❶To combat the trap of putting a premium on being busy, Cal Newport, author of Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World, recommends building a habit of "deep work"—the ability to focus without distraction. ❷There are a number of approaches to mastering the art of deep work—be it lengthy retreats dedicated to a specific task; developing a daily ritual; or taking a "journalistic" approach to seizing moments of deep work when you can throughout the day. @Whichever approach, the key is to determine your length of focus time and stick to it.
❶Newport also recommends "deep scheduling" to combat constant interruptions and get more done in less time. ❷"At any given point, I should have deep work scheduled for roughly the next month.❸Once on the calendar, I protect this time like I would a doctor's appointment or important meeting, he writes.
❶Another approach to getting more done in less time is to rethink how you prioritise your day—in particular how we craft our to-do lists.❷Tim Harford, author of Messy: The Power of Disorder to Transform Our Lives, points to a study in the early 1980s that divided undergraduates into two groups: some were advised to set out monthly goals and study activities; others were told to plan activities and goals in much more detail, day by day.
❶While the researchers assumed that the well-structured (37) daily plans would be most effective when it came to the execution of tasks, they were wrong: the detailed daily plans demotivated students.❷Harford argues that inevitable distractions often render the daily to-do list ineffective, while leaving room for improvisation in such a list can reap the best results. Oln order to make the most of our focus and energy, we also need to embrace downtime, or as Newport suggests, "be lazy."
❶"Idleness is not just a vacation, an indulgence or a vice; it is as indispensable to the brain as vitamin D is to the body... [ idleness ] is, paradoxically, necessary to getting any work done," he argues.
❶Srini Pillay, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, believes this counterintuitive link between downtime and productivity may be due to the way our brains operate.❷When our brains switch between being focused and unfocused on a task, they tend to be more efficient.
❶"What people don't realise is that in order to complete " these tasks they need to use both the focus and unfocus circuits in their brain," says Pillay. Ul
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为了防止陷入过于重视忙碌的陷阱，《深 度工作：如何有效使用每一点脑力》一书的 作者卡尔・纽波特建议养成“深度工作”的 习惯，即一种摒除干扰、集中注意力的能力。 掌握深度工作艺术的方法有很多：长时 间退隐，专注于某个特定的任务；形成一种 日常的惯例；或者采用“新闻工作者”的方 式抓住一天中你可以抓住的深度工作的时间。 不管用哪种方法，关键在于确定你的专 注时长，并且持之以恒。 纽波特还建议“深度计划”，目的在于 防止工作时的持续干扰，并且能在较短时间 内完成更多的工作。“在任何特定时刻，我 都会为接下来的大约一个月制定深度工作计 划。一旦记录在日程表上，我就会像守护就 诊预约或重要会议一样守护这一时间安排，” 他写道。 另一种在较短时间内完成更多工作的方 法是：重新思考如何按照主次顺序规划你的一 天，尤其是如何精心制作我们的待办事项清 单。《混乱：改变我们生活的无序力量》一 书的作者蒂姆•哈福德提到了 20世纪80年 代初的一项研究，该研究把本科生分为两组： 一些人被建议按月制定目标和安排学习活 动；另一些人被告知按日制定更详细的计划 活动和目标。 尽管研究者的假设是，在执行任务 时，精心安排的日计划会更有效率，但是他 们错了：详细的日计划使学生失去了动力。 哈福德认为不可避免的干扰经常使每日的 待办事项清单无效，而在这样的清单中留出 临时应变的空间则能够获得最佳结果。 为了充分利用我们的注意力和精力，我 们也需要拥抱闲暇时间，或者就像纽波特说 的,“偷一下懒”。 懒散不仅是一次休假，一种放纵，或是 一个恶习；它对于我们的大脑来说还是不可 或缺的，就像维生素D对于身体一样……矛 盾的是，（38 ）'懒散'对于完成任何工作 来说都是必要的，”他说道。 哈佛医学院飭精神病学助理教授斯里 尼•皮莱认为，这种在休息与效率之间违反 直觉的联系可能是由于我们大脑的运作方式。 当我们的大脑就某项工作在专注和分心 两种状态间转换时，往往效率会更高。 人们没有意识到的是，为了完成这些任 务，他们需要使用专注与分心两种大脑回路，” 皮莱说道。 厶