【工作用語】集中精力的簡(jiǎn)單手段.

　　My main job these days, besides being a mom, is writing a personal-finance book about estate planning. (The Juggle is a part-time labor of love.) But for months, I was plagued by procrastination and problems focusing on the book. There were simply too many distractions: the Web, email, Facebook, Austin’s beautiful weather, cleaning the house, paying the bills, not to mention the responsibilities of the Juggle and being a wife, mother and dog-owner.

　　我這些天的主要工作，除了做一名母親，就是寫一本關(guān)于不動(dòng)產(chǎn)規(guī)劃的個(gè)人理財(cái)書。(這個(gè)工作?家專欄是我出于愛好的兼職工作。)但數(shù)月來，我一直動(dòng)筆遲緩，難以專注于這本書。這只是因?yàn)橛刑嗍虑樽屛曳中牧耍壕W(wǎng)絡(luò)、電子郵件、Facebook、奧斯汀的好天、打掃屋子、繳納帳單，更別提寫這個(gè)專欄以及做一個(gè)妻子、母親和飼養(yǎng)愛狗的職責(zé)了。

　　Several months ago, on one of our evening walks, I griped to my husband about my inability to buckle down. He listened to how I structured my day: I usually started off writing and editing the Juggle, then surfed the Web looking for ideas, worked out around lunch, and usually relegated the book to the afternoons when, inevitably, I was feeling more sluggish.

　　幾個(gè)月前，在一次傍晚散步時(shí)，我向丈夫抱怨自己無法專心工作。他聆聽了我是怎樣安排一天工作的：通常我每天會(huì)先撰寫和編輯這個(gè)專欄，然后上網(wǎng)瀏覽尋找創(chuàng)意，在午飯時(shí)間了事，一般我會(huì)把寫書的事拖到下午，但到了下午又會(huì)不可避免地更加懶散遲鈍。

　　He came up with a simple, but brilliant, solution: Change the order of my work day. Work on the book in the morning, when my mind is freshest and my creativity and productivity are highest. I followed his advice (luckily, my schedule allows for flexibility) and since then, I’ve been on a roll.

　　我丈夫給出了一個(gè)簡(jiǎn)單但又聰明的解決方案：調(diào)整我每天工作的順序。他建議我在早上寫書，因?yàn)槟菚r(shí)候我思路最為清晰，創(chuàng)意和效率都處在最佳狀態(tài)。我采納了他的建議，從那以后就一直運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)良好。(很幸運(yùn)，我的工作日程允許進(jìn)行靈活調(diào)整。)

　　My husband’s simple prescription change your work schedule to do your most important tasks when you’re most on you’re A-game is similar to the advice given by Winifred Gallagher, author of the recently-published book “Rapt,” about the science of paying attention. In a New York Times article about the book, Ms. Gallagher recommends starting the work day focusing on your most important task for a solid 90-minute block. After that, you can take a break, say, by answering email, making calls or even sipping caffeine, which also helps attention, bore returning to your task. Until that break, however, be disciplined about not being distracted by anything else for those first 90 minutes; it can take the brain some 20 minutes to “reboot” after an interruption.

　　丈夫向我提出的簡(jiǎn)單方案就是“調(diào)整你的工作安排，在你狀態(tài)最好的時(shí)候做最為重要的工作”，這類似于加拉赫(Winifred Gallagher)所給出的建議，她最近出版了一本有關(guān)如何集中精力的書《全神貫注》(Rapt)。在《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》(New York Times)一篇關(guān)于這本書的文章中，加拉赫建議你開始一天的工作時(shí)，應(yīng)該先拿出扎實(shí)的90分鐘時(shí)間全神貫注于你最重要的任務(wù)。接著你可以稍微休息一下，比如說回復(fù)郵件，打打電話，或是喝點(diǎn)含咖啡因的飲料，這也有助你集中精力，然后再重新投入工作。不過，在休息之前你必須約法三章，在這90分鐘之內(nèi)不能被其他事情轉(zhuǎn)移注意力;因?yàn)樗悸繁淮驍嘀?，大腦需要20分鐘才能重新投入工作狀態(tài)。

　　Time used up surfing the Web or checking Facebook is gone forever. “People don’t understand that attention is a finite resource, like money,” Ms. Gallagher told the Times. “Do you want to invest your cognitive cash on endless Twittering or Net surfing or couch potatoing?”

　　耗費(fèi)在上網(wǎng)或是查看Facebook的時(shí)間就永遠(yuǎn)消逝了。加拉赫對(duì)《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》說，人們不明白注意力就像金錢一樣是有限的資源。她談到，難道你希望把你的認(rèn)知現(xiàn)金投資到無盡的Twitter或是上網(wǎng)以及做個(gè)沙發(fā)土豆(躺在沙發(fā)上邊吃東西邊看電視)上嗎?

　　Ms. Gallagher also recommends earplugs or noise cancelling head-phones to avoid paying attention to distracting sounds, such as other people’s voices in neighboring cubicles. More attention-focusing advice can be found here.

　　加拉赫還建議使用耳塞或是消除噪音耳機(jī)，以避免被其他聲音分心，例如隔壁房間的說話聲。在她的書里還可以找到更多提高注意力的建議。