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Have you ever written a to-do list, only to find that, at the end of the day, you hadn’t even managed one item on it?
你是否曾經(jīng)寫過任務(wù)清單，然后到頭來發(fā)現(xiàn)到清單上面一件事也沒做？
When you fail to make headway with your to-do list, you might end up blaming yourself – but it’s probably not your fault.
當你的任務(wù)清單毫無進度，你便責(zé)罵自己，但是這可能不是你的原因。
To-do lists are great tools, but to be truly effective, you need to know a few tricks for making them work well.
任務(wù)清單是一個偉大的生活工具，可是想要讓其生效，你需要一些技巧把清單做得頭頭是道。
1: Write Action Items
1. 寫出動詞部分
Does your to-do list look like this?
你的任務(wù)清單是這樣寫的？
New desk?
新桌子？
Bob and Jane
鮑伯和珍
While you might know exactly what these mean in the context of your day, there’s also a good chance you’ve not really pinned down each task.
雖然你可能會準確地知道這些在你的清單中的意思，但這種寫法很可能讓你松懈，不強行自己完成每一個任務(wù)。
After all, you’re unlikely to sit down and get all your taxes completely done in one session – and when you see “taxes” on the list, your first response is probably to jump straight to the next item.
畢竟，你不可能坐下來，把關(guān)于稅收的寫成一段話，然而，當你看到寫著“稅”的單子，你的第一反應(yīng)很可能是直接跳過去瀏覽下一個項目。
A really effective to-do list uses action items. That means starting each task with a verb, and being specific about what you’re going to do:
一個真正有效的任務(wù)清單是會寫出操作項目。也就是每一個任務(wù)是以動詞開始的，并且要詳細到你要干嘛。
Check tax deadline, and sort all receipts into date order.
檢查納稅期限，根據(jù)日期順序整理所有收據(jù)。
Look into the top three options for a new desk.
去家具店買一把新桌子。
Call Bob and Jane to confirm dinner this weekend.
給鮑勃和簡打電話確認本周末的晚餐.
2: Break Big Projects into Smaller Tasks2.
2. 把大項目分成小任務(wù)
Sometimes, a vague item is a big project that needs breaking into smaller tasks. “Write report” often isn’t something you can easily get your head around – but “get data for section 1 of report” is.
有時候,一個模糊的任務(wù)是一個大項目，需要分成一個個小的任務(wù)。“寫報告”往往是讓你沒有頭緒的東西，但是讓你“找到報告第一部分的資料”就會讓你很明了。
By breaking up any big projects into smaller tasks, you make your to-do list much more valuable. Once you actually get going on those tasks, you’ll already have done some of the high-level thinking – and you can check them off your list one by one, creating a (well-earned) sense of steady progress.
把每一個大項目分成一件件小任務(wù)會讓你的待辦事項清單更有使用價值。當你在執(zhí)行這些細小的任務(wù)時，你已經(jīng)開啟了你的深度思考，每當完成一個任務(wù)，你會覺得倍兒有穩(wěn)定向目標前進的感覺。
3: Put Timings Against Each Task
3. 給每項任務(wù)都限時
Perhaps you write a to-do list every day, but you rarely get through more than a few items on it. Unless you have at least a rough idea of how long your different tasks will take, you won’t know how many you can accomplish in a day.
每天都要寫待辦事項清單的你可能很少會把每一項都完成。若是你能大概估計完成每項任務(wù)需要的時間，你就知道一天可以完成哪些任務(wù)。
When you add an estimated time against each task, you get several great benefits:
當你給每個任務(wù)都添加了大概的時間，你會有所收獲的哦：
You can race against the clock, trying to beat your time estimate – making you more efficient.
為了在你預(yù)計的時間范圍內(nèi)完成任務(wù)，你要和時間賽跑，這樣，你會變得更有效率。
As time goes by, you’ll get a clearer sense of how long different tasks take (and you might be surprised by what you find)
時間一點一滴在流逝，你會很清楚不同的任務(wù)要完成需要的準確時間（可能你會很意外發(fā)現(xiàn)原來自己還有估計時間的功能）。
4: Batch Together Similar Tasks
4. 把類似的任務(wù)放在一起
If you’ve got a bunch of similar tasks, try to do them in batches, rather than one at a time. For instance, if you need to make ten phone calls this week, it’ll be most efficient to do them all at once.
如果有一堆差不多性質(zhì)的任務(wù)，你可以把它們歸成一項，而不是逐個逐個去完成。 比如，你這個周要打十個電話，如果你一次性全部打完是不是會更有效率點呢？
The same goes for lots of common tasks like:
同樣，也適用于這些相同的任務(wù)：
Reading and answering your emails
查看并回復(fù)郵件
Looking up specific facts / information for your report
查找報告要用的詳細資料
Finding great images to use for your presentation
找演講要用的圖片
Sometimes, this might mean reorganizing the way you complete a particular project. If you normally create each slide for your presentation separately, finishing Slide 1 before starting Slide 2, you might find that it’s more efficient to create draft text for all the slides, then find and add images.
有時候，這樣也許會讓你更有組織性地完成某項任務(wù)。倘若你是逐個制作你演講要用的幻燈片，做完一張接著做下一張，你會發(fā)現(xiàn)給所有的幻燈片用一個文本會更有效率，接著只需要添加圖片就可以了。
