕了以上四種“節食計劃”之後，我最終找到了一個適合我的應用。Focus Booster是一個非常簡單的應用，它與大棒和胡蘿蔔都不沾邊兒。It is a little timer that sits at the top of the screen and runs for 25 minutes, after which you can take a five minute break. You press start, and a line slowly advances across the screen reminding you that during that time you should be focusing. Even I can concentrate for 25 minutes, and for some reason I cannot explain I have not cheated once. Strange though it seems, my cyber skiving problem appears to be miraculously solved.
這個應用會在屏幕頂端顯示一個小計時器，它每走動25分鐘之後，都你可以休息5分鐘。當你點擊開始按鈕之後，屏幕上會緩慢飄過一句話，提醒你在這段時間內應該集中注意力。有了這個應用，連我這樣的人都能在25分鐘裏集中注意力，而且出於某種無法解釋的理由，我一次也沒有作弊過。儘管該應用看起來似乎有點奇怪，我上網閒逛的問題確實奇蹟般地得到了解決。However, it is early days, and miracle diets tend not to work for long; in time I may slip backwards and start gaining mental flab again. Mr Polgar warns that curing mental obesity is tougher than physical obesity because you cannot tell how you are doing by looking in the mirror.
不過，現在還只是開頭，那種神效節食計劃往往都不能長久有效。隨着時間的推移，我可能會重蹈覆轍，再次出現心理“贅肉”。波爾格警告說，治療心理肥胖症比治療生理肥胖症更難，因爲你無法通過照鏡子判斷自己做得如何。Yet he says technology will soon make this easier. Various wearable products – including a headband called Melon – are about to come to market that measure brain waves and display the data on your screen, telling you when your brain has got so torpid from excessive YouTubing that action is needed.
但他表示，不久以後，技術進步將令這一過程變得更容易。多種即將上市的可穿戴產品（其中包括一種名爲Melon的頭部飾帶）能測量人的腦電波，並在屏幕上顯示相關數據。當你因爲看多了YoutTube網站視頻而頭腦遲鈍時，這些產品會提醒你需要採取行動了。Possibly that will make a difference. Yet I suspect a better answer lies not with technology but with people.
也許這類設備能起到明顯效果。不過，我懷疑這個問題更好的答案不在於技術，而在於人。A highly efficient young acquaintance tells me that neither apps nor alarms on her phone are powerful enough to make her stop work at 6.30pm.
一位和我相熟的高效率年輕人告訴我，不論是手機上的應用還是鬧鐘，都不足以讓她在下午6點半停下手頭工作。The only thing that succeeds is a call from the woman she uses as her occasional personal assistant. It does not matter that she has paid the woman to phone her; it is the sound of a human voice that makes the difference.
唯一能做到這一點的，是偶爾當她私人助理的一位女士給她打來的電話。這位女士給她打電話是因爲收了她的錢，不過這一點並不重要。真正起作用的，是這樣真人發出的聲音。Equally, when I told a friend that Focus Booster was changing my life, she looked unmoved. With a boss who was forever looking over her shoulder, the need for an app to keep her mentally fit was zero.
同樣，當我告訴一位朋友Focus Booster正在改變我的生活時，她對此無動於衷。這位朋友成天在老闆眼皮底下活動，她完全沒必要藉助某款應用來維持良好的心理狀態。
