No matter what you do, doesn’t it seem like there are not enough hours in the day? That’s where I was a couple years ago. I used to pull all-nighters, and was working 7 days a week to finish all my tasks. I simply had no time to spare.

无论你做什么，你是不是觉得每天的时间都不够用？几年前我也是这样。为了完成任务，有时我需要熬夜加班，一周工作七天 一点儿空余时间也没有。

The strategies which I learned along the way are what I hope to share with you today. Here are the 4 main things I do consistently to be more productive.

今天我想和你分享的，就是我所学到的高效工作的一些策略。下面是我让自己高效工作而经常做的4件事情：

1. I Don’t Multitask

不要同时处理很多任务

The greatest “executioner of my productivity” was that I had convinced myself that I was multitasking — and therefore was doing work faster.

我之前工作效率最大的硬伤，是我认为自己可以“多管其下”——觉得这样工作效率会高。

Multitasking is not a real thing. What you are really doing when you are (apparently) multitasking is going back and forth between two separate tasks. So rather than giving 100% to one task at a time you are going back and forth between tasks, giving each task a monumentally less amount of focus. This simply means that you end up doing both tasks at less than 100% — and you gain a whole lot of stress and tension.

多任务处理并不存在。实际的情况是，当你进行多任务处理的时候，你要不断在两个单独的任务间往返。你不是把100%的注意力都集中到一项任务上，而是在各项任务中不断往返，每次只分给一项任务很少的注意力。这就意味着到最后这些任务也不能完全完成，你还给自己增加了很多压力和紧张。

2. Break Things Down

把事情分解

Okay…so imagine a really large meatball. Got it? Good. According to animal instincts, the best way to eat it is to put the entire thing in your mouth and chew. Do that and you will be chewing and swallowing for the next 10 minutes.

好吧。想象一个真正的肉丸子。明白了吧？很好。按照动物的直觉，把肉丸吃掉的最好方法，是把它整个放到嘴里然后咀嚼。 要是这样的话，在接下来的10分钟里，你就会在那里一直咀嚼和吞咽。

Sensibly and productively speaking, the best and fastest way to eat the meatball is to cut it into smaller pieces so that you can take in as much as your mouth can handle, and swallow it in less than no time.

从理智和高效的角度来说，吃掉肉丸最好、最快的方式是把它切成小片，这样的话，每次你的嘴巴都能受得了，而且可以立刻吞下去。

This same rule applies to life. You are only able to handle so much at one time. If you try to take on a task too big all at once, you will only get clogged up and slowed down. But if you break it down into more manageable pieces, you’ll find that you will be able to finish the task a lot faster.

同样的原则也适应于生活。每次你只能处理那么多事情。如果你一次要做的任务太大，你就会卡住，并放慢速度。但是如果你把它分解成可以处理的比较小的任务，你会发现，你能更快地完成它。

3. Prioritize Your Tasks

为任务设立优先级别

You are craving a chocolate bar…or a client is waiting for your proposal. Which one is more important?

你很想吃巧克力棒……或一个客户正在等待你的建议。哪件事更重要？

Unfortunately, thousands of people find themselves in similar situations every day. You have to learn to automatically prioritize things that are more important. This way rather than wasting energy and time, you will focus on these particular things and get them done faster. This will make you more stress-free and will greatly boost your productivity.

不幸的是，成千上万的人发现自己每天都有着这样相似的经历。你需要学着能不假思索地为更重要的事情设定优先级。 这样做不仅不会浪费精力和时间，而且会让你更加关注这些重要的事情，并能更快地做完。这样会减轻你的压力，并能大大提升效率。

4. No Distractions

去除干扰

Sometimes I wonder how much time people end up wasting by: checking email; checking their cellphones; idly chatting with their colleagues; surfing the web.

有时我在想，人们到底浪费了多少时间：查收电子邮件；查看手机；和同事悠闲地聊天；上网闲逛......

All of these things (among others) will make you very unproductive. So when it gets down to finally getting work done, turn off or remove all distractions. Just get rid of them.

所有这些事情都会让你效率低下。所以要想最后能把工作做完，不要做这些干扰你的事情。把它们都去掉吧。