Why are so many of us struggling with productivity?
为什么很多人会苦于效率低下？
We set out positively when we start our working day and we’re determined that we’ll do a lot of things that will bring us a step closer to our goals, but when at the end of the day we look back at what we have actually accomplished, we realize that not much has been done, despite having enough time.
新的一天开始时，我们会认真的列出很多计划，下定决心去做很多事情，使我们离目标更进一步。而当一天结束，再回头看看究竟完成了什么时，我们会发现到，尽管有很多的时间，但实际完成的事情却并不多。
We’re not productive because we are not AWARE of our moments of being unproductive. Our minds get distracted by a cool video on YouTube, or an interesting article we read on Yahoo News, or a phone call or one of a myriad of other things.
缺乏效率是因为我们没有注意到那些不工作的时刻。 一个很酷的YouTube视频，一篇雅虎新闻上有趣的文章，或者一个电话乃至大千世界的林林总总都会令我们的大脑走神。
And every time a minor distraction happens, we might even be aware for a split second that we’re not being productive, but we convince ourselves that, ‘this won’t take long,’ and that we’ll be back to work in no time.
每次走神时，即便有那么一瞬间我们已经意识到自己没有在工作，但仍会说服自己，“这不会耽误多长时间”，“我会立即回到工作中"。
The problem with this is that these distractions add up during the day and eventually constitute more of our working time than actual productive work.
问题是，在工作期间，走神占用的总时间总会最终会比实际工作的总时间还要多。
The reason why this keeps happening is because we don’t measure our productivity, and measurement is crucial if we want to control something:
这种现象经常发生的原因在于我们没有衡量自己的工作效率，而如果我们想要掌控某件事，这一点是至关重要的。
‘Measurement is the first step that leads to control and eventually to improvement. If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you canít understand it, you can’t control it. If you canít control it, you canít improve it.’ - Dr. H. James Harrington
“衡量是控制并最终改善的第一步。如果你无法衡量某件事，那你就无法理解它。 如果你无法理解它，你就无法控制它。 如果你无法控制它，你就无法改进它。” ——James Harrinton博士如是说。
So, how do we measure productivity?
那么，我们如何衡量工作效率呢？
Very simple: we measure the time we had available in each day and then we measure the time we were productive, the time when we were working on the projects that led us closer to our goals.
很简单：我们先衡量我们每天已支配的时间，然后衡量我们有产出的时间，也就是能让我们接近目标的工作时间。
We can then divide our productive time by the total time available to calculate our productivity in percentage form.
然后我们以产出时间除以总支配时间，以百分比的形式来计算我们的工作效率。
For example, today I started work at 9:30 and I am finishing this article at around 11:30.
例如，今天我从9:30开始，大约到11:30，写完了这篇文章。
For this system to work, you need to be brutally honest. If I am, then in my two hours of available work, I spent around 40 minutes writing this post and about 20 minutes answering emails related to my business.
对于这部分工作，你需要严格的保持诚实。假如我够诚实，在我两小时的工作时间里，我花了大约40分钟写这篇文章，大约20分钟回复业务相关的电子邮件。
The other 60 minutes I spent time chatting with two friends on Skype, reading emails not related to my work , and reading internet marketing news not crucial to my business.
剩下的60分钟呢，我和两个朋友在Skype上聊聊天，看看一些与工作无关的邮件，以及与业务无关的网络营销新闻。
My productivity then was 60 minutes of work / 120 minutes of available time = 50%
那么我的工作效率就是 60分钟的工作时间/120分钟的支配时间=50%。
When I do this again in the evening, I then realize that my daily productivity was maybe only 25%.
如果我晚上继续做些事情，我会意识到我的日工作效率可能只有25%了。
I have now measured my productivity and realized the painful truth: I spent only 25% of my available time working towards my goals and wasted the rest of my time doing unimportant things.
我衡量过我的工作效率并痛苦的发现：我的时间只有25%用来做正事，而大部分时间都浪费在了无关紧要的事情上了。
Life is short and I believe it’s crucial that we become aware of how much time we waste doing nothing important, because only that painful realization will drive our determination to make the best of our time while we’re here and make us more vigilant about our wasted time in general.
生命是短暂的。我相信意识到自己浪费了多少时间是至关重要的，因为这个痛苦的发现将促使我们下定决心去最合理的利用我们的时间，也使我们更加警惕时间的浪费。
A productivity percentage of only 25% means that I could be progressing four times faster towards my goals than I am now.
只有25%的工作效率意味着我可以以现在四倍的速度朝我的目标前进。
Consciously being aware of the benefit of greater productivity and of our wasted time are then the necessary ‘carrot and stick’ that will drive us to success and fulfillment.
有意识的去体验高效工作的效益和浪费时间的弊端，这种必要的“胡萝卜加大棒”，定会推动我们走向成功。
