更聰明而非更努力的工作！如何在工作和事業上獲得成功？

來自專欄 Farnamstreet精選1 人贊了文章

我們每個人每天都有96個精力格，我們想怎麼分配就怎麼分配。利用精力格系統能夠確保你明智的使用你的精力，從而幫助你在重要的目標上取得最大的進步。

Warren Buffett 「ruled out paying attention to almost anything but business—art, literature, science, travel, architecture—so that he could focus on his passion,」 wrote Alice Schroder in her book The Snowball. This isn』t unique to Warren Buffett. Almost all of the successful people I know follow a similar approach to focusing their efforts.

愛麗絲·司羅德在《滾雪球》中寫道：「沃倫·巴菲特只把精力集中在商業、藝術、文學、科學、旅遊和建築這幾個領域，所以他才能全心專註於激情所在」。不僅巴菲特如此，幾乎所有我認識的成功人士都是如此之法保持精力。

The key to better outcomes is not working harder. Most of us already work long hours. We take work home, we』re always on, we tackle anything we』re asked to do, and we do it to the best of our ability. It doesn』t seem to matter how many things we check off our to-do lists or how many hours we work, though; our performance doesn』t seem to improve.

更努力的工作不能保證帶來更好的結果。我們當中的大多數人都工作的很久。我們把公司的工作的帶回家，而且以最大的努力來完成它們。我們在待辦清單上打了多少的√或者花了多少小時進行工作似乎都無關緊要；因為我們的表現並沒有得到提升和改善。

While we like to think of exceptionally successful people as being more talented than we are, the more I looked around, the more I discovered that was rarely the case. One of the reasons we think that talent is the explanation is that it gives us a pass. We』re not as talented as those super-successful people are, so of course we don』t have the same results they have. The problem with this explanation is that it』s wrong. Talent matters, of course, but not as much as you think.

我們傾向於認為超級成功的人的成功原因是他們比我們更聰明，但我越是細心觀察越是發現情況很少是這樣。我們這樣想的原因是因為它給了我們一個借口。因為我們不如那些成功人士聰明，所以理所當然地我們難以和他們一樣成功。這個解釋的癥結在於它是錯的。天賦固然重要，但遠不如你想的那麼重要。

As I looked around, I noticed that the most successful people I know have one thing in common: they are masters at eliminating the unnecessary from their lives.

當我研究觀察的時候，我發現這些最成功的人之間都有一個共同點：他們都是消除生活中不必要事物的大師。

Incredibly successful people focus their time on just a few priorities and obsess over doing things right. This is simple but not easy.

了不起的成功人士只把時間專註於少數優先事物上，並沉迷於做正確的事情。這很簡單，但並不容易。

Here』s one method to help you choose what to focus on and how to use your time ：

下面這個方法將會幫助你選擇應該專註於什麼，以及如何使用你的時間：

一、改變你對一天的觀念：

Think of your day as having 96 blocks of energy, with each block being a 15-minute chunk of time (four blocks per hour × 24 hours = 96). A week has 672 blocks, and a year has 34,944.

把你每天的時間分成96個精力格，其中每個精力格代表15分鐘（一小時是4個精力格再乘以24小時等於96）一周就是672個精力格，一年就是34944個精力格。

Not all of those blocks are direct productivity blocks — they can』t be unless we』re androids. Given that we』re human, we need to allocate some blocks to activities that humans require for good health, like sleeping. Sleeping for eight hours uses 32 blocks of your 96-block day. Let』s say that another 32 blocks go toward family, friends, commuting, and general life stuff. That leaves 32 blocks for you to apply your energy toward keeping your job and doing something amazing.

並非所有的精力格都能化為生產效能——除非我們是機器人。考慮到我們是人，所以我們需要為人類所需的活動分配精力，比如睡覺！8小時的睡眠會消耗掉你每日96個精力格中的32個。還要拿出32精力格陪伴家人，和朋友短暫的相處，參與社區活動，以及其他的日常事務。所以，最後剩下32個精力格可以用於工作以及做些其他的帶勁兒的事情。

Think you can get more done by sleeping less? Think again. Sleep has a way of affecting your other blocks. If you get enough sleep, the other 64 blocks are amplified. If you don』t get enough, their efficacy is reduced. Almost every successful person I know makes sleep a priority. Some go as far as getting ChiliPads to regulate their bed』s temperature and going to bed at exactly the same time every night; others use the same wind-down routine every night. Almost all of them go to bed early (or least before 12), and wake up early to get a start on the day.

你認為少睡覺可以讓你做更多的事情嗎？好好想一遍！睡眠會對其它的精力格產生影響。如果睡眠充足，其餘的精力格就會被放大，如果睡眠不足，他們的效能就會降低。幾乎我認識的每個成功人士都把睡眠考慮為優先事物。有些人甚至會用chilipads調節自己的床溫，並堅持每晚在同一時間去睡覺；其餘的人也秉持類似的常規。幾乎他們所有人都會在12點之前上床睡覺，然後早起開始一天的行程。

二、把你所有的目標列成一張清單：

When I did this, I stopped at 100 and I could have kept going. I would venture to guess that if you sat alone for half an hour, you』d come up with just as many. Writing them down not only frees up your mind from keeping track of them but also gives you a visual representation of just how many things you want to do.

當我這麼做的時候，我會在第100個的時候停下來，而且其實我還有更多的想法要寫下來。我敢大膽的猜測如果你花上個把小時坐下來認真思考，你也能夠想出這麼多。把他們寫下來不僅會釋放你的大腦免於追蹤這些目標的壓力，而且針對你想做的事情的多少也會有更直觀的表現。

三、圈出最優先的三個目標：

Take your time; there』s no need to rush. It』s hard to narrow them down, which is why so few of us think about these things consciously.

慢慢來，沒有必要著急。縮小目標的範圍是很困難的，當然這也是為什麼我們很少有意識地考慮這些事情的原因。

四、消除其餘的每件事：

This is where things get interesting. When it comes to the 32 blocks of work time you have to allocate, everything that』s not on your top-three list should be dropped. You can pick up the 「everything-else」 list after you』ve achieved a goal, but until then it』s what Warren Buffet calls your 「avoid-at-all-costs」 list.

這麼做非常有意思。當你只有32個精力格可供分配的時候。任何不屬於前三類最優先的事物都應該好好滴放一放了。當你實現這三個目標的時候或許你可以拿出其餘目標清單，但在此之前，我們最好用巴菲特的叫法，把他稱之為「不惜一切避免之清單」。

五、專註的力量：

Let』s look at an example. Say we』re working on 10 projects. We have priorities that we try to focus on, but we also give the other projects a decent effort. Let』s say we allocate our 32 blocks of energy to our 10 projects as follows:

咱們來看一個例子：假設我們正在進行10各項目。我們會把精力集中於優先的事物上，但我們同樣需要給其他項目分配一定的精力。我們把我們的32個精力格按照如下的方式分配到10個項目中：

1. 10

2. 5

3. 5

4. 3

5. 2

6. 2

7. 2

8. 1

9. 1

10. 1

Not bad, eh? But if we do the above exercise, it will look more like this:

還不壞對吧？但如果我們做以上的練習，那麼它看起來更可能像這樣：

1. 16

2. 8

3. 8

Focus directs your energy toward your goals. The more focused you are, the more energy goes toward what you』re working on.

將精力直接集中於目標。你越是專註，你就越是能從其中獲得能量。

Eliminating things that you care about is hard. You have to make tradeoffs. If you can』t make those tradeoffs, you』re not going to get far. The cost of not being focused is high.

消除你關心的事情很難。你必須要做出權衡。如果你不做出權衡，你就很難取得進展。缺乏專註的成本相當高昂！

The direction you』re going in is important to the extent that you』re applying energy to it. If you』re focusing your energy on 10 goals, you』re not focused, and instead of having a few completed projects, you have numerous unfinished projects. Like Sisyphus, you』re constantly getting halfway up the mountain but never reaching the top. I can』t think of a bigger waste of time.

還有就是專註的方向也很重要。如果你把精力傾注在10個目標上，那麼你不是在專註，你沒有完成什麼項目，擁有的只是很多未完成的事項。就像西西弗斯一樣，不斷的爬到半山腰，卻永遠爬不到山頂。我找不到比這更浪費時間的事情啦！

It』s not about working harder to get better results. You have only so much energy to apply. Pick what matters. Eliminate the rest.

天道不酬勤。你就那麼多精力，找出重要的事，然後消除其餘的。