按照常理來(lái)說(shuō)，受傷了工作效率會(huì)降低，但是又一個(gè)神奇的理論卻或受傷了工作效率反而高了，一起來(lái)看看吧。
Two weeks ago I was cycling home after visiting my 90-year-old father who had fallen over and broken a hip. It was a fine spring evening, my bike had just been tuned up and I was racing along feeling grateful not to be ancient, frail and immobilised.
前一陣子，我看望父親后騎車(chē)回家。他已經(jīng)90歲高齡，之前摔了一跤，摔斷了盆骨。那是個(gè)春風(fēng)和煦的美好夜晚，我的車(chē)子剛剛調(diào)好，我一路飛馳，慶幸自己依然年輕、身體強(qiáng)健、活動(dòng)自如。
Halfway down Dalston Lane, the hipster cycling in front of me took a corner too fast, lost control of his bike and fell under my front wheel. I panicked, swerved and fell off myself.
當(dāng)我在達(dá)爾斯頓路(Dalston Lane)上騎到一半時(shí)，騎在我前面的那位潮人拐彎太快，車(chē)子失去控制，摔倒在我的前輪下。我被嚇了一跳，猛地轉(zhuǎn)向，也摔下車(chē)來(lái)。
As I lay on the tarmac, I had a sense of déjà vu. The first thought that came into my head was: I’ve had a bike accident — again.
我躺在柏油馬路上，感覺(jué)有些似曾相識(shí)。出現(xiàn)在腦海中的第一個(gè)念頭是：我又一次遭遇了自行車(chē)車(chē)禍。
Readers of this column might be getting a sense of déjà vu too. It’s not the first time they have had to read about me falling off my favourite means of transport. When I presented myself at work the next day a colleague took one look at my arm, hanging feebly in a sling, and said: “How annoying! You can’t even turn it into a column, as you’ve written that one already.”
這個(gè)專欄的讀者或許也有似曾相識(shí)的感覺(jué)。這不是他們第一次讀到關(guān)于我從我最喜歡的交通工具上摔下的文章了。第二天當(dāng)我去上班時(shí)，一位同事看了一眼我打著吊帶無(wú)力懸掛著的胳膊，說(shuō)：“真討厭!你都不能把這寫(xiě)成一篇專欄，你已經(jīng)寫(xiě)過(guò)這類(lèi)事了�！�
At the time I agreed. But two weeks on, I’ve changed my mind. This time it’s different. My father’s broken hip and my own broken arm have taught me two lessons in how to get more done that are so profound, I have a duty to share them.
當(dāng)時(shí)我對(duì)此沒(méi)有異議。但是兩周后，我改變了想法。這一次不一樣。我父親摔斷的盆骨和我自己摔斷的胳膊讓我學(xué)到了兩個(gè)關(guān)于如何能完成更多工作的深刻教訓(xùn)，我有責(zé)任分享出來(lái)。
When I came off my bike last year, I landed on my face, got a black eye, and grazes and bruises on forehead, cheek and chin. The subject of the column I wrote then was how to pretend to be a professional woman when you look like the victim of domestic abuse. That article now strikes me as being of niche interest — although I did receive an email from a woman who had come off her bike, lost seven teeth and gone into the office the next day to chair a meeting.
去年當(dāng)我從車(chē)上摔下時(shí)，我是臉著地，摔得眼眶烏青，前額、臉頰和下巴都有擦傷和淤血。我當(dāng)時(shí)寫(xiě)的那篇專欄的主題是，當(dāng)你看起來(lái)像家暴受害者一樣時(shí)，該如何假裝成職業(yè)女性�，F(xiàn)在在我看來(lái)，那篇文章只會(huì)引起小眾興趣——盡管我的確收到了來(lái)自一名從自行車(chē)上摔下、磕掉了7顆牙的女性的郵件，事故第二天她就去上班主持會(huì)議了。
This time what I’ve learnt is of wider appeal. The two fractures establish two counterintuitive laws of productivity that can be used by anyone.
這一次我得到的教訓(xùn)能引起更廣泛讀者的興趣。我從兩次骨折事件中得到的兩條違反直覺(jué)的工作效率法則，可以適用于任何人。
The first law I have invented myself and it goes like this: if you slow technology down, you go faster.
第一條法則是我自己發(fā)明的，它是這么說(shuō)的：如果你把技術(shù)放慢，你會(huì)走得更快。
I have a small break at the top of my right arm, which means I can move my fingers and wrist, but the arm is strapped up so I can type only very slowly. Instead of being a disaster for someone who spends the whole day at the keyboard it has made me write more efficiently than I’ve done in years.
我右臂最上處有一處小骨折，這意味著我可以動(dòng)手指和手腕，但是因?yàn)楦觳舶饋?lái)了，所以我打字非常慢。對(duì)于整日與鍵盤(pán)為伍的人來(lái)說(shuō)，這非但不是災(zāi)難，反而讓我的寫(xiě)作效率達(dá)到多年來(lái)最高。
Because typing is hard, I am having to practise the long-forgotten skill of thinking before I write — a requirement in the days of the manual typewriter, when the strictures of the Tipp-Ex bottle meant getting it right first time. Now, thanks to my computer’s infinite tolerance of mistakes, I think nothing of getting it wrong 20 times before finally getting a grip and writing something intelligible.
因?yàn)榇蜃掷щy，我不得不練習(xí)起寫(xiě)作之前先思考這項(xiàng)遺忘已久的技能——在手動(dòng)打字機(jī)時(shí)代(Tipp-Ex修正液的限制意味著要一次性寫(xiě)對(duì))，這是一項(xiàng)基本要求。如今，由于我的電腦對(duì)錯(cuò)誤的無(wú)限容忍，在最終抓住核心、寫(xiě)下通順的句子前，錯(cuò)上20次也沒(méi)什么關(guān)系。
While my right hand is just about up to typing, operating a mouse is too much, and I’ve had to pass the job to my left hand — which is entirely unequal to it. I now find that clicking on anything at all makes me feel like a contestant in The Golden Shot, the 1970s British television game in which a blindfolded cameraman holding a crossbow was guided by a contestant on where to aim it: up a little. Stop. Left a little. Stop. Up a little...Getting the dratted cursor in the right position is so arduous that multitasking has lost all appeal. There is no temptation to spend the day flitting from email to Twitter to eBay and back. I’ve had to pick a task and stick to it.
盡管我的右手剛好可以打字，但是確實(shí)沒(méi)辦法操作鼠標(biāo)，于是我把這個(gè)任務(wù)交給了左手——而左手實(shí)在是沒(méi)法和右手比。現(xiàn)在我發(fā)現(xiàn)，每次點(diǎn)擊都讓我感覺(jué)像是《The Golden Shot》(上世紀(jì)70年代的英國(guó)電視游戲，一名蒙著眼睛、拿著弩的攝像師在競(jìng)賽者的指引下瞄準(zhǔn)目標(biāo))中的競(jìng)賽者：向上一點(diǎn)、停、向左一點(diǎn)、停、向上一點(diǎn)……把那可惡的光標(biāo)移動(dòng)到正確的位置實(shí)在太費(fèi)勁了，以至于多重任務(wù)處理徹底失去了吸引力。我實(shí)在沒(méi)興趣耗費(fèi)一整天的時(shí)間從郵件切換到Twitter、切換到eBay、再回到郵件。我只能選擇一個(gè)任務(wù)然后堅(jiān)持做完。
I have discovered these joys the hard way, but I don’t see why they couldn’t be enjoyed without falling off a bike. Anyone can operate the mouse on the wrong side — although I should warn them that the learning curve is so steep that after a few days my left hand has started to get the hang of it, sending productivity tanking.
我用一種極不容易的方式發(fā)現(xiàn)了這些樂(lè)趣，但是我想不出為何不能在不摔下車(chē)的情況下享受這些樂(lè)趣。任何人都可以用不常用的手操作鼠標(biāo)——不過(guò)我應(yīng)該提醒他們，學(xué)習(xí)曲線非常陡峭以至于幾天后我的左手才開(kāi)始進(jìn)入狀態(tài)，工作效率慘不忍睹。
A more permanent solution is needed. Hardware manufacturers should set out to produce cumbersome technology for offices — anti-ergonomic keyboards and mice that are as hard to control as supermarket trolleys — making us masters of our computers once again, rather than vice versa.
我們需要一個(gè)更永久性的解決方案。硬件制造商應(yīng)該著手為辦公室開(kāi)發(fā)難用的技術(shù)產(chǎn)品——像超市手推車(chē)一樣難控制的反人體工程學(xué)鍵盤(pán)和鼠標(biāo)——讓我們?cè)俅纬蔀殡娔X的主人，而不是被電腦牽著鼻子走。
The second counterintuitive law of productivity is not entirely my own invention. C Northcote Parkinson was the first to notice the indisputable truth that work expands to fill the time available. But in the past few days I have been shrinking time so drastically, often downing tools at 4pm to go to see my father, that I am starting to wonder if Parkinson went far enough. If you reduce your hours at work, not only do you achieve the same amount, you may achieve more.
第二條違反直覺(jué)的工作效率法則并不完全是我的發(fā)明。西里爾諾思科特帕金森(Cyril Northcote Parkinson)首先注意到了這個(gè)無(wú)可爭(zhēng)議的事實(shí)：工作會(huì)擴(kuò)張到占滿所有可用時(shí)間。但是過(guò)去這些天，我大幅壓縮工作時(shí)間，通常在下午4點(diǎn)前就停下工作去看望我父親，于是我開(kāi)始質(zhì)疑帕金森的推斷是否足夠深入。如果你減少工作時(shí)長(zhǎng)，你不僅能完成相同的工作量，或許還能完成更多工作。
What I can do when I’m on a roll for four hours is greater than what I can do in 10 when I’m not on one.
我全力以赴4個(gè)小時(shí)能完成的工作比我不在狀態(tài)時(shí)10個(gè)小時(shí)完成的工作更多。
Again, you don’t need a father with a broken hip to be spurred into bouts of intense work. We just need something — anything — in our lives with a more urgent claim on our time than work to make us whip through the tasks in a jiffy.
再?gòu)?qiáng)調(diào)一次，你不需要父親摔斷盆骨才能刺激自己緊張工作。我們只需要生活中出現(xiàn)一些比工作更緊急的事——任何事——來(lái)讓自己快馬加鞭地完成工作。