美版知乎：有什么方法可以让你保持专注和高效，而不至于精疲力竭？ [美国媒体]

What are some ways you stay focused and productive without getting burnt out?

美版知乎：有什么方法可以让你保持专注和高效，而不至于精疲力竭？

Udit Goenka, CEO @ PowerUpHosting & GoPBN | Author @ UditGoenka.com
So..
I have been overworking for the last several years for all my companies.
I will often burn out, and suffer from health issues.
Over the course of last few months, my health has started taking a toll at a young age (I’m only 26 at the time of writing).
However, I have started understanding the importance of health.
Now:
After months of experiments, and testing out various strategies, this is what has been working out great for me that helps me increase my productivity:



乌迪特 · 戈恩卡，PowerUpHosting & GoPBN 首席执行官， UditGoenka.com 创始人
过去的几年里，我因自己的公司过度劳累，我经常精疲力竭，并遭受健康问题的困扰。
过去几个月，我的健康状况开始恶化，而我还很年轻 ( 写这篇文章的时候我才26岁，亲 ) 。

然而，我已经开始意识到健康的重要性。
现在：
经过几个月的试验，并测试了各种策略，我发现了一些方法，这对我来说非常有用，它帮助我提高了工作效率：



2) The 25-5 Minute Plan
You might be wondering what is 5-25 Minute plan?
..I made this plan to avoid getting exhausted.
It's simple and effective!
After every 25 minutes of work, rest your brain for 5 minutes. Take a small walk and get away from your computer. Stretch your back. Avoid phones if possible, they are a big distraction.
To keep a track, setup timers.
It would be difficult in the beginning, but once you get a hang of the 25-5 Minute Plan, you will love it.
3) The 30 Minute run plan
Everyday, go for a run.
In the park, gym, road near your home, anywhere.
Running will help you to:
Stay fit,
Stay focused,
Increase your metabolism (I will skip on the scientific research)
Finally, you will stay happy.
After suffering from a serious of health problems, health has been my top priority.
If you don't have health, you don't have business.

2、“25+5”计划工作法
你可能想知道“25+5”计划是什么？
我制定这个计划是为了避免筋疲力尽。
简单有效！

· 每工作25分钟后，让大脑休息5分钟。
· 散散步，离开你的电脑，伸展你的后背。
· 如果可能的话，尽量避免使用手机，因为手机会让人分心。
· 要保持跟踪，设置定时器。

开始执行的时候会很困难，但是一旦你掌握了“25+5”计划工作法的窍门，你就会爱上它。
3、30分钟跑步计划
每天，去跑步。
公园，健身房，你家附近的路，任何地方都可以。

跑步可以帮助你：
· 保持健康；
· 全神贯注；
· 增加你的新陈代谢( 其中的科学原理就不详述了)；
· 最后，你会一直开心；

在经历了一系列的健康问题之后，健康一直是我最优先考虑的问题。
没有健康，你就没有生意。

4) Learn a musical instrument
Music and melody is the solution for all kinds stress.
..but you might wonder how will music help you to produce better?
Music helps you to stay relaxed.
It's not about how many hours you work, it's about what you have achieved in those hours. (Click the link to tweet)
When you spend time learning and playing a music instrument, you avoid all the unwanted drama and tensions in your life that can cause stress.
Before I say a word further, let me tell you, I love music and I'm a level 3 Rockschool certified guitarist. Ever since I burned out last time working too hard, I started playing guitar again.
I'm a happy soul now and produce four times more than before.
I'm able to produce the achieve everything in my To Do list for working quite less than the time I used to spend earlier.
Music has helped me regain my focus.

4、学习一种乐器
音乐和旋律是解决各种压力的好方法。
但是你可能想知道音乐将如何帮助你创作出更好的作品？
音乐帮助你保持放松。



6) Spend time with your family
Yup!
Family comes first before anything else.
The time you spend with them will always be the best ones in your life. Now, how does that helps you with the productivity? The unconditional love and support that you will receive from them will help you stay motivated. If you stay motivated, you will productivity will increase drastically.
Though I am very busy, lately, everyday I spend a good amount of time with my family. The love has boosted my confidence leading to a productive life.
7) Setup everyday To Do list
Often we keep wondering what do we do next?
This has happened to me a several times in the past where I used to be lost in my work, that I will forget what to do next after completing my existing task.
Hence, I started working on my TO DO list.
Every night, I will write my next day's TO DO list. I will work on my list in the same order as written.
With the pressure of completing the list, I am able to stay more focused.
Here are some good TO DO list applications you can use:
Todoist (My Personal Favorite)
Trello
Asana
Wunderlist

6、花时间和家人在一起
没错！
家庭是第一位的。
你和他们在一起的时间永远是你生命中最美好的时光。

那么，这对提高你的效率有什么帮助呢？你将从他们那里得到无条件的爱和支持，这将帮助你保持动力。
如果你保持动力，你的生产力将大大提高。

虽然我很忙，但最近，我每天都花很多时间和家人在一起。
这份爱增强了我的信心，让我的生活更充实。

7、设置每天必做任务清单
我们往往都在想，我们下一步该做什么，
我过去发生过几次这样的情况，我迷失在我的工作中，
我会忘记，在完成我现有的任务后，下一步该做什么。

因此，我开始制定我的任务清单。
每天晚上，我都会写下我第二天要做的事情，我会按写好的顺序处理我的清单。
在完成清单任务后，我能够保持更多的专注。
下面是一些好用的任务清单APP：

· Todoist (个人最爱)
· Trello
· Asana
· Wunderlist
8) Enjoy what you do
If this is not you, quit!
..I am kidding, don't quit, but take this point seriously.
If you love marketing, don't write codes. If you love writing codes, don't get into marketing.
If you love something, make that as your passion, and build a business around your passion. The day you start working on your passion, you will barely burn out because you won't get stressed out about anything. You will enjoy the learning curve and experience.
I used to write codes during my initial days of career but I realized I was better with marketing and my passion towards marketing was more aggressive. More importantly, I am enjoying what I do everyday.


Conclusion
Don't push yourself to hard.
Sometimes small things can help you achieve better productivity in life. I am not mentioning any tools or gadgets.
To summarize:
Setup smaller goals or milestones.
Use the 25-5 Minute Plan.
The Minute run Plan.
Learn a musical instrument.
Sleep for 8 hours a day.
Spend time with your family.
Setup everyday To Do List
Enjoy what you do
The Video Theory
If you work on the above, and change your habit, lifestyle and approach towards work, you will see a massive productivity.
..or to answer in few words.
Stay Happy and you can growth hack productivity!
If my hacks helps you a bit then do share, and upvote the answer!

结语：
不要把自己逼得太紧。
有时候，一些小事情可以帮助你在生活中获得更好的效率，我没有提及任何工具或小玩意。

总结如下：
· 设定较小的目标
· 使用“25+5”分钟计划
· 1小时运动计划
· 学习一种乐器
· 每天睡够8个小时
· 花点时间和家人在一起
· 每天设置待办事项清单
· 享受你所做的
· “视频理论”

如果你从以上几点着手，改变你的习惯、生活方式和工作方式，你将会迸发出强大的效率。
用几句话来回答就是：
保持快乐，你就能提高效率！
如果我的小技巧对你有帮助的话，那就分享一下，点个赞！

Dylan Woon, Educator, Biz Analyst, Investor, TEDx Speaker.
Always remember your WHY.
“Why do you do something in the first place? How does it fit into your big picture? Why do you choose to do this instead of others? What do you actually want to accomplish? What’s the significance of this activity/work/project? What does it mean to you and the people who depend on you?” Once you have crystal clear answers for these questions, focus and productivity come almost naturally.
Set practical expectations.
Most people overestimate what they can do in a day and underestimate what they can do in a year. The former assumption is a huge trap. If you falsely believe you can complete 5x the tasks than you actually can, stress and anxiety are gonna kick in and steal away your focus and productivity. Setting practical expectation is crucial because it allows you to stay at the present moment and deeply focus on the task at hand.

迪伦 · 伍恩，教育家，商业分析师，投资人，TEDx 演讲者
1、永远要记住你是为了什么
首先，你为什么要做些呢？它与你的愿景契合吗？为什么你选择做这件事而不是别的？
你真正想实现的什么？这个活动/工作/项目的意义是什么？对你和依赖你的人来说，这意味着什么？
一旦你对这些问题有了清晰的答案，专注和高效就几乎自然而然地出现了。

2、设定实际的期望值
大多数人高估了他们一天所能做的事情，而低估了他们一年所能做的事情。
前一种假设是一个巨大的陷阱，如果你错误地认为你能完成超出自己实际能力5倍的任务，那么压力和焦虑就会影响你的注意力和工作效率。
设定实际的期望是至关重要的，因为它可以让你停留在当前的时刻，并深入地专注于手头的任务。



Face your fear, so you can focus in your real work.
It’s not that we can’t focus at all. In fact, we find it easy to focus on movies and computer games. Often times, we subconsciously refuse to focus because we fear the work required to produce the output we want. That’s irrational fear. Nothing sucks more than running away from the real work and suffering the consequences later. You must be courageous enough to put in the work. This leads to the next important point…
Remove distractions.
A huge part of our working time is spent on distraction. Precious time is wasted. Before working, remove distractions at all costs - No social media, no petty worries, no irrational fear. The only important thing is the important work in front of you. Keep your phone out of sight. Put your emails aside - you don’t have to reply them instantly. If your mind is constantly running in all directions, practice simple meditations to tame it. Be your mind’s master, not the other way round.

5、面对你的恐惧，这样你才能专注于你真正的工作
不是我们不能集中注意力，事实上，我们很容易将注意力集中于电影和电脑游戏上。
很多时候，我们下意识地拒绝集中注意力，因为我们害怕产生我们想要的结果所需要的工作。

这是一种不合理的恐惧，没有什么比逃避真正的工作，以后再忍受后果更糟糕的了。
你必须有足够的勇气投入工作。
这就引出了下一个要点——

6、排除干扰
我们大部分的工作时间都花在了分散注意力上，宝贵的时间被浪费了。
在工作之前，要不惜一切代价排除干扰——没有社交媒体，没有琐碎的担忧，没有不合理的恐惧。

唯一重要的是摆在你面前的工作，把你的手机放在看不见的地方，把你的电子邮件放在一边——你不必立即回复它们。
如果你的思想一直天马行空，可以通过练习简单的冥想来驯服它，做你思想的主人，而不是反过来。

Get into your flow state for maximum focus. It’s within you.
Once you build up the boldness to put in the real work, flow state comes almost naturally. Flow state is a state in which you’re fully present in the moment, immersed in your work and don’t feel the time fleeting away. Your mind and body are in optimum conditions to perform. You enjoy the process. You possess maximum focus. You can get into flow state when your tasks are moderately difficult and require moderately high skills. The more you experience flow state, the easier it is for you to get into it.
Conserve your mental energy.
Everything is trying to steal our attention today, which is finite. Protect your mind and will power. Keep it for the most important work. Respect your work. Important work deserve your highest level of dedication.

7、进入“心流状态（flow state）”，最大限度地集中注意力
“心流状态”是一种你完全沉浸在当下的状态，你沉浸在工作中，感觉不到时间的流逝，心流状态就在你体内，一旦你鼓起勇气投入到实际工作中，“心流状态”自然而然地出现了。



2. Diversify
In 2006 I was scared again. My trading wasn't going so well and when you trade for a living, a bad day feels like the worst day ever. You feel worthless and like every day will be a bad day.
My dad had died a year earlier. And I would walk past his old office building almost every day and I’d think of what he would tell me if he were alive. He was always so optimistic. He’d make up some BS about how great things were going to be and by the time the words left his mouth he’d believe them.
And maybe because he was my dad and maybe because he was a great salesman, I’d believe him also.
When I’d walk by his office building in 2006, I missed him. I wanted to believe him one more time.
But I didn’t have that. So I diversified. I was trading. But I was also getting paid to write 2–3 articles a day for various sites. i was writing a book a year. I ran a fund of hedge funds. And I started trying various ideas for Internet businesses (one worked, nine failed).
Whenever I got stressed with one thing (writer’s block, or a bad month in the fund, or a site cancelling my articles), I’d switch to another thing.
And I’d always try to start new ideas, make new connections, have more meetings to raise money, or write articles, or make deals.
I diversified my life so whenever I got burnt out on one idea, I’d switch to another.
That gave me the strength and creativity to build up energy to eventually go back to the first item.
I’m writing this post right now as a way of diversifying because I’m burnt out on another article I’m writing.

2、多样化自己的生活（注：Diversify，这个词也有“寻变”的涵义）
2006年，我再次感到害怕，我的（基金）交易工作进行得并不顺利，当你以（基金）交易为生计时，每一个糟糕的一天都感觉像是有史以来最糟糕的一天，你觉得自己毫无价值，好像每天都会是糟糕的一天。

我爸爸一年前去世了，我几乎每天都会经过他以前的办公大楼，我会想，如果他还活着，他会对我说些什么。他总是那么乐观，他会编造一些关于生活多么伟大的谎言，等到这些话从他的嘴边消失的时候，他就相信它们了。也许因为他是我爸爸，也许因为他是个很棒的推销员，我也会相信他。

2006年，当我路过他的办公楼时，我想念他，我想再相信他一次。
但我没法实现了，所以我就去多样化自己的生活，我依然在做交易工作，但是我也每天为不同的网站写2-3篇文章，并且得到了报酬。

我一年写一本书，我管理着一家对冲基金，我开始尝试各种互联网业务的想法。( 一个成功了，九个失败了 )
每当我因为一件事而感到压力 ( 比如写作的障碍，基金的糟糕月份，或者网站取消了我的文章 ) ，我就会转到另一件事上。

我总是试着开始新的想法，建立新的关系，召开更多的会议来筹集资金，或者写文章，或者做交易。
我使我的生活多样化，所以每当我因一个想法而疲惫不堪时，我就会转向另一个想法。
这给了我力量和创造力来集聚能量，最终回到第一个项目。
我现在写这篇文章就是多样化的一种方式——因为我对我正在写的另一篇文章感到厌倦。

3. 1% a day.
Jerry Seinfeld writes a joke every day and puts an “X” in the box in the calendar. He’s been doing it for 30 years. He says he doesn’t want to “break the chain” of Xs.
I try to do something similar.
Every day I try to ask myself, in some way: physically, emotionally, creatively, spiritually, did I improve myself 1%?
It’s hard to quantify 1%. It’s really an effort thing. Did I put in the effort to DO something that made me better in some way.


4. Excitement.
The other day I was going to see Craig Newmark from Craigslist give a talk. I got to the location over two hours early and found a Starbucks so I could read a little bit beforehand.
A friend of mine send me a script he was working on for a TV show he was developing. He said, “first draft. All suggestions welcome.”
I got into a daze. I went through every line. I made suggestions throughout the dialogue. I found any contradictions in the plot. It was 72 pages.
I was on page 62 when I realized I had one minute left to get to Craig’s talk. I didn’t even want to go. I was so excited. I loved working on my friend’s script.
I went to the talk and finished the script later. My friend loved the suggestions and incorporated all of my dialogue suggestions.
(me and Craig Newmark from Craigslist - the only two men at “Women’s Entrepreneurship Day” meeting)
It made me think that writing fiction would excite me.
I try out a lot of things to see what will excite me. I’ll take a photo every day for a month and write a story about it (I did that last year).
Or, for the past two Tuesdays I did the scariest thing of all: I performed standup comedy at a club. Not an open mic. Everyone else performing was a real pro. The first night I did well. The second night, nobody laughed at all. I can’t wait to do it again.
I am trying ideas to play around with my podcast format a little. I am also looking into different business ideas.
It’s hard for me to find things to excite me. So I do little one month experiments to see what works.
I’ve been doing this for years. Over time, a larger percentage of my decisions per day are MY choices instead of choices I feel I have to do to make someone else happy.
When I do something I love, something that puts my heart on fire, it is 1000% easier for me to focus.
I hope I keep doing these experiments for the rest of my life.

4、保持兴奋
有一天，我要去听 Craigslist 创始人克雷格·纽马克( Craig Newmark ) 的演讲，我提前两个多小时到达了那个地方，然后找了一家星巴克坐下来，这样我就可以提前做点功课了。
但我的一个朋友正在为他制作的一个电视节目写剧本，他发给我一份，他说，“这是初稿，欢迎提建议。”

我一脸懵逼，我把每行都仔细看了一遍，整个过程中，我提出了一些建议，我甚至在情节中发现了一些矛盾之处，这份剧本整整72页。
当我意识到我还剩一分钟时间去听克雷格的演讲时，我已经读到了第62页，我甚至都不想去了，我当时太兴奋了，我喜欢我朋友写的剧本。
但我去听完了演讲，然后把剧本审完了，我的朋友很喜欢我的建议，并采纳了我所有的建议。



图：我和克雷格·纽马克，我们是“女性创业日”会议上仅有的两位男士

这让我觉得写小说会让我兴奋。
我尝试了很多东西，看看什么能让我兴奋。
我会在一个月内每天拍一张照片，然后写一篇关于它的报道。 ( 去年我就是这么做的 )

又比如，在过去的两个星期二里，我做了件最可怕的事：
我在一家俱乐部表演单口喜剧（脱口秀），当然，不是公开演出，其他人的表演都是很专业的，第一晚我表现得很好，第二天晚上，没有人笑我了——我等不及要再做一次了。
我正在尝试的让我的播客更短小精悍的想法，我也在研究不同的商业理念。

当我很难找到让我兴奋的东西时，我便做了一个月的小实验，看看什么会有效。
我这么做已经很多年了，随着时间的推移——
我每天所做的决定中有很大一部分是我自己的选择，而不是我觉得要让别人开心而做的选择。
当我做我喜欢的事情，当我的心燃烧起来的时候，对我来说，1000%的注意力都是很容易集中的。
我希望我的余生都能继续做这些实验。

5. Health
If you are sick in bed, you can’t focus.
Sometimes being sick is random. I live in a disgusting, polluted city (NYC). And I’m not a shining example of health. I have friends who write books on health. They are the experts.
But here’s what I do:
a. Sleep eight hours. The brain needs energy. It replenishes its energy in the final three hours of that eight hour sleep.
b. Eat well. This means different things to different people. I will tell you what it means to me but this is particular to me. I eat fish or vegetables. I go low on carbs. No snacks. Two meals a day tops. Done by 6pm tops.
This is because I’m 49 and not 29.
c. Low stress. Emotional situations cause stress. I don’t talk to people I don’t like (usually). I also don’t travel much. Traveling is stressful and, google it, filled with germs and bad air (in the back of planes).


6. Build Your Scene
Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, Bill Gates, Paul Allen, and a dozen other future billionaires would hang out at the Homebrew Club in SF when they were teenagers.
(presenting at the HomeBrew club)
They weren’t a “tribe” (a group with an alpha, an omega, and everyone in between). They were a “scene” - a group of people excited about a similar interest, each pursuing their own goals within that interest.
Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and to some extent, Jasper Johns and others were a scene that created the entire Pop Art movement.
Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg, William S Burroughs were a scene that created the Beat Literary movement.
Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Chad Hurley, Max Levchin and others are sometimes referred to as “the PayPal Mafia” - a scene developed at PayPal that has gone on to create dozens of Internet companies.
(PayPal mafia)
The Solway Conference 1927 was THE scene of scientists in the 20s. 17 of the 29 attendees became Nobel Prize winners.
And when one attendee was being beaten on by the press from a scandal (Marie Curie) it took another attendees write a letter encouraging her to focus on her good work (Albert Einstein).
(Solway Conference 1927)
That’s what a scene does for each other. Allows ideas to exchange, friendships to build, directions to be determined, feedback to be gathered, gratification to be earned, success to be achieved.
When I lose focus, I call up people I consider in my scene, I explain why I think I’m stuck on something, and I exchange ideas. I’m really grateful for the people I am still growing up with.
Find your scene, get more focused.

6、营造自己的“圈子”
译注：原文用词为：Scene，场景、情景，但译者个人认为中文里的“圈子”是最符合作者要描述的事物的。
史蒂夫· 乔布斯、史蒂夫· 沃兹尼亚克、比尔·盖茨、保罗·艾伦 和其他十几位未来的亿万富翁在青少年时期就在旧金山的“自制电脑俱乐部”（Homebrew Club ）闲逛。


图：“ PayPal 帮”（PayPal Mafia）
1927年的索尔维会议是20年代科学家们的聚会，29名与会者中有17人成为诺贝尔奖获得者。
当一名与会者（玛丽· 居里）因丑闻而被媒体围攻时，另一名与会者（阿尔伯特· 爱因斯坦）写了一封信，鼓励她专注于自己的出色工作。
这就是“圈子”对彼此的作用，一个“圈子”允许交流想法，建立友谊，确定方向，收集反馈，获得满足感，取得成功。



These are not “7 tips to focus”.
I hate answers like that. When I write an answer like this it’s because I am thinking of the 1000s of times I’ve gotten burnt out, lost focus, lost my drive, sometimes for more than an hour or two - sometimes for days.
I’m thinking, “what did I do to get my drive back?” Who did I go to for help. How did I find that excitement again. What did I DO to just say, “I did something today” instead of lie in bed and look outside and feel depressed.
Because many days I’ve done the bed and depressed thing. Many days fell out of my grasp and have now drifted into my past with nothing to show for it.
Over time, my ability to get back into focus got better and better. I learned the skills above. Even in my worst moments, I would use these tricks to find my way back into the maze.
I’m going to go to Union Square right now and play some chess. And later I will watch a video of some comedy because I want to laugh.
First I’ll finish this post. And maybe later tonight I’ll finish the post I started on earlier.
But I also have an idea for something new I want to try. So…we’ll see.

以上这些并非“ 集中注意力的7个小贴士”之类的。
我讨厌那样的回答。

我写出一个这样的答案，是因为我想起了自己千百次心力交瘁，失去注意力，失去动力的经历——有时超过一个小时或两个多小时，有时是几天。
我想，我怎样才能找回我失去的动力？ 我该去找谁帮忙？我又怎么才能找到那种兴奋感？
其实我所做的不过是告诉自己：“我今天做了一些事”，而不是躺在床上，看着外面，感到沮丧。

很多日子里，我都躺在床上郁闷、忧虑，许多日子从我指尖消失了，毫无察觉地流逝。
但随着时间的推移，我重新集中注意力的能力越来越强——我学到了上面的技巧。
即使是在我最糟糕的时候，我也会用这些技巧来找到回来的路。

我现在要去联合广场下棋，稍后我会去看一些喜剧视频，因为我想笑一笑。
我先把这篇文章写完，也许今晚晚些时候我会完成我早前开始写的那篇文章。
但我也有一个新的想法，我想尝试一下，所以。。。我们拭目以待瞧吧。