8月21日
Working Smart
Forget multitasking and long hours—there are better ways to increase personal productivity
Workers in the United States put in more hours at work and take fewer vacation days than those in most industrialized countries. But the U.S. isn’t the most productive country in the world. When it comes to full productivity, according to an article in The Economist, France wins, working only forty hours a week with lots of vacation. Conversations with clients and friends suggest we’re working hard, but … well, stupidly. We’re busy, but our important priorities are falling by the wayside as we work hard when we should be working smart.
Start with your eyes open
Before you read on, I must warn you: Working smart is risky. If you work smart, you’ll have more free time. If you use the free time to take on more commitments, you’re just as busy as before, but now you are so tightly scheduled that a slip in one project can cascade to many more projects. Happiness happens when productivity enables a higher-quality life, not frantic overachievement.
Right now, we get more productive by working longer. But how about working faster? To work faster, you’ll have to get in the zone. In the zone, you’re running a marathon. You bring your full focus to one task and build momentum until you’re producing results like nobody’s business.
Key to entering the zone is eliminating distraction. Your major distractions are e-mail, telephone, visitors and yourself. One of my clients, a high-tech CEO, blocks out four hours each day for focus time. He closes his door, forwards the phone to voice-mail and starts working to build up his rhythm. Without distractions, he can spend time doing big-picture thinking, instead of being pulled into details. After five years, he considers this one of the best habits he has ever developed.
Specialized Terms
Fall by the wayside (idiom) 被抛在一边 to be forgotten because of other considerations
In the zone (idiom) 处于最佳状态 doing something very skillfully and easily
Like nobody’s business (idiom) 非常好地；极快地 very quickly or very much
Vocabulary Focus
Multitasking (n) a person’s ability to do more than one thing at a time
Productive (adj) able to produce a large quantity
Cascade (v) to fall quickly and in large amounts
Frantic (adj) done in a hurry and often a state of confusion
Momentum (n) force that increases the rate of development of a process; impetus
Big picture (n) an overall perspective of a situation
Discussion Question
Do you think multitasking could reduce your productivity? Why or why not?
Extra Exercise
1. Translate the following sentence into Chinese, ‘but now you are so tightly scheduled that a slip in one project can cascade to many more projects.’
2. According to the recording, complete the following sentence ‘Are you working hard or …?’
说明：
1.文本摘自《Advanced 彭蒙惠英语》，由chandler30亲自录入。更多节目可访www.studioclassroom.com
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