How to gain control of your free time | Laura Vanderkam | TED - YouTube

When people find out I write about time management, they assume two things. One is that I'm always on time, and I'm not. I have four small children, and I would like to blame them for my occasional tardiness, but sometimes it's just not their fault. I was once late to my own speech on time management. We all had to just take a moment together and savor that irony. The second thing they assume is that I have lots of tips and tricks for saving bits of time here and there, and sometimes I'll hear from magazines that are doing a story along these lines, generally on how to help the readers find an extra hour in the day. And the idea is that we'll shave bits of time off everyday activities, add it up, and we'll have time for the good stuff.

当人们知道我写关于时间管理的文章时，他们会有两个假设。一个是我总是准时，但事实并非如此。我有四个年幼的孩子，我本可以责怪他们让我偶尔迟到，但有时候并不是他们的错。我曾经甚至迟到了自己关于时间管理的演讲。我们大家不得不一起冷静片刻，品味那份讽刺的滋味。第二个假设是我有很多节省时间的小窍门，有时一些杂志会联系我，他们正在做这类报道，通常是如何帮助读者在一天中多出一个小时。他们的想法是通过在日常活动中节省一些时间，把这些时间加起来，就能有时间去做有意义的事情。

And I question the entire premise of this piece, but I'm always interested in hearing what they've come up with before they call me. So some of my favorites, doing errands in a way where you only have to make right hand turns, being extremely judicious in microwave usage, so it says three to three and a half minutes on the package we are totally getting in on the bottom side of that. And my personal favorite, which makes sense on some level, is to DVR your favorite shows so you can fast forward through the commercials. And that way you save about eight minutes every half hour.

我对这篇文章的整个前提表示怀疑，但我总是愿意在他们找我之前听听他们想出了什么点子。下面是我最喜欢的一些点子：只用右转的方式去跑腿、非常谨慎地使用微波炉——包裹上写着加热三到三分钟半，我们肯定会选择最短的时间。而我个人最喜欢的点子是在某种程度上是有道理的，那就是用DVR录下你最喜欢的节目，这样你可以快进跳过广告。通过这种方式，你每半小时能节省大约8分钟。

So in the course of two hours of watching TV you find 32 minutes to exercise. Which is true. You know another way to find 32 minutes to exercise? Don't watch two hours of TV a day, right? Anyway, the idea is we'll save bits of time here and there, add it up, we will finally get to everything we want to do. But after studying how successful people spend their time, and looking at their schedules hour by hour, I think this idea has it completely backward. We don't build the lives we want by saving time. We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself. Here's what I mean.

所以，当你花两个小时看电视时，你能找到32分钟来锻炼。这是真的。你知道另一个找到32分钟时间锻炼的方法吗？就是不要每天看两个小时的电视，对吧？无论如何，观点是我们可以在这里和那里节省一些时间，积少成多，我们最终能够完成我们想做的一切。但是，在研究那些成功人士如何安排他们时间的过程中，并逐小时查看他们的日程安排之后，我认为这个观点是完全错误的。我们不是通过节省时间来建立我们想要的生活。我们是先建立我们想要的生活，然后时间自然会被腾出来。我的意思是这样的。

I recently did a time diary project looking at a thousand and one days in the lives of extremely busy women. They had demanding jobs, sometimes their own businesses, kids to care for, maybe parents to care for, community commitments, busy, busy people. I had them keep track of their time for weeks so I could add up how much they worked and slept. I interviewed them about their strategies for my book. One of the women whose timelog I studied, she goes out for a Wednesday night for something. She comes home to find that her water heater has broken. And there is now water all over her basement.

我最近做了一个时间日记项目，观察了极度忙碌的女性在一千零一天中的生活。她们有着要求很高的工作，有时还有自己的生意，要照顾孩子，也可能要照顾父母，承担社区责任，总之非常忙碌。我让她们记录自己数周的时间安排，以便统计她们工作和睡眠的时间。我还采访了她们，了解她们的时间管理策略，为我的书提供素材。其中有一位女性，她的时间日志显示，有一个星期三晚上她出去办事，回家后发现热水器坏了，水淹了整个地下室。

If you've ever had anything like this happen to you, you know it is a hugely damaging, frightening, stopping mess. So she's dealing with the immediate aftermath at night. Next day she's got plumbers coming in, day after that, professional cleaning career dealing with the ruined carpet. All this is being recorded on her time log winds up taking seven hours of her week. Seven hours. That's like finding an extra hour in the day. But I'm sure if you had asked her at the start of the week, could you find seven hours to train for triathlon? Could you find seven hours to mentor seven worthy people?

如果你曾经历过类似的事情，你会知道这是一个极其破坏性、令人恐惧且让人束手无策的烂摊子。所以，她在晚上处理了最紧迫的后果。第二天，水管工来了；再接下来一天，专业的清洁人员来了处理被毁的地毯。这一切被记录在她的时间日志上，总共花了她一周中的七个小时。七个小时。这就像在一天中额外找到了一个小时。但我敢肯定，如果你在一周开始时问她，能否找出七个小时来训练铁人三项？能否找到七个小时来指导七个有潜力的人？

I'm sure she would have said what most of us would have said, which is, no. Could you see how busy I am? Yet when she had to find seven hours because there is water all over her basement, she found seven hours. And what this shows us is that time is highly elastic. We cannot make more time, but time will stretch to accommodate what we choose to put into it. And so the key to time management is treating our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater. And to get at this, I like to use some language from one of the busiest people I ever interviewed. By busy, I mean she was running a small business of 12 people on the payroll. She had six children in her spare time.

我相信她会说我们大多数人都会说的话，那就是“不”。你没看到我有多忙吗？然而，当她不得不挤出七个小时来处理地下室的积水问题时，她找到了七个小时。这告诉我们，时间是非常有弹性的。我们无法创造更多的时间，但时间会延展，以适应我们选择投入其中的事务。所以，时间管理的关键在于把我们的优先事项看作是相当于那个坏掉的热水器的紧急情况。为了说明这一点，我喜欢引用我采访过的一位最忙碌的人的话。她的忙碌程度是，她管理着一个有12名员工的小公司，还有六个孩子需要照顾。

I was getting in touch with her to set up an interview on how she had it all, that phrase. I remember it was a Thursday morning and she was not available to speak with me, of course. But the reason she was unavailable to speak with me is that she was out for a hike because it was a beautiful spring morning and she wanted to go for a hike. So of course this makes me even more intrigued. And when I finally do catch up with her, she explains it like this. She says, listen Laura, everything I do, every minute I spend is my choice. And rather than say, I don't have time to do X, Y or Z, she'd say, I don't do X, Y or Z because it's not a priority.

我联系她是为了安排一次采访，主题是她如何"拥有一切"。我记得那是一个星期四的早晨，而她当然没法跟我说话。但她之所以没法跟我说话，是因为她出去徒步了，因为那是一个美丽的春晨，她想去徒步。所以这让我更加好奇。当我最终和她谈上时，她这样解释。她说，听着，Laura，我所做的每一件事，我花的每一分钟，都是我的选择。她不会说：我没时间去做X、Y或Z，而是说：我不做X、Y或Z，因为它们不是优先事项。

I don't have time often means it's not a priority. If you think about it, that's really more accurate language. I mean I could tell you I don't have time to dust my blinds but that's not true. If you offered to pay me $100,000 to go dust my blinds, I would get to it pretty quickly. Since that is not going to happen, I can acknowledge this is not a matter of lacking time, is that I don't want to do it. Using this language reminds us that time is a choice. Granted, there may be horrible consequences for making different choices. I will give you that. But we are smart people and certainly over the long run, we have the power to fill our lives with the things that deserve to be there. So how do we do that?

我没有时间经常意味着这不是一个优先事项。如果你仔细想想，这其实是更准确的说法。我是说，我可以告诉你我没有时间擦窗帘杆上的灰尘，但这不是真的。如果你出10万美元让我去擦窗帘杆，我会很快去做。既然这种情况不会发生，我可以承认这不是时间不够的问题，而是我不想去做。使用这种语言提醒我们时间是一个选择。当然，做出不同选择可能会有可怕的后果。这一点我承认。但是我们是聪明人，长期来看，我们有能力让我们的生活充满值得存在的事情。那么我们该如何做到这一点呢？

How do we treat our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater? Well, first we need to figure out what they are. And I want to give you two strategies for thinking about this. The first on the professional side. I'm sure many people coming up to the end of the year are giving or getting annual performance reviews. You look back over your successes over the year, your opportunities for growth. And this serves its purpose. But I find it's more effective to do this looking forward. So I want you to pretend as the end of next year, you're giving yourself a performance review. And it has been an absolutely amazing year for you professionally. And three to five things did you do that made it so amazing. So you can write next year's performance review now. And you can do this for your personal life too.

我们如何把优先事项当作那个坏掉的热水器一样对待呢？首先，我们需要确定它们是什么。我想给你两个思考这个问题的策略。第一个是关于职业方面的。我相信很多人在年底时都会进行年度绩效评估。不管是给别人还是自己，都需要回顾一下这一年的成就和成长机会。这种做法是有意义的，但我发现向前看会更有效。所以，我希望你假装这是明年年底，你在给自己做绩效评估。这一年在职业上对你来说非常出色，有哪些三到五件事让这一年如此成功？你现在就可以写明年的绩效评估。同样，你也可以在个人生活方面这样做。

I'm sure many of you, like me, come December, get cards that contain these folded up sheets of colored paper on which is written what is known as the Family Holiday Letter. Bit of a wretched genre of literature really going on about how amazing everyone in the household is or even more scintillating how busy everyone in the household is. But these letters serve a purpose which is that they tell your friends and family what you did in your personal life that mattered to you over the course of the year. So this year's kind of done, but I want you to pretend it's the end of next year. And it has been an absolutely amazing year for you and the people you care about. But three to five things did you do that made it so amazing. So you can write next year's Family Holiday Letter now. Don't send it. Please. Don't send it. But you can write it. And now between the performance review and the Family Holiday Letter, we have a list of six to ten goals we can work on in the next year. And now we need to break these down into doable steps. So maybe you want to write a family history. Well first you can read some other family histories, get a sense for the style. Then maybe think about the questions you want to ask your relatives, set up appointments to interview them. Or maybe you want to run a 5K. So you need to find a race and sign up and figure out a training plan and dig those shoes out of the back of the closet.

我相信你们中的很多人和我一样，每到十二月都会收到一些卡片，里面夹着几张彩色纸，上面写着所谓的“家庭节日信”。这种文体说实话真是有点让人难受，无非是在夸赞家里每个人有多么棒，或者更无趣地描述大家有多忙碌。但这些信还是有其存在的意义的，就是告诉你的朋友和家人你这一年在个人生活中有哪些重要的事情。所以说，今年已经差不多结束了，但是我想让你假装现在是明年年底，而且对于你和你关心的人来说，这是绝对惊艳的一年。那么，有哪三到五件事情是你做了让这一年如此精彩？你们现在就可以写明年的家庭节日信。不过不要寄出去。真的，不要寄。但你们可以写下来。现在结合绩效评估和家庭节日信，我们有一份六到十个目标的清单，准备在下一年努力实现。现在我们需要将这些目标分解成可以完成的步骤。比如你想写一部家族史。那首先你可以先读一些其他的家族史，对写作风格有所了解。然后考虑你想问亲戚哪些问题，安排时间去采访他们。或者你想跑一个5公里比赛，那你需要找到一个赛事并报名，制定训练计划，从鞋柜深处把跑鞋找出来。

And then this is key. We treat our priorities as the equivalent of that broken water heater by putting them into our schedules first. And we do this by thinking through our weeks before we are in them. I find it really good time to do this is Friday afternoons. Friday afternoon is what an economist might call a low opportunity cost time. Most of us are not sitting there on Friday afternoon saying I am excited to make progress toward my personal and professional priorities right now. But we are willing to think about what those should be. So take a little bit of time Friday afternoon, make yourself a three category priority list. Career relationships self. Making a three category list reminds us that there should be something in all three categories. Career we think about relationships self not so much. But anyway just a short list, two to three items in each. Then look out over the whole of the next week and see where you can plan them in. Where you plan them in is up to you.

然后，这是关键：我们要把优先事项当作那个坏了的热水器那样对待，把它们首先安排进我们的日程。我们通过在周开始之前规划好这一周来实现这一点。我发现一个很适合做这件事的时间是周五下午。周五下午是经济学家所说的低机会成本时间。大多数人在周五下午并没有坐在那里想着，"我现在很兴奋要在个人和职业优先事项上取得进展。" 但我们愿意考虑这些优先事项应该是什么。所以花一点时间在周五下午，给自己列一个三类优先事项清单：职业、关系和自我。列一个三类清单提醒我们，在这三个类别中都应该有一些事情。我们通常会想到职业和关系，但不太考虑自我。无论如何，这只是一个简短的清单，每个类别两到三个项目。然后查看下一整周的时间，看看你可以把它们安排在哪些时间段。具体安排在哪些时间段由你自己决定。

And I know this is going to be more complicated for some people than others. I mean some people's lives are just harder than others. It is not going to be easy to find time to take that poetry class if you are caring for multiple children on your own. I get that. And I don't want to minimize anyone's struggle. But I do think that the numbers I am about to tell you are empowering. There are 168 hours in a week. 24 times 7 is 168 hours. That is a lot of time. If you are working a full time job so 40 hours a week, sleeping eight hours a night, so 56 hours a week, that leaves 72 hours for other things. That is a lot of time. You say you are working 50 hours a week, maybe a main job and a side hustle. Well that leaves 62 hours for other things. You say you are working 60 hours. Well that leaves 52 hours for other things. You say you are working more than 60 hours. Well are you sure?

我明白，对有些人来说，这会比对其他人更复杂。我的意思是，有些人的生活确实比别人更艰难。如果你一个人要照顾多个孩子，那么要找到时间去上诗歌课肯定不容易。我理解这一点，不想轻视任何人的困难。但我认为，我即将告诉你的数字是有力量的。一周有168小时，24乘以7等于168小时。这是很多时间。如果你全职工作，每周40小时，晚上睡8小时，每周56小时，那还剩72小时可供支配。这是很多时间。你说你每周工作50小时，也许有一份主业和一份副业，那还剩62小时。你说你工作60小时，那还剩52小时。你说你每周工作超过60小时，真的吗？

There was once a study comparing people's estimated work weeks with time dairies. Found that people claiming 75 plus hour work weeks were off by about 25 hours. You can guess in which direction, right? Anyway, in 168 hours a week, I think we can find time for what matters to you. If you want to spend more time with your kids, you want to study more for a test you are taking, you want to exercise for three hours and volunteer for two, you can. And that is even if you are working way more than full time hours. So we have plenty of time which is great because guess what? We don't even need that much time to do amazing things.

曾经有一项研究比较了人们自认为的工作时长和实际时间日记。发现那些声称每周工作75小时以上的人，实际上少算了约25个小时。你能猜到是超估了还是少估了，对吧？无论如何，一周有168小时，我想我们总能找到时间做重要的事。如果你想花更多时间和孩子在一起，想为你要考的考试多花点时间学习，想用三个小时锻炼身体并用两个小时做志愿者工作，你是可以做到的。即使你工作的时间远远超过了全职工作时间，我们也还有很多时间可以利用，这很棒，因为猜猜看？我们根本不需要那么多时间就能做成了不起的事。

But when most of us have bits of time, what do we do? Pull out the phone, right? Start deleting emails. Otherwise we are puttering around the house or watching TV. But small moments can have great power. You can use your bits of time for bits of joy. Maybe it's choosing to read something wonderful on the bus on the way to work. I know when I had a job that required two bus rides and a subway ride every morning. I used to go to the library on weekends to get stuff to read. Made the whole experience almost, almost enjoyable.

但是当我们大多数人有零碎时间时，我们会做什么呢？掏出手机，对吧？开始删除邮件。否则我们就会在家里闲逛或者看电视。但是，小片刻也能有巨大的力量。你可以用这些零碎的时间获得小小的快乐。也许是在上班的公交车上选择读一些美好的书。我记得以前我有一份工作，每天早上需要坐两次公交和一次地铁。我常常在周末去图书馆借书阅读。这让整个通勤过程几乎、几乎变得愉快。

Breaks at work can be used for meditating or praying. If family dinner is out because of your crazy work schedule, maybe family breakfast could be a good substitute. It's about looking at the whole of one's time and seeing where the good stuff can go. I truly believe this. There is time. Even if we are busy, we have time for what matters. And when we focus on what matters, we can build the lives we want in the time we've got. Thank you.

工作间隙可以用来冥想或祷告。如果由于你繁忙的工作日程无法参加家庭晚餐，或许家庭早餐是一个不错的替代方案。关键在于审视你全部的时间，看看哪些时间可以用来做重要的事情。我真心相信这一点。时间总是有的。即使我们很忙碌，我们也有时间去做重要的事情。当我们专注于那些重要的事情时，我们可以在现有的时间里打造我们想要的生活。谢谢。