I recently interviewed over 200 ultra-productive people including seven billionaires, 13 Olympians, 20 straight-A students and over 200 successful entrepreneurs. I asked a simple, open-ended question, “What is your number one secret to productivity?” After analyzing all of their responses, I coded their answers into 15 unique ideas. 近期，我采访了超过200位拥有超凡表现的人，其中包括7位亿万富翁，13位奥运会选手，20位高材生和200多位成功企业家。我问了他们一个简单的开放式问题:“你能保持高效工作的最主要秘诀是什么？”经过分析，我将他们给出的答案归类为15种。

Secret #1: They focus on minutes, not hours. 秘诀1：细分时间

Average performers default to hours and half-hour blocks on their calendar. Highly successful people know there are 1,440 minutes in every day and there is nothing more valuable than time. Money can be lost and made again, but time spent can never be reclaimed. As legendary Olympic gymnast Shannon Miller told me, “To this day, I keep a schedule that is almost minute by minute.” You must master your minutes to master your life. 普通工作者们的日程表上都是默认以整点和半点来划分时段的，而那些成功人士不同。他们知道，每一天都由1440分钟组成，每一分钟都是最宝贵的财富。钱不够了还能再挣，时间一去可不会回头。大名鼎鼎的奥运体操运动员香农•米勒告诉我说:“直到今天，我的日程表还是按分秒来记。”你要能够通过把握每一分钟，来掌控你的整个生活。

Secret #2: They focus only on one thing. 秘诀2：专注一件事

Ultra productive people know their Most Important Task (MIT) and work on it for one to two hours each morning, without interruptions. Tom Ziglar, CEO of Ziglar Inc., shared, “Invest the first part of your day working on your number one priority that will help build your business.” What task will have the biggest impact on reaching your goal? What accomplishment will get you promoted at work? 拥有超凡表现的人都清楚自己的首要任务，并且会在接下来的每个早晨，用一到两个小时去完成它，期间绝不分心。齐格勒公司的首席执行官汤姆•齐格勒分享了他的成功经验:“将一天的开始分配给你最首要的任务，这有助于你事业的发展。”什么样的任务最有助于你完成目标？什么样的成就有助于你在工作中稳步提升？

Secret #3: They don’t use to-do lists. 秘诀3：废除任务清单

Throw away your to-do list; instead schedule everything on your calendar. It turns out only 41% of items on to-do lists are ever actually done. And all those undone items lead to stress and insomnia because of the Zeigarnik effect. Highly productive people put everything on their calendar and then work and live from that calendar. “Use a calendar and schedule your entire day into 15-minute blocks. It sounds like a pain, but this will set you up in the 95th percentile…”, advises the co-founder of The Art of Charm, Jordan Harbinger. 把你的任务清单丢掉吧，因为事实证明这上面最终只有41%的任务会被圆满完成；而且由于蔡格尼克记忆效应，剩下的那些未完成的任务将成为你焦虑和失眠的元凶。所以，你应该好好安排你的日程表。作为高效率人士，他们会把所有事都写在日程上，然后将它放到一边，继续自己的工作生活。魅力艺术网站的创始人之一乔丹•哈宾格建议道：“把你一天的计划以每15分钟为单位划分，这听起来很头疼，但可以让你省出95%的时间。”

Secret #4: They beat procrastination with time travel. 秘诀4：着眼当下

Your future self can’t be trusted. That’s because we are “time inconsistent.” We buy veggies today because we think we’ll eat healthy salads all week; then we throw out green rotting mush in the future. I bought P90x because I think I’m going to start exercising vigorously and yet the box sits unopened one year later. What can you do now to make sure your future self does the right thing? Anticipate how you will self-sabotage in the future, and come up with a solution to defeat your future self. 我们对自己未来的判断是不可信的，因为谁都不会是永恒不变的。举例来说，我们今天买了一些蔬菜，想着这一周都要吃健康的沙拉。然而最后绿菜叶都烂成了一堆，我们不得已全都丢掉；我买了一盒“90天魔鬼训练”健身DVD（P90x），想着自己要开始每天锻炼身体。然而那个盒子放了一年，也没有被我打开过。我们该怎么做才能保证上面的情况不会出现？那就是做好最坏的打算，想个对策解决当下，而不是拖给未来。

Secret #5: They make it home for dinner. 秘诀5：回家吃饭

I first learned this from Intel’s Andy Grove, “There is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done.” Highly successful people know what they value in life. Yes, work, but also what else they value. There is no right answer, but for many, values include: family time, exercise, giving back. They consciously allocate their 1,440 minutes a day to each area they value (i.e., they put it on their calendar) and then they stick to the schedule. 第一次向我谈起这个的是英特尔前CEO安迪•格鲁夫，他说：“我们总有很多该做的事、想做的事，但我们能够做到的事很少。”成功人士都了解自己生命中最重要东西的是什么。工作很重要，但这不是唯一。重要的东西有很多，并没有一个标准答案：家庭时间，锻炼身体，回馈社会。他们将自己每天1440分钟分配给了他们认为重要的东西（比如将它们写在日程上），然后坚持完成他们的计划。

Secret #6: They use a notebook. 秘诀6：携带笔记本

Richard Branson has said on more than one occasion that he wouldn’t have been able to build Virgin without a simple notebook, which he takes with him wherever he goes. In one interview, Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis said, “Always carry a notebook. Write everything down…That is a million dollar lesson they don’t teach you in business school!” Ultra-productive people free their mind by writing everything down. 理查德•布兰森曾不止一次说过，他和笔记本形影不离，没有他就没有维珍公司。在一次采访中，希腊航运巨头亚里士多德•奥纳西斯也说：“随身带个笔记本，随时记下任何事……你在任何商学院都学不到！”高效率的人通过记录发生的所有事情，解放了自己的思想。

Secret #7: They process email only a few times a day. 秘诀7：少看邮件

Ultra-productive people don’t “check” email throughout the day. They don’t respond to each vibration or ding to see who has intruded their inbox. Instead, like everything else, they schedule time to process their email quickly and efficiently. For some that’s only once a day, for me, it’s morning, noon and night. 高效率的人不会一整天都在浏览邮件，也不会一接收到提示就去查看是谁发来邮件。相反，他们会安排特定时间迅速高效地处理这些邮件。对一些人来说可能是一天一次，我自己则会在早中晚各查看一次。

Secret #8: They avoid meetings at all costs. 秘诀8：推掉无意义的会议

When I asked Mark Cuban to give me his best productivity advice, he quickly responded, “Never take meetings unless someone is writing a check.” Meetings are notorious time killers. They start late, have the wrong people in them, meander in their topics and run long. You should get out of meetings whenever you can, hold fewer of them yourself, and if you do run a meeting, keep it short. 当我向马克•库班寻求建议时，他很快告诉我：“别去参加乱七八糟的会议，除非有人给钱。”有些会议是时间杀手人尽皆知，它们开始得迟，参会人员也乱，讨论话题漫无目的，持续得倒是很久。只要你可以推掉就别去开什么会了，会议主持得越少越好。如果迫不得已必须上阵，无需赘言，点到即可。

Secret #9: They say “no” to almost everything. 秘诀9：几乎所有事情都可拒绝

Billionaire Warren Buffet once said, “The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.” And James Altucher colorfully gave me this tip,“If something is not a “hell, YEAH! Then it’s a “no!” 亿万富翁华伦•巴菲特曾说：“成功者和更成功者的差异在于，更成功者懂得拒绝几乎任何事。”詹姆斯•阿尔图切尔说得更为形象：“如果说的不是‘当然’，那就是‘不’！”

Remember, you only have 1,440 minutes in every day. Don’t give them away easily. 记住，你每天只有1440分钟可以使用。好钢要用在刀刃上。

Secret #10: They follow the 80/20 rule. 秘诀10：遵守80/20原则

Known as the Pareto Principle, in most cases 80% of outcomes come from only 20% of activities. Ultra-productive people know which activities drive the greatest results, and focus on those and ignore the rest. 大家都知道帕累托法则，即多数情况下，结果的80%只取决于20%的投入。高效率的人了解什么样的投入能得到最大的产出，因此他们只专注于这部分的投入。

Secret #11: They delegate almost everything. 秘诀11：委托任务

Ultra-productive people don’t ask, “How can I do this task?” Instead they ask, “How can this task get done?” They take the “I” out of it as much as possible. Ultra-productive people don’t have control issues and they are not micro-managers. In many cases good enough is, well, good enough. 高效率工作的人不会去问“我该如何完成这项任务？”，相反，他们会问“这项任务怎么完成？”他们尽可能将“自己”排除在任务之外，不是控制狂，也不会事必躬亲。在很多情况下，任务完成得足够好就行。

Secret #12: They theme days of the week. 秘诀12：分批完成每周工作

Highly successful people often theme days of the week to focus on major areas. For decades I’ve used “Mondays for Meetings” and make sure I’m doing one-on-one check-ins with each direct report. My Friday afternoons are themed around financials and general administrative items that I want to clean up before the new week starts. I’ve previously written about Jack Dorsey’s work themes, which enable him to run two companies at once. Batch your work to maximize your efficiency and effectiveness. 成功人士通常会将一个星期划分开，用来处理不同的工作项目。几十年来，我一直都将星期一定做开会日，对直接汇报做一对一的评价。我的星期五下午通常用来处理经济和相关行政事宜，因为我想在新的一周开始前解决掉这周所有的事务。我曾写过杰克•多西的每周规划，这个规划使他能够同时管理好两家公司。像这样分批处理工作能最大程度地提高你的工作效率。

Secret #13: They touch things only once. 秘诀13： 随手小事当即完成

How many times have you opened a piece of regular mail—a bill perhaps—and then put it down only to deal with it again later? How often do you read an email, and then close it and leave it in your inbox to deal with later? Highly successful people try to “touch it once.” If it takes less than five or ten minutes—whatever it is—they’ll deal with it right then and there. It reduces stress since it won’t be in the back of their mind, and is more efficient since they won’t have to re-read or evaluate the item again in the future. 你会打开一封普通邮件或是一份账单几次？你会看完接着合上放到以后再处理吗？你会多久去浏览一次电子邮件，接着关掉等以后再处理？成功人士只会做一次。不管是什么，只要事情能在五到十分钟内被解决，他们就会立刻处理。既然事情已经解决，他们也就无需顾虑；这样同时还提高了效率，因为他们以后不必再重新考量这些事情。

Secret #14: They practice a consistent morning routine. 秘诀14：坚持良好的晨间作息

My single greatest surprise while interviewing over 200 highly successful people was how many of them wanted to share their morning ritual with me. Hal Elrod, author of The Miracle Morning, told me, “While most people focus on ‘doing’ more to achieve more,The Miracle Morningis about focusing on ‘becoming’ more so that you can start doingless, to achieve more.” While I heard about a wide variety of habits, most people I interviewed nurtured their body in the morning with water, a healthy breakfast and light exercise. They nurtured their mind with meditation or prayer, inspirational reading, and journaling.

最让我吃惊的是，在我采访的超过200位成功人士中，有不少人想同我分享他们的晨间作息。《魔法早晨》的作者哈尔•埃尔罗德就告诉我说：“当大多数人还在关注多劳多得时，《魔法早晨》通过关注早晨的生活变化，帮助人们少做也能多得。”在我通过采访了解到的各色习惯中，有很多人会在早晨喝杯水，吃一顿健康的早餐，然后做少量运动来保持身体健康 ；他们还会通过冥想或是祷告，读点励志故事，写写日记来丰富自己的精神生活。

Secret #15: Energy is everything. 秘诀15：活力就是一切

You can’t make more minutes in the day, but you can increase your energy which will increase your attention, focus, decision making, and overall productivity. Highly successful people don’t skip meals, sleep or breaks in the pursuit of more, more, more. Instead, they view food as fuel, sleep as recovery, and pulse and pause with “work sprints”. 你不能给自己多加一分钟，但你可以给自己增添活力。有了活力，你能够提高注意力，集中精神，果断决策，进而全面提高自己的办事效率。成功人士不会牺牲吃饭睡觉以及零散的休息时间去追求更多的效益。相反，他们视食物为燃料，会借睡眠恢复体力，劳逸结合去冲刺工作。

Tying It All Together 总结

You might not be an entrepreneur, Olympian, or millionaire—or even want to be—but their secrets just might help you to get more done in less time, and help you to stop feeling so overworked and overwhelmed. 你也许不是、也没考虑过要成为企业家、奥运选手或是百万富翁，但这些秘诀同样可以帮助你事半功倍。从此，你将不再为整天忙忙碌碌却劳而无功所困扰。

Vocabulary

sabotage: 妨害；对…采取破坏行动

英文来源：福布斯

译者：刘佳丽

审校&编辑：丹妮