Everyone procrastinates. Even the most successful people struggle with it every day. But successful people do something that most of us don't -- they push past it. They don’t make excuses or allow it to affect their output. They come up with smart, actionable strategies to break past mental barriers and stay productive.
每個(gè)人都會(huì)拖延，即使是最成功的人每天也要跟拖延斗爭(zhēng)。但這些成功人士做了一些我們大多數(shù)人都沒有做的事——克服它。他們不為此找借口，或是任由拖延影響自己的工作。他們想出聰明的、可行性高的策略去打破過去的心理障礙，從而保持高效。

Here are eight ways successful people defeat procrastination.
下面就是成功人士戰(zhàn)勝拖延的八個(gè)方法。

1. They keep themselves accountable.
1. 他們對(duì)自己負(fù)責(zé)

Show yourself commitment to getting things done. Making a commitment to yourself helps keep you accountable. You can do this by writing your goals down, keeping a to-do list with you, and creating reminders in your phone and on your calendar.
給自己許下把事情做完的承諾。對(duì)自己許諾能夠幫助你保持責(zé)任感。你可以通過把目標(biāo)寫下來、隨身攜帶待辦事項(xiàng)以及在手機(jī)上或日歷上設(shè)置提醒的方法來實(shí)現(xiàn)。

There are other more creative things you can do to keep yourself accountable Change the wallpaper on your phone or computer to something that says “get work done”. Write your tasks and goals on a whiteboard or large sticky you keep on your monitor. Set the new tab screen of your browser to something that reminds you of the day’s priorities using Momentum or Limitless.
你還可以做一些其他更有創(chuàng)造性的事情來讓自己保持責(zé)任感：把你的手機(jī)或電腦屏幕壁紙?jiān)O(shè)置成“做完工作”這樣的話，把任務(wù)和目標(biāo)寫在白板或是顯示屏的便簽上。用Momentum或是Limitless在瀏覽器上建立新標(biāo)簽頁，提醒你每天優(yōu)先做的事。

2. They make themselves accountable to others.
2. 他們對(duì)別人負(fù)責(zé)

If you can’t stay accountable to yourself, you might have more success staying accountable to other people.
如果你不能保持對(duì)自己負(fù)責(zé)，那你可能更容易做到對(duì)別人負(fù)責(zé)。

Tell everyone what you plan to do and talk about your goals. Tell friends, employees and employers your intentions and you won’t want to let them down. For example, if you want to go to the gym every day, ask a friend to text you every evening asking “did you go to the gym today?”
告訴大家你的計(jì)劃并且談?wù)撃愕哪繕?biāo)。告訴朋友、員工、雇主你的打算，你并不想讓他們失望。比如說，如果你想每天都去健身房，叫一個(gè)朋友每天晚上發(fā)信息問你：“你今天去健身房了嗎？”

Another suggestion is to start documenting and sharing your journey. A blog or vlog where you share the projects you’re working on and your progress will encourage you to get things done. Allowing yourself to be under public scrutiny can help light a fire under you.
還有一個(gè)建議是開始記錄并且分享你的進(jìn)程。在微博或視頻播客上曬出正在進(jìn)行的項(xiàng)目以及獲得的進(jìn)步將會(huì)督促你把事情做完。把自己置于公眾的審查之下可以點(diǎn)燃你體內(nèi)的熱情。

3. They tie themselves to the mast.
3. 他們把自己綁在桅桿上

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus has his ship’s crew tie him to the mast so that he could hear the Sirens’ song without being drawn in and tempted to jump into the sea. If you’re a chronic procrastinator and simply can’t resist the temptations of things like Facebook and Youtube, it might be time to tie yourself to the mast.
在《荷馬的奧德賽》一書中，奧德修斯讓他的船員們把他綁在桅桿上，這樣他就能聽到塞壬的歌聲而不被引誘并試圖跳進(jìn)海中。如果你是一個(gè)慢性拖延癥患者，對(duì)Facebook和Youtube這類誘惑物沒有抵抗力的話，是時(shí)候把自己綁在桅桿上了。（塞壬：古希臘傳說中半人半鳥的女海妖，慣以美妙的歌聲引誘水手，使他們的船只或觸礁或駛?cè)胛ｋU(xiǎn)水域）

There are tools such as Rescue Time, SelfControl and Focus that will temporarily block access to distracting websites like Facebook so you can work on the things that matter. It’s an extreme measure but also very effective.
一些類似于Rescue Time、SelfControl、Focus的工具可以暫時(shí)阻止你進(jìn)入Facebook這類讓人分心的網(wǎng)站，這樣你就能專心做重要的事情。方法比較極端，但確實(shí)非常有效。

There are less aggressive tools such as Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator and Distraction Free Youtube. These will allow you to have access to Facebook and Youtube but block the distracting parts of these websites (such as the newsfeed) so you can still use them for business purposes, like managing ads.
還有一些不那么極端的工具，像是Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator和Distraction Free Youtube，這些工具能讓你接觸Facebook和Youtube，但是會(huì)禁用一些讓人分心的模塊（如新聞供應(yīng)）。這樣一來你仍然可以用它們進(jìn)行工作，比如管理廣告。

4. They have self awareness.
4. 他們有自我意識(shí)

Self-awareness is a common trait many successful people have. Having self-awareness allows you to properly understand why you’re even procrastinating in the first place.
自我意識(shí)是很多成功人士都有的一個(gè)共同特征。擁有自我意識(shí)會(huì)讓你正確地認(rèn)識(shí)到從一開始為什么會(huì)拖延。

Once you understand why you’re procrastinating, it will be easier for you to form a plan to beat it. This will allow you to see the root cause of your procrastination, which you can then either solve the problem or formulate a strategy to overcome it.
一旦你明白了自己為什么拖延，制定計(jì)劃去戰(zhàn)勝它就變得比較容易了。這會(huì)讓你看到拖延的根本原因，之后你可以解決問題或是制定戰(zhàn)略克服它。

Becoming aware of why you procrastinate means taking a step back and looking at some of the possible reasons such as boredom, lack of confidence in the project, lack of self-confidence, and feeling overwhelmed. Once you know the reason, it’s a matter of finding things to remedy it and cut your procrastination off at the source.
意識(shí)到自己為什么拖延意味著后退一步看看可能出現(xiàn)的原因，比如厭煩、對(duì)項(xiàng)目缺乏信心、缺乏自信，或是感覺受打擊。一旦你知道了原因，這就是想辦法補(bǔ)救的事情了，并且要從源頭切斷拖延。

5. They plan ahead.
5. 他們提前做計(jì)劃

How often do you, at the start of your work day, sit at your desk and begin looking for things to work on, only to wind up on Reddit or checking email?
在一天工作的開始，有多少次你坐在桌子旁，看著你需要做的工作，最后只是在看看Reddit網(wǎng)站或是查收郵件中結(jié)束？

If you get to your work desk and have no idea where to start, it can lead you to work on low-impact tasks (such as checking email) or other worse forms of procrastinating.
如果你到了辦公室卻不知道怎么開始，那你只能完成低強(qiáng)度的任務(wù)（如查收郵件）或是其他更糟糕的工作。

Those without a map, wander. Put together a plan or to-do list before starting work or any project.
那些沒有地圖的人一直在徘徊。在工作或任何項(xiàng)目開始之前，整合一個(gè)計(jì)劃或任務(wù)清單。

The night before is a good time to do this. It allows you to reflect on what you’ve accomplished during the day and then come up with what needs to get done tomorrow. Now, when you start your work day, you know exactly what you need to work on and what’s the highest priority.
前一天晚上非常適合做這項(xiàng)工作。它能讓你仔細(xì)思考過去的這一天完成了什么工作，明天還有什么需要完成。此時(shí)，當(dāng)你開始工作時(shí)，你清楚地知道自己該做什么并且什么是最該優(yōu)先做的。

6. They commit to at least showing up.
6. 他們承諾至少會(huì)出現(xiàn)

After starting a task, you’ll likely stick with it a lot longer than you initially committed to.
在開始一項(xiàng)任務(wù)后，你可能比一開始承諾的能堅(jiān)持更久。

It’s like working out. Half the battle is just showing up to the gym.
就像是鍛煉，出現(xiàn)在健身房就成功了一半。

Commit to just showing up and you’ll find yourself completing a lot more tasks. The next time you don’t feel like tackling a task, commit to only working on it for one minute. Set a timer for 60 seconds, then sit down and get to work. More often than not, you’ll find yourself wanting to go beyond the 60 seconds and continue.
只是承諾出現(xiàn)，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己完成了更多的任務(wù)。下一次你不想解決任務(wù)時(shí)，承諾只工作一分鐘。設(shè)置60秒的定時(shí)，然后坐下來開始工作。通常情況下，你會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)自己想超過這60秒繼續(xù)工作。

I constantly use this technique to trick myself into working on tedious tasks.
我經(jīng)常用這種方法欺騙自己去做乏味的任務(wù)。

7. They break up large tasks into smaller tasks.
7. 他們把大任務(wù)拆分成小任務(wù)

The classic but seldom-followed productivity advice to conquering large or overwhelming tasks is to break them up into smaller chunks. Successful people understand that tasks need to be broken down into much more specific and measurable sub-tasks.
當(dāng)克服很大的或是壓倒性的任務(wù)時(shí)，一個(gè)很經(jīng)典但是卻很少被使用的提高效率的建議是，把他們拆分成小塊。成功人士知道任務(wù)需要被拆分成具體可行的子任務(wù)。

For example, an overwhelming to-do list item might be “write book.” Does that item in my to-do list mean I need to write the entire book today, or does only writing one sentence count towards the completion of the task?
例如，一個(gè)難辦的待辦事項(xiàng)條目可能是“寫書”。在待辦事項(xiàng)中的這個(gè)條目是說我今天就要寫完一整本書呢？還是只寫一句話就算完成？

A better approach would be to set a goal of writing a specific number or words each day, or spend? a certain amount of time researching.
一個(gè)更好的方法是設(shè)置一個(gè)目標(biāo)，明確規(guī)定每天要寫多少數(shù)量或多少字，或是花固定的時(shí)間研究。

“Write 1000 words” or “spend 30 minutes researching examples of productive CEOs for book” are much more specific tasks, and therefore easier to tackle. This often encourages me to get more done and feel accomplished and motivated by scratching to-do items off of my list.
“寫100個(gè)字”或是“花30分鐘研究高效的CEO寫書的例子”是更為具體的任務(wù)，也因此更容易處理。這經(jīng)常能鼓勵(lì)我完成更多工作，把工作從待辦事項(xiàng)的清單中劃掉是非常有成就感也是非常鼓舞人的。

8. They give up.
8. 他們會(huì)放棄

Just because you already poured hours into a project, doesn’t mean you need to finish it. This is known as the “sunk cost fallacy.” The “sunk cost fallacy” affects gamblers, investors, and even procrastinators. Sometimes, a project just isn’t worth burning more hours over, and you ultimately need to figure out if it’s time to quit.
只是因?yàn)槟阍缫言谝粋€(gè)項(xiàng)目上花費(fèi)了好幾個(gè)小時(shí)，并不意味著你必須要完成它。這就是所謂的“沉沒成本誤區(qū)”?！俺翛]成本誤區(qū)”對(duì)賭徒、投資者、甚至是拖延者都造成了影響。有時(shí)候，一項(xiàng)任務(wù)不值得花費(fèi)更多的時(shí)間，最終你需要意識(shí)到是否到了該放棄的時(shí)候。

Take a step back and figure out the reason you’re procrastinating on the project or task. Is it because it’s actually not that important, or doesn’t move you closer to your big picture goal?
后退一步看看你在項(xiàng)目或任務(wù)上為什么會(huì)拖延。是因?yàn)樗娴牟恢匾獑?？或者是沒能讓你更接近你的目標(biāo)藍(lán)圖？

Subtraction, instead of addition, is efficient and productive. Maybe you need to focus on doing fewer things. Maybe this project you’re procrastinating on is actually making you much less productive and needs to be dropped.
減法比加法更有效?？赡苣阈枰丫性谏贁?shù)的事情上，可能你拖延的這個(gè)項(xiàng)目讓你變得低效，那么你確實(shí)需要放棄它。

Your turn.
輪到你了。

Procrastination can be beat, it just takes some self-awareness and effort. Applying even just a few of any of the above methods can put you on the path to being a much more productive individual.
拖延能被打敗，只是需要一些自我意識(shí)和努力。應(yīng)用上面的方法（哪怕只有其中的幾個(gè)）能幫助你走上更高效的道路。

聲明：本雙語文章的中文翻譯系滬江英語原創(chuàng)內(nèi)容，轉(zhuǎn)載請(qǐng)注明出處。中文翻譯僅代表譯者個(gè)人觀點(diǎn)，僅供參考。如有不妥之處，歡迎指正。