预防并克服拖拉的有效措施（上）

 1. Take It One Step At a Time

Some tasks, at first glance, may seem simply overwhelming or require a Herculean amount of effort, so in term we don’t do anything, at all. It’s important not to let yourself discouraged by any particular amount of work or pressure involved in an activity; what you need to do is start off slow, in small baby steps, in a revere¹ pyramid style and you’ll soon find that things are actually beginning to shape up. For example the other week, I went in with my dad in the garage to clean up the place. There were wrenches², old car oil stench, used car parts, an old refrigerator, a broken TV and a bunch of other useless crap lying all over the place. I didn’t even know where to start from and it all seem like it was gonna take for ever to clean up the mess. My dad soon approached me and told me “there’s no hurry son, there’s no pressure, we’ll just take it one step at a time and see where we get.” We started off with the floor, then with the stocked up drawers and went to more and more difficult task from there on, until around midnight we finally finished. My garage never looked cleaner. This is not only a methodical technique of getting things done, but also a provider or motivation.

1. 一点一点的做

有 些任务，乍一看，感觉是无法实现的，或是需要莫大的努力，于是就导致我们竟然就什么都没做。我们千万不要因为某些工作或压力而气馁，这很重要；我们处理它们的方法应该是逐渐启动，就像小孩学走路时最初的那一小步，采用一种倒金字塔的方法，你很快就能发现事情正在实际的开始有雏形了。 例如，有一个周末，我跟爸爸一起走进车库准备清扫这个地方。扳手，废油，用过的汽车零件到处都是，一个旧冰箱，一个破损的电视，还有一堆其它没用的废物。我真是不知道如何下手，看起来这是个永远不能完成的任务。爸爸很快走过来告诉我：“这里没有什么要紧的事情，没有什么要求，我们只需要每次做一点，然后看看我们都做完了什么。“我们从地板开始，然后是那些放东西的抽屉，然后其他越来越麻烦的事情，这样，直到午夜，我们终于完成了。 我们的车库前所未有的干净。这不仅是一种做事情的技术方法学，也是为人父母和激励人的方法学。

2. You Don’t Need To “Have To,” You Need To “Want To”

If you feel like you “have to” do something you’ll automatically feel a sense of restrainment and negativity, that comes naturally when we’re feeling obliged to do something. This leads to some serious procrastination³ issues and is most encountered at work. The solution here is to shift your mindset from “have to” to “want to.”Be a firm believer that if you don’t want to do something, then you don’t have to. Simple as that. This might of course have some serious consequences, like loosing your job for instance (in the most extreme cases), but if manage to master the art of avoiding unwanted activities, you won’t have any trouble. There are some unpleasant tasks that we can’t avoid, like work for some (I never could understand why some people would choose to make their living in a field of activity they displease), but even then we can avoid procrastination by tricking our brain. You can do this by finding anything remotely pleasant about what you’re about to do, no matter how small and then think about it all the time, while you pursue the respective unpleasant task. This will cheat your brain into thinking you want to do it, not have to.

2. 没有“必须做”，只有“想要做”

如 果有什么事情是你感觉是“必须”要做的，那么你会不由自主的产生一种消极抵触的情绪，当你感到“被迫”要去做什么事情是自然会产生这种情绪。 这将会导致一些严重的拖拉问题，大部分发生在工作问题上。 解决这个问题的办法是将“必须做”的思想倾向转变成“想要做”。坚信如果你不想做什么事情，你就不必去做它。就这么简单。当然，这也许会导致一些严重的后果，例如立即丢了你的工作（在极端的情况下），但是如果你能掌握如何躲避不想做的事情的艺术时，这种情况就不会发生。有些不令人高兴的事情我们无法避免，例如替别人做事（我一直不明白为什么有些人要生活在他们不满意的行业中），对于这种事情我们可以用欺骗自己的技巧来避免拖拉。 你可以在你将要做的任务中寻找任何值得你高兴的方面，哪怕是一点点，然后你就一直想它，然后再去做那些不高兴的任务。这种方法可以骗过你的心智，让你觉得你想要去做它，而不是必须做。

3. Brainstorm⁴ Your Way Out

A common reason for procrastination is lack of ideas, when dealing⁵ with any kind of tasks, that mildly requires some creativity. We’ve all had our days of mind blocks or plateaus, it’s actually fairly common, but if this period of blockage⁶ is too long, procrastination can settle in. What you need to do is brainstorm. Go outside have a walk and freshen up, observe and analyze⁷ everything you see or encounter. Always bring a ben/pencil or a PDA (for those of you more tech savvy) and start taking notes of what you see. Don’t criticize yourself, write down even the most preposterous⁸ ideas your mind might produce, you never know when something brilliant might come up.

3. 走出去想办法

导致拖拉的一个常见的原因是没有主意，特别是处理某些需要创造性想法的任务。 我们每人都有思路卡壳和畅通的时候，真是很常见，但是如果思路堵塞的时间太长，拖拉就会发生。 你现在需要做的是脑力激荡。 出去走走，清理一下思想，注意观察和分析你看到和碰到的任何事情。 拿着笔和本子或者一个PDA（这个需要你知道更多的技术知识），开始描述你看到的东西。 不要挑剔，写下甚至是最荒唐的主意，只要是你想到的，因为你永远不知道何时绝妙的想法会突然蹦出了。

1 revere   

vt.尊崇，崇敬，敬畏

参考例句：

• Students revere the old professors.学生们十分尊敬那些老教授。
• The Chinese revered corn as a gift from heaven.中国人将谷物奉为上天的恩赐。

2 wrenches   

n.一拧( wrench的名词复数 )；（身体关节的）扭伤；扳手；（尤指离别的）悲痛v.（猛力地）扭( wrench的第三人称单数 )；扭伤；使感到痛苦；使悲痛

参考例句：

• NEVER use wrenches or other persuaders to operate the valve. 禁止使用扳手或其它强制性工具来操作阀门。 来自互联网
• Thus, torque wrenches should be used for tightening DISS connections. 因此，应该使用转矩扳手来上紧DISS接头。 来自互联网

3 procrastination   

n.拖延，耽搁

参考例句：

• Procrastination is the father of failure. 因循是失败的根源。
• Procrastination is the thief of time. 拖延就是浪费时间。

4 brainstorm   

vi.动脑筋，出主意，想办法，献计，献策

参考例句：

• The women meet twice a month to brainstorm and set business goals for each other.她们每个月聚会两次，在一起出谋献策，为各自制定生意目标。
• We can brainstorm a list of the most influential individuals in the company.我们可以集体讨论，列出该公司中最有影响的人员的名单。

5 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

6 blockage   

n.障碍物；封锁

参考例句：

• The logical treatment is to remove this blockage.合理的治疗方法就是清除堵塞物。
• If the blockage worked,they could retreat with dignity.如果封锁发生作用，他们可以体面地撤退。

7 analyze   

vt.分析，解析 (=analyse)

参考例句：

• We should analyze the cause and effect of this event.我们应该分析这场事变的因果。
• The teacher tried to analyze the cause of our failure.老师设法分析我们失败的原因。

8 preposterous   

adj.荒谬的，可笑的

参考例句：

• The whole idea was preposterous.整个想法都荒唐透顶。
• It would be preposterous to shovel coal with a teaspoon.用茶匙铲煤是荒谬的。