黄疸性肝炎能吃土豆吗:专家支招：领会工作清单的艺术

专家支招：领会工作清单的艺术

Posted in Balanced Lifestyle, Book Reviews/Interviews, Work/Life Balance | June 28, 2011 

于2011年6月28日，发表于平衡生活方式，书评/采访，工作/生活平衡等。

By Anastasiya Goers

安娜贾西亚 著

Do you make a to-do list? Do you follow up on it?

你会列举工作清单吗？会执行吗？

To-do list is a standard tool if you are trying to stay productive. Even if you do not believe in living your life by the list it is still a great way to clear your mind of unnecessary information and make sure that you do not forget any important tasks or dates. I have written before about smart to-do lists but today I want to share with you an interview with the biggest expert on to-do lists that I know, a motivational speaker, life coach and an inspiring blogger behind the Personal Excellence Blog – Celestine Chua.

工作清单是你保持效率的一个标准工具。即使你不相信，但在生活中，这些工作清单仍然是一种清除你思绪上不必要信息，保证你记得任何重要的任务或者约会的好方法。我以前写过关于怎么灵活的制定工作清单的文章，但今天，我想和你们分享一下一个采访，这个采访对象是我所知道的，在制定工作清单上最权威的专家，塞里斯太因 蔡氏，她是一个激励者，生命导师，还有个人效能博客振奋人心的博者。

I have been following Celes’s blog for over two years and was constantly inspired by her articles and her remarkable personality. Celes is the fountain of productivity and creative ideas. Last year she ran her first 30 Days to Live a Better Life Challenge, which she followed up with the Fasting Experiment (21 days, WOW!) and The Million Dollar Challenge which is in progress right now. I asked Celes several questions about how she manages to stay so productive and still keep her life in balance.

我学习蔡氏的博文已经超过两年的时间了，一直都被她的文章和非凡的个性所激励。蔡氏是效能和创意想法的源泉。去年，她发起了第一次30天的挑战，要过一个更美好的生活，即坚持一个斋食的经历（21天），如今这个百万元大奖的挑战还一直在升级。我问过蔡氏很多问题，比如她是怎么做到永远保持得这么有创造力而且还拥有一个平衡的生活。

1. Celes, you seem to really have a lot on your plate (running challenges on your blog, always thinking of new and exciting projects, maintaining a healthy lifestyle.) How do you manage to keep your To-Do list under control?

1.蔡氏，你真的有很多灵感（一直在你的博客执行各种挑战，一直都拥有新奇的和激动人心的想法，保持一个健康的生活方式），你是怎么做到保持你的工作清单永远都在你的控制范围之内的呢？

Hey Anastasiya! First off, thanks for inviting me for this interview, and I’m very excited to be “speaking” to everyone here!

喂，安娜贾西亚！首先，谢谢你邀请我，在这里和大家分享这些，我感到很激动。

It’s interesting you used the words “under control”, because how I manage my to-do list is that I don’t attempt to control it. I see the to-do list as a “bucket” or a placeholder to dump all my pending ideas/tasks, but that’s about it. I don’t let this list dictate my life or determine what I have to do for the day. That means I don’t attempt to clear up my list every day – I just do whatever I’m inspired to do at the moment, and then work in that flow zone. Whatever gets done will be done in the day; whatever that doesn’t get covered will just be rolled over to the next day.

你使用的这个词“处于控制之下“很有趣，我怎么管理我的工作清单的要点就是我从来没有尝试过去控制它。我把这个工作清单比喻为一个“木桶”或一个”占位符“，把我的所有待定的想法和任务都丢进去，就是这些。我不会让这些工作清单来支配我的生活或者决定我这一天要做什么事情。这也意味着我不会每天都试图去删减我的工作清单——我只是做任何当时我被内心驱使要去做的事情，然后在涌流地带里工作。任何要求完成的工作就会当天完成，那些没有完成的就挪到第二天的工作清单上了。

While it sounds unorganized and ineffective way of handling the tasks, it actually isn’t. Because I’m working by inspiration, I’m actually a lot more productive today than I was in the past, when I was using a very time/calendar driven approach method of getting things done. I get from one item to the next very quickly. And most importantly, I’m incredibly happy and excited every second of the day because I’m doing what I love every second.

看起来我处理这些工作任务的方法没有组织并没有效率，但事实上不是这样的。因为我是因为灵感而工作的。其实我今天比过去的一些日子已经更高效了，因为当我使用一个制定的时间表，驱使着我完成一些任务，通过这些方法，我很快的完成了一件事情到另一个事情。最重要的是，一天的每一秒我都非常的开心和激动，因为每一秒我都做着我喜欢做的事情。

One thing I find helpful is scheduling time-bound tasks (i.e. tasks with specific deadlines that have to be done on a certain time/day) in the calendar, then removing them from the list (so it doesn’t clutter up). With these things out of the way, it then leaves my schedule fluid for whatever I’m most inspired to work on at that moment.

还有一件事情我觉得非常有帮助的是：在行程表里安排一些有时限的事情（例如：有规定最后日期的特殊事情），然后把这些事情提上行程（不要让其他事情给覆盖了）。把这些事情提取出来，这样我的行程表上就有一些机动的时间，可以安排一些我当时最想去做的任何事情。

It’s important that we see to-do lists as an support system to help us become more effective, vs. something that we’re obligated to finish. Else, it’s easy to become trapped by our own to-do lists, which is ironic given that they are supposed to help us be more productive in the first place. 

很重要的一点是：我们应该把这些工作清单当做一个支持系统来帮助我们变得更有效率，而不是一些我们义务要去完成的事情。另外，我们很容易就陷入了自己的工作清单上，很有讽刺意义的是：这些清单就是用来帮助我们在第一时间更有效率的。

2. In one of your posts you were talking about the 20/80 To-Do list. What does it mean and how can it be helpful?

2.在你的一个博文中，你提到了20/80规则。请问这是什么意思，这样子有帮助吗？

The 20/80 list is one of my favorite productivity tools that I share with my readers. There is a 80/20 rule popularized by an Italian economist that states that 80% of the wealth in the world is actually owned by 20% of the world’s population. This rule extends beyond economics – you can see the unequal, disproportionate 80/20 relationship everywhere in life.

20/80规则是我最喜欢的与读者分享的效率工具之一，20/80规则是意大利经济学家普遍提到的一个规则，它强调世界上80%的财产实际上都是被世界上20%的人口所持有的。这个是经济学里潜在的规则——你可能会感到很不公平，而且对80/20的普遍关系感到失望。

Similarly, even though we may have a hundred and one things in our to-do list, not all of them have the same importance. Some are more important than the others – in a 80/20 way. If you analyze your list, you’ll find that 20% of the tasks contribute to 80% of results in your life.

类似地，虽然我我们可能会有一百零一件事情陈列在我们的工作清单上，但不是所有的都一样重要。有一些比其他的要重要一些——就以80/20的方式来说。如果你对你的清单进行分析的话，会发现生命中，那20%的任务却能得到80%的效能结果。

These are what I call the 20% high value tasks – such as working on life-long goals, starting your business, creating your 10-year plan, improving your relationships with your family, and so on. The remaining are the 80% low value tasks. Typically these are tasks like checking facebook, running errands, checking/rechecking email, administrative work, watching TV, etc. For this same reason, you should prioritize the bulk of your efforts on your 20% high value tasks, and stop wasting time on the other 80% which may take a lot of time but don’t generate any concrete outcome.

这就是我们所谓的20%的高价值的任务——比如为我们生活目标而努力，开始创业，制定一个你的10年计划，优化你和家人的关系等等。剩下的就是80%的低价值任务，典型的例子就是如上上脸谱，跑腿，检查或重复检查你的邮件，管理工作，看电视等等。一样的道理，你应该要尽你最大的努力去做这20%的高价值的任务，不要把时间浪费在其他的80%的事情上，这些事情会耗掉你大量的时间，但却不会产生任何确切的结果。

3. A lot of people find To-Do lists frustrating (they plan too much and then they have a long list of tasks that never get done.) What are some tips to not overplan?

3.许多人认为工作清单让他们迷失（他们安排了太多的东西，他们永远也完成不了的一大串工作清单），你有没有针对这些多度任务的小意见呢？

Plan to the extent where you get clarity on what you have to do next, then take action right away. The role of planning is to empower you to take action. So if you’re finding planning a chore, then clearly something isn’t right. You shouldn’t be planning for the sake of planning.

计划一定要包括你要很清楚下一件事情你要做什么，然后马上行动。制定计划的核心就是驱使你去行动。所以如果你认为制定计划是一件累人的事情，那么把一些不适合的事情清除掉吧。不要因为为了做计划而做计划。

Some questions to ask yourself:

对于要问你自己的一些问题：

Do I have sufficient information to proceed? (If yes, then you should proceed) 

我有足够多的信息继续前进吗？（如果是，那么你就应该继续）

What am I planning for? Is there a positive output that’s going to come out of this planning process? (If no, you should cut it short and take action) 

我制定计划是为了什么？这个计划之后有没有一个积极的结果？（如果没有，那么你应该把它简化然后行动）

Will this plan help me in achieving my end goal? (If yes, then continue working on the plan, but always be mindful that action needs to occur at some point for the goal to manifest) 

这个计划能帮助我达成我的最终的目的吗？（如果是，那么继续执行这个计划，但是永远都要记住，行动在实现目标的过程中很重要）

4. Celes, what would be your most important advice to people who want to simplify their daily schedule?

4.蔡氏，对于那些想要简化他们日程安排的人来说，你有什么最重要的意见吗？

Start small first, and go slow as you build it up. With each item in your calendar, ask yourself if you really need to do that. Does this make a difference in your life 1 year, 5 years from now? If not, then take that out. At the same time, introduce a few 20% high value tasks to your life – those tasks that matter the most and will create the most impact in your life when you do them.

谨慎开始第一步，你在安排工作清单的时候应该要慢一些。在你的工作清单上，问你自己，是否每一件事情都是你确实要去做的吗。从现在开始1年或5年的时间里做这些事情会改变你的生活吗？如果不会，那么把这些事情删除掉。同时，了解那20%对你生命有高价值的事情，那些最重要的，当你去做这些事情的时候，会产生最大的影响。

As you do them, your fulfillment in your daily life will start to increase. Keep doing that and building on this as you go along. Never forget to experience the joy of what you’re doing and experiencing vs. getting caught up in to-dos. That’s what life is about – living life to the fullest in every moment, whereby the moments are created by you yourself.

当你继续做这些清单上的工作时，丰富你每天生活的事情就会越来越多。坚持去做，边走边制定这些事情，永远要记住的是，感受你在做或正在经历的事情的喜悦，而不是陷入了工作清单中。这就是人生—在每一时刻都要活得精彩，就因为这个时刻的事情是你自己制定的。

5. What type of a To-Do list do you personally use? Is it just a piece of paper or some digital type? Do you have any tips on how to pick the best type of To-Do list for each person?

5.什么类型的工作清单你个人会使用呢？就是一张纸或是电子稿类的东西呢？对于选择制定个人最好的工作清单，你有什么意见呢？

I use whatever tools that are most conducive at that point in time. Usually that means either a new notepad file, or a writing pad. I’ve never been a big user of complex GTD productivity systems – I tried using them and it felt like I was trying to make the system work out for me vs. truly being productive using it. That said, I’m sure the systems work for the others – the key here is to use whatever works best for you. 

对当时的事情最有利的任何工具，我都使用。通常这也意味着要么是一个新的记事本文件夹，或是一个手写板，我从来都不是一个使用复杂GTD效率系统的人——我曾经尝试的使用这些东西，这就好像我努力的让这些系统为我服务而不是在使用它的使用真正的起到高效的作用。也就是说，我很确信这些系统是为其他人而生产的——最重要的就是使用最合适你的工具。

Ultimately, there is no one size fits all solution. The best productivity system is the one you create for yourself, whether by combining multiple tools, or by custom creating yours through Excel, and so on. My tips would be to use what makes you feel most comfortable. If you like using pen/paper and you usually work away from the computer, then stick to the traditional writing pads. If you prefer storing information digitally and you spend a lot of time at the computer, then going digital might be more conducive.

最后，没有任何一个模板是适用于全部情况的，最好的效率系统就是适合你的那个，或许结合了多种工具，或许通过Excel为你自己量身定做的等等。我的建议就是让你感到最舒服的工具就是最好的。如果你喜欢使用纸和笔，你喜欢了远离电脑工作，那么就坚持传统的书写方式。如果你更喜欢电子储存信息的工具，喜欢花大量的时间在电脑商，那么电子类的东西可能会更适合你。

Thanks Celes for an awesome interview!

谢谢蔡氏的精彩回答。

How about you? What’s your opinion about to-do lists? Leave your smart thoughts below and share this article with your friends.

你呢？对于工作清单，你的建议是什么？把你的想法写下来，和你的朋友分享这篇文章。