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Here's a simple way to potentially save hours of your time each week, by investing a total of about five minutes.
介紹一種能夠幫助你每周都能預先節約下好多時間的簡單方法，總共僅僅需要投入約5分鐘的時間。
First thing one morning, take a piece of paper and write a column of numbers representing each hour from the time you wake up until you go to sleep. For me, the list would start 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 1 and go all the way back to 12. (So far, you have invested about fifteen seconds.)
在早晨做的第一件事，找一張紙，寫下一列數字代表你從醒來到睡著的每個小時。對我來說，這列數字會是6,7,8,9,10,11,12,1然后再回到12(到目前為止你總共花了15秒)。
For this single day, at the top of every hour stop for 20 seconds and consider how happy you are with the way you spent your time. Did you invest it wisely? If the answer is yes, don't write anything.
在這天中，每個小時的開始花20秒思考一下你是否對過去1個小時的時間利用感到滿意。你是否合理地利用了?假如答案是肯定的，不要寫任何東西。
But if you wouldn't repeat the way you spent the last hour, next to the number representing that hour write a few words that describes what you did. On one of my lists, for example, at 3 o’clock I wrote "pointless to talk with Ralph; doesn't listen," meaning that it was a waste of my time to meet with him.
但要是你不愿重復你過去1個小時的過法，在代表那個小時的數字旁邊寫下幾個字來描述你做了些什么。以我的一份列表舉例：在3點時我寫了“和拉爾夫說話毫無意義，他根本沒聽”，這代表我和他會面根本就是浪費時間。
Stick with this exercise all day; it takes very little time, just the discipline to stop every hour for a few seconds. But at the end of the day, you'll have a list of activities you wish you avoided. If the list has more than one or two items, you might want to continue the practice for a while.
整天都按照這個方法來做，這不會花太多時間，只需要每個小時花那么幾秒鐘。但是當一天結束時，你將會獲得一張你希望避免的事情的列表。假如這張列表中有超過2個項目的話，你或許就想要繼續保持這么做了。
If you make this a habit, you'll soon start to spot patterns. It will be easier to recognize ways in which you are wasting time and effort, and you'll do a better job of avoiding these.
假如你把它當成一種習慣，你很快就會找出規律了。這樣做能更好地找出一天中你浪費時間和精力的那些事，假如你能避免做那些事，你就能把時間利用得更好。
You can also use this technique across an entire department to help all involved make better use of their time. To avoid offending people, I wouldn't suggest pooling the results. You can simply introduce the test and allow people to draw their own conclusions.
你也可以在整個部門推行這種方法以幫助所有人更好地利用時間。為了避免冒犯到別人，我不建議你收集結果。你可以僅僅將這種辦法介紹給他們并且讓他們自己得出結論。
Encourage people to not only list the problems that wasted their time, but to also write down solutions for using their time more wisely. For example, at the end of a long meeting, you might realize that while your initial strategy of barking out orders did not work, that once you took the time to listen to others, they became more willing to listen to you.
鼓勵別人不僅僅是把那些浪費時間的問題列出來，還要寫下如何更好地利用時間的方法。比如，在一次漫長會議的結尾，你或許會發現你最初計劃的強壓政策并沒有奏效，因為當你更樂意花時間聆聽別人時，別人也更樂意聽你的話。
