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How often have you had a work day when, as mid-afternoon races toward late-afternoon, you realize that you haven't really gotten anything done?
你工作時是否經常感到，下午甚至什么都沒做，就已經到傍晚了？
Painfully often, if you're like many of the professionals we talked to for a recent study on everyday work life through Harvard Business School.
Getty Images如果你和最近我們通過哈佛大學商學院（Harvard Business School）對日常工作進行的一項研究中采訪的許多專業人士一樣，那么這種情況應該是經常在你身上發生。
Not only do unproductive days like this detract from the success of your projects, your team and your organization; they can endanger your own well-being.
這種低效率不僅會降低你所在團隊和組織的項目成功率，還會威脅到你自身。
We discovered that nothing makes people feel happier and more engaged at work than making meaningful progress on something they care about. We call that the progress principle. But this progress principle has a serious downside: Nothing makes people feel worse than being stalled in their work and this negative effect is much stronger.
我們發現，沒有什么比在自己關心的事情上取得有意義的進展更讓人高興和干勁十足的了。我們稱這為進展原則。但這種進展原則還有另外一面：沒什么比工作停滯不前更讓人感到沮喪的了，而且這種負面影響比正面的影響要大得多。
Most often, the cause of an unproductive day is fragmentation trying to juggle many competing, and usually unexpected, demands on your time. It's what happens when you've worked like crazy all day, and still you have the sense that you haven't been productive. Sound familiar?
工作效率低下最常見的原因是時間被分割得七零八落──試圖平衡彼此沖突而且經常是預料之外的時間需求。當你每天瘋狂地埋頭工作，卻仍感覺效率不高時，就是這種情況。聽上去很熟悉吧？
Work-life management experts Tony Schwartz, David Allen, and others have useful techniques for setting up routines to get more done. But how can you save a day where you simply haven't been able to get to the work that matters most?
工作時間管理專家托尼•施瓦茨（Tony Schwartz）、戴維•艾倫（David Allen）和其他人有一些有用的技巧，能幫你建立事半功倍的工作習慣。那么如果你實在來不及完成最重要的工作，如何才能補救呢？
1. Carve out a time-oasis. (20 minutes) If possible, move something off your schedule for the remainder of the day, protecting just 20 minutes to focus uninterrupted on that meaningful project. More time is better if you can manage it, but 20 minutes can still make a difference.
1、 劃出時間空檔。（20分鐘）如果可能的話，從日程表中劃去當天剩下的某項工作，以保證自己有20分鐘不被打擾，以專心投入那項有意義的工作。如果你能辦得到，那么留出更多時間更好，但20分鐘已足以令工作效率有所改觀。
If you have to, leave a non-essential meeting 20 minutes early, or stay at the office 20 minutes later. (You would use tactics like this if you had an urgent business call, right? Well, getting to your most important work is an urgent business issue.) Turn off your email and phone. Find an unoccupied conference room or cubicle where no one can find you.
如果實在不行，那么就把不重要的會議提前20分鐘，或加20分鐘班。（如果你有緊急商務電話，也會用這種策略，不是嗎？去做最重要的工作是緊急要務。）切斷電子郵件，關掉電話，去一間沒人能找到你的空會議室或小房間。
2. Note your progress for the day. (Two minutes) Use a work diary to keep track of the progress you made that day.
2、標出當天的工作進展。（2分鐘）用工作日記記錄你當天的工作進展。
It's natural to focus on what you didn't get done and what tasks remain; but, to get the boost of happiness and engagement, you should spend a minute taking stock of what you did accomplish. Even if you simply outlined next steps on that creative project, make note. And, if you weren't able to carve out that 20-minute time-oasis, then make note of any achievement you had during the day, however small. It may not have been work you planned, and it may have been solving someone else's problem, but if you got anywhere on anything useful, that really is meaningful progress, so write it down.
專心做你還沒做的工作和剩下來的工作是很自然的事。但為了提升幸福感和努力程度，你應該花一分鐘記錄你已經完成的工作。即使你只是概述某個創意項目接下來的步驟，也應記錄下來。如果你能留出20分鐘的時間空檔，那么就記下你當天的成就，不管有多微小。這可能不是你計劃的工作，也可能是解決其他人的問題，但如果你做了有用的工作且確有實際進展，那么就把它記錄下來。
Allow yourself to savor the sense of accomplishment, and recognize that you made a difference.
讓自己享受成就感，并意識到自己有所作為。
3. Set up for progress tomorrow. (Three minutes) Use a trick that Ernest Hemingway and other writers have relied on: Leave off in the middle. When you have to stop work for the day on your most important project, end in mid-paragraph, mid-sentence, mid-routine, whatever as long as you have a pretty good sense of how you will finish that paragraph. That way, you'll be able to just slide back into the task the next day even if all you get tomorrow is your 20-minute oasis.
3、為明天繼續工作做好準備。（3分鐘）使用歐內斯特•海明威（Ernest Hemingway）和其他作家的小竅門：干到一半時停下來。當你必須停下最重要的工作，半途而止時，那么停下就好，只要你清楚該如何完成剩下的工作。通過這種方式，你第二天可以迅速進入工作狀態，即使你第二天得到的只有20分鐘的空檔。
Readers: We'd love to hear about your own techniques for saving an unproductive day. What works for you? Join the discussion below.
讀者們，我們希望聽到你對工作效率低下的補救技巧。你有什么管用的技巧呢？請加入下面的討論。
