天龙八部97版 bt:工作85%的时间，集中100%的精力

查利·吉尔基/ 2010-12-13

One of the chief goals of living the creative life is to do to it for the long-term. There’s a time and a place for sprints, but, without careful integration, sprints often make your work incoherent and deplete you at the same time.

At a gut level, we know this. We understand that this is more of a marathon for us – why else invest so much of ourselves in it and dream of a life where we get to do it? – but we resist the idea of the steady pace of creative productivity. (In another post at another time, I’ll list some of the myths around creative productivity that are the foundations of this resistance.)

内心里我们都知道这一点。我们知道人生更象是一场马拉松比赛——这也是为什么我们付出这么多自我并梦想实现创造性人生 ——但是我们抗拒创造力需要稳重步伐的说法。（在另一份帖子里，我列了一些关于创造力的故事，那些是这种抗拒由来的根本。）

We need to reassess what it means to work at 100%. Working at 100% capacity is depleting and short-sighted, but working with 100% focus is incredibly effective, optimal, and the key to finishing your creative work. Rather than thinking about working at 100%, try to work at 85% capacity with 100% focus.

我们需要重新考虑尽最大能力工作意谓着什么。尽最大能力工作是一种衰竭和短视，但工作时集中精力却是最有效最理想的做法，并且是完成创造工作的关键。与其想要尽最大能力工作，不如按最大能力的85%工作，但集中100%的精力。

It may seem that this is giving less than everything you’ve got – because it is – but by keeping a little capacity in the tank every day, you can stop the sprint/crash cycle that seems to be a natural part of the creative life. Save a little every day so you can do more over the course of a week.

或许这样看起来我们付出的少于我们得到的——确实如此——不过每天保留一点精力，你就不必冲刺—累垮—再冲刺—再累垮这样循环下去了，尽管那看起来更象是充满创造力的人生。每天保留一小点，你能在每周的工作时间里完成更多事情。

Capacity and Margin

竭尽全力和留有余地

One of the key tenets of the Dojo is the idea of leaving some margin. Like capacity, margin is one of those ideas that we understand but can be a bit hard to define. That makes sense , though, because margin and capacity are relational concepts: margin is the difference between your total capacity and how much of that capacity you’re using.

道教的主要信条之一讲的是做事留有余地。正如“最大能力”一样，我们能理解“余地”的意思但难以清楚定义它。尽管如此，让我试着这样说，余地和最大能力是两个相关的概念：余地是你能发挥的最大能力和你所实际运用的能力之间的差额。

Imagine that you have 8 hours of time to work in a given day. Those 8 hours are your (time) capacity. Planning to use every minute of those 8 hours working is not leaving any margin. Your total capacity is allocated, so if anything were to happen that prevented you from working those full 8 hours, you’ll inevitably have to drop something you’ve planned to do.

比如一天你有8小时的工作时间，这8小时是你的（时间）“最大能力”。计划充分利用8小时里的每一分钟就是不留任何余地。你只有8小时的配额，如果其间有任何意外事情发生，都会妨碍你充分利用这8小时，必然地你将不得不放下一些你计划要做的事。

Consider your work patterns. How likely is it that you’ll use those 8 full hours at full capacity? How likely is it that something will either interrupt or distract you?

想一下你的工作规划，有多大可能性你能按计划利用这整整的8小时？有多大可能性一些事会打断你或让你分神？

Exactly.

答案不言而喻。

How often, though, do you implicitly assume that 8 hours of capacity equals 8 hours of work done?

那么，你会认为8小时的全力工作就等于8小时的成就吗？

Exactly.

答案不言而喻。

Following this same case, working at 85% capacity means assuming that you’ll plan to do a little shy of 7 hours of work. If something comes up – and it inevitably does – then you still have enough (time) capacity to handle it and complete what you set out to do. Or if you underestimate how long something should take – and we inevitably do – you can still finish your key projects and call it a day.

按这样的道理，以“最大能力”的85%按排工作就是每天只计划略少于7小时的工作量。如果有意外的事发生——这在所难免——你仍有足够的精力（时间）来处理它并且不会耽搁你计划的工作。或者如果你低估了某件事的工作量——这也在所难免——你仍可以完成重要的项目，不会白白度过一个工作日。

(In case you think that the time you’ll spend on a project scales with the time you have available, you might want to check out my piece on how time crunching prevents your best creative work.)

(如果你花在一个项目的时间视你所拥有的时间而定，可以看下我的另一篇文章，关于怎样分配时间以完成最有创造性的工作。）

As you get more in tune with your workflow, you’ll also get more intuitive about what capacity means for you. Capacity is really time, energy, and attention, and it’s the energy and attention that are both the hardest to quantify and the ones that are limiting factor for creative work. Margin has the greatest effect on your energy reserves, with energy being understood as your physical, emotional, social, and mental energy.

当你越来越熟悉自己的工作流程，你也越来越明白自己的最大工作能力。所谓工作能力实际上就是时间，精力和注意力。精力和注意力是最难量化的两个因素，同时也是限制创造力的因素。精力可以理解为体格、感情、社交和智力的能量，留有余地是保存精力最有效的方法。

There’s a reason why marathoners don’t run at a full sprint – they’d never finish the race if they did. What’s true of the physical is also true of the other aspects of our lives. That 15% margin gives you the additional resources to take care of yourself and continue the next day without burnout.

马拉松不是自始至终的冲刺是有原因的——那样不可能完成整个比赛。体格方面的至理也同样适用生活的其它方面。15%的余力使你能照顾自己，在每二天工作时不至于筋疲力竭。

100% Focus: Giving Fewer Things Your Full Concentration

集中100%精力：对少数重要的项目要全神贯注

Let’s separate focus from attention since we sometimes use them interchangeably. By focus, I mean keeping the fewest number of things on your list as possible and making it a priority to get them done. By focusing, we stop the habit of project shuffling and instead concentrate our resources on completing projects.

尽管有时候集中精力和关注可以互换，让我们把前者从后者分开来讲，。我所谓的集中精力是说，计划尽量少的事情并集中全力把这些事情优先处理完。这样我们就能摆脱拖拖拉拉的毛病，而养成集中资源尽快完成事情的好习惯。

If you’re struggling to finish the projects you’re currently working on, adding another item to the list isn’t going to help you. Finishing one item on the list will.

如果你正在努力完成手上的一些项目，出现一件意料之外的事情绝对不会帮你达成目的，但完成任何一件你就会离目标更近一步。

This principle of focus works on the different levels of action perspective. If you try to do too many tasks at once, you end up not completing any. If you try to handle too many projects in a given day or week, you end up spending a lot of time in project management mode. If you try to handle too many objectives per month, they all suffer.

集中精力的原则适用于工作中的不同层次。如果你一次执行太多个任务，最终你一个也不能完成；如果你在限定的一天或一周时间内处理太多的项目，最终你只是花大把的时间来管理这些项目（而不能完成这些项目）；如果你每月里有太多目标，这些目标将会半途而废。

The key to getting more done is to focus on completing fewer things. Imagine that you were able to complete one project a day every day. At the end of the month, that’s 30 projects. How much better off would you be at that rate than you are now?

完成更多工作的关键是集中精力先完成少数几件事。想一想如果你每一天都能完成一件事，到月底你就完成了30件事情。按这样的比例会不会比你现在的情况好呢？

For what it’s worth, 3 projects a day seems to be a good, sustainable goal that balances everything that actually needs to get done with what we can do consistently. 3 projects completed per day equals 90 projects per month.

衡量我们实际需要做的和我们能一贯做的，我个人认为，每天完成3件事可能是个合理的目标。每天完成功3件事，就是说一个月可以完成90件事。

Completion + Consistency = Long-Term Flourishing

圆满完工+持之以恒=事业蒸蒸日上

Working at 85% capacity with 100% focus gets you the consistent completion that builds the type of creative life where you’re not just thinking, dreaming, planning, talking, and hoping, but where you’re actually doing.

工作85%的时间，集中100%的精力，让你持续地完成项目，实现创造性人生。你不是在想像、发梦、计划、谈论或是希望，你实实在在地做到了。

Think about all of the creative people around you. Who are the dreamers? Who are the doers? I bet it didn’t take long for you to come up with names of both. Which do you want to be?

想一下你周围有创造力的人，谁是梦想家？谁是实干家？我打赌你很快就能想出这两种人的名字来。你自己想成为哪一种人呢？

In every domain I can think of, the people who are the most regarded are the doers. The thing that separates successful entrepreneurs and business-people often isn’t a killer idea – it’s their execution. Successful managers actually get results. Leaders have teams that get stuff done. What separates authors from every one else is that authors actually write books. Musicians get on stage.

在我能想到的每一领域里，最被人看重的是实干家。成功企业家区别商人通常不是因为一粒“金”点子，而是因为它们的执行力。成功的经理人能得到结果，领导者使团队完成工作。作家有别于一般人是他们出书，音乐家登上舞台。

The doers not only get the social rewards, but they get the personal satisfaction of actualizing their best selves. This, of course, assumes that they aren’t just mindlessly doing stuff. We become by doing, but whether we’re becoming cogs or our best selves depends on how principled our actions are.

实干家不只获得社会方面的报酬，因为实现最好的自我他们也获得个人精神上的满足。当然，这是假定他们不是没头没脑得只知道一味做事。通过做事，我们改变自己，变得无足轻重或是最好的自我，取决于我们行动的原则性。

But it’s not just about doing something once. It’s about doing it repeatedly. If you’re a regular reader of this website, you’re a regular reader because you anticipate that I’ll write something worth reading. Even when I miss the mark, you still hang around because you assume that the missed step was an exception to the rule.

我们所讲的不是指某一次事情这样做，讲的是反复地这样做所有事情。如果你是一个经常光顾本站的读者，你经常光顾是因为期待我会写出值得一读的东西。即使有时我写得不那么好，你还是留连这里因为你以为那只是个例外。

What’s true for me and the people you put in the “doer” list above is true for you. Don’t just do great work once or sporadically – do it consistently, for the long haul. And do it by working at 85% capacity with 100% focus.

对我和对你认为是“实干家”的人正确的道理，对你也一样正确。不要只是一次或偶尔把工作做得漂亮，要持续地做，持之以恒地做，按工作85%的时间，集中100%精力去做。