时间利用四法则：给更重要的事留出更多时间

There are many important things in life. Your family and friends. A hobby perhaps. Working out and staying healthy. Reading, learning and growing as person.

生活中有很多重要的事情。你的家庭、朋友，抑或你的爱好。锻炼身体，保持健康。阅读、学习、成长。

But finding the time for what is most important in life is not always easy. It sometimes feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day.

但是找出时间做重要的事情并不总是很容易。有时你会觉得时间不够用。

But even if it may not feel like it, there are often ways to improve how you use your time. In this article I’ll share some of the most effective strategies I have found for doing so and for shaking yourself out of a rut and reconsider how you actually spend your time.

但即便你没有意识到，还是有很多方法能够让你更好地利用时间。在这篇文章中，我会和大家一起分享利用时间的一些最有效的策略， 让你发生改变，重新思考如何利用自己的时间。

1. Focus.

集中注意力

With a lack of focus on what is most important in your life it becomes easy to spend too much time and energy on aimless actions or work on things that aren’t really that important but you do out of old habit or other unhelpful reasons. To become more focused:

对生活中重要的事情缺乏注意力会让你很容易把时间或精力浪费在漫无目的的行为或不是很重要的事情上，而你做这些事情往往是出于习惯或其他借口。要想变得专心：

Write down your top 4 priorities where you see them every day. To keep your attention in the right place it is essential to remind yourself every day of what is truly most important to you. So think about it and reduce what is important in your life at this moment to the top 4 most important priorities. Write those four things down on two notes and post one in your workspace and one your night table.

在你每天能看到的地方写下四个优先事项。要想把注意力放在正确的地方，很有必要每天提醒自己什么东西对你来说是最重要的。想一想，然后把此刻生活中最重要的事情缩减到4个。把这四件事写到两张便条上，一张贴到你工作的地方，一张贴到你的床头柜上。

Reduce distractions. Ask yourself: what are the 3 most common distractions that keep me from doing my work in a focused way? Figure out how you can prevent those things from distracting you. It could be by shutting the door to your office, by putting your phone on silent mode for an hour at a time or by having notifications for email shut off.

减少令你分心的事情。问问自己：哪三件是最常见的让你没法专心工作的事情？想一想怎样才能让这些事情不让你分心。可能是关上办公室的门，或把手机调成一小时的静音模式，或关闭电子邮件的通知。

Find balance. If you just work and work you will quickly become unfocused and the longer the week drags on the more tired you become. To work smarter try using a timer – on your cell phone or use an egg-timer – and set it for 45 minutes. Then put in a drawer or somewhere where you can’t see it.

找到平衡点。如果你一直工作，你很快就无法集中注意力。工作的时间越长，你就越感觉到累。工作时也有技巧，可以使用定时器——可以用手机上自带的，或是鸡蛋计时器——把时间设为45分钟，然后把它放到抽屉里或看不见的地方。

During those 45 minutes dive in and immerse yourself in the no-distraction zone and your work until the clock rings. Then set you timer for a 15 minute break where you get away from your work space if possible. Take a walk, go for a snack or have a conversation about something else than work.

在这45分钟的时间里，让自己沉浸在无干扰的环境中，一直工作直到计时器响起。再把计时器设为15分钟，在这段时间内休息一下，有可能的话还可以离开工作区。散散步，拿点儿零食，或和别人聊会儿天，这会儿就别谈工作的事情了。

2. Simplify.

简化生活

One of the smarter ways to simplify your life and to free up time is to set limits. Here are a few key areas that you can set powerful limits for:

简化生活、为生活腾出时间最简单的一个方法是设定限度。你可以在下面的这几个关键地方设定限度：

Your daily input. Reduce the number of blogs, newsletters, magazines, book clubs, podcasts, TV-shows etc. you follow. Just keep the ones you are really getting something out of.

每天的信息摄入量。少看一些博客、资讯、杂志、图书俱乐部、播客、电视等里面的内容，只看那些你真的能从中受益的内容。

Email. Just check and process your email during one chunk of time once per day. Instead of checking it 10 times or more each day.

电子邮件。每天仅拿出一小段时间来检查和处理电子邮件。而不是每天检查10次或更多次。

Social activities. Write down a list of the social activities you are involved in after school or work. Maybe you are involved in a club or an activity that it is not as fun or rewarding as it used to be. Maybe you want to rearrange your priorities a bit to focus on something else this year.

社交活动。为你放学后或下班后要进行的社交活动列一张清单。也许你现在参加的俱乐部或活动没有以前那么有趣或有益。也许你今年想重新调整事情的优先级别，想把注意力集中在别的事情上。

3. Minimize or eliminate.

尽量减少或消除一些事情。

What else can you eliminate or minimize besides the things listed above? Some meetings at work or in school? Redditing or some online forum you hang out on a lot?

除了上面列出的这些事情，还有什么事情需要你尽量减少或消除的？上班或上学时的会议？去Reddit或其他网上论坛的时间？

Question and reconsider your own habits regularly instead of moving along in the same old tracks just because it what you usually do. See if you want make changes to make more room for things you would honestly get more out of.

不要因为习惯而沿着旧的轨道前进，要定期质疑并重新考虑自己的习惯。 看看自己是否想改变一下，腾出时间做一些能让自己受益更多的事情。

4. Find unnoticed free time in your day.

找出每天被忽视的空闲时间。

One final tip. There is often quite a bit of open travel- or waiting-time during a year. What will you use your such time for this year? Perhaps you would like to read more while riding the train or listen to audio books while waiting for a meeting to start or while you are out driving your car.

最后一个小贴士。每年经常有不少户外旅行的时间或等待时间。你会如何利用这些时间？也许你想在火车上多看点儿书，在等待开会或开车时听会儿有声书。

Even if you only have 20 minutes of commuting time each day then you still have a many, many hours in a year that you may want to, at least partly, use in a new way.

即使你每天上下班在路上的时间仅有20分钟，那你在一年内还是有好多时间可以用一种新的方式来度过。