Why work doesn't happen at work | Jason Fried

翻译人员: Qian Sun 校对人员: Angelia King

我要来谈一谈工作这件事，

So I'm going to talk about work;

specifically, why people can't seem to get work done at work,

主要是关于大家在上班时

为什么不能完成相应的工作这件事，

which is a problem we all kind of have.

这种情况我们大家都遇到过。

But let's sort of start at the beginning.

我们就从最开始的讲起。

So, we have companies and non-profits and charities

我们有很多的公司、非营利性企业和慈善机构

and all these groups that have employees or volunteers of some sort.

等等所有的这些企业团体

都有员工

或者是志愿者之类的。

And they expect these people who work for them

而团体的老板们总希望员工们

都能好好工作。

to do great work --

I would hope, at least.

至少，我是这样认为的。

At least good work, hopefully, at least it's good work --

他们希望员工们努力工作，做出优秀的成绩，

hopefully great work.

希望一切都好。

And so what they typically do is they decide

因此，他们往往要求

that all these people need to come together in one place to do that work.

所有的员工都必须聚集到同一个地方

来展开工作。

So a company, or a charity, or an organization of any kind,

所以不管是在公司，慈善机构还是各大组织

unless you're working in Africa, if you're really lucky to do that --

除非你足够的幸运，你是在非洲工作，

那么大多数的人都需要

most people have to go to an office every day.

每天到办公室去工作。

And so these companies,

于是，各个公司

they build offices.

就建造了办公楼。

They go out and they buy a building, or they rent a building,

他们或买或是租用办公大楼，

or they lease some space,

腾出一些空间

and they fill this space with stuff.

用来放满各种东西。

They fill it with tables, or desks,

办公桌，书桌，

chairs, computer equipment,

椅子，电脑设备，

软件，

software, Internet access,

网络连接器，

maybe a fridge, maybe a few other things,

也许还有冰箱等其他一些东西，

and they expect their employees, or their volunteers,

他们还要求员工们，或者志愿者们，

每天都到这指定的地方，好好工作。

to come to that location every day to do great work.

It seems like it's perfectly reasonable to ask that.

这看起来非常的合理。

However, if you actually talk to people

但是，如果你接触这些员工

或是问问你自己，

and even question yourself, and you ask yourself,

你问你自己：

where do you really want to go when you really need to get something done?

当你真想把事情做好的时候，你真真会去哪里工作？

You'll find out that people don't say what businesses think they would say.

你会发现大家的回答

都不会是公司老板们所想的。

If you ask people the question:

如果你询问别人：他们需要工作的时候

Where do you need to go when you need to get something done?

他们真真想去哪里？

Typically, you get three different kinds of answers.

一般来说，你会得到三种不同的回答。

One is kind of a place or a location or a room.

一种回答是到某个地方或者是房间。

Another one is a moving object,

另外一种回答是移动的物体。

and a third is a time.

还有第三种答案工作的时间。

So here are some examples.

我在这里举些例子。

I've been asking people this question for about 10 years:

当我询问大家──这个问题我已经问了10年了──

"Where do you go when you really need to get something done?"

我问他们：“当你想做些事情的时候，你一般会想去哪里做。”

我听到的答案有诸如门廊，桌前，

I'll hear things like, the porch, the deck, the kitchen.

厨房。

I'll hear things like an extra room in the house,

我也会听到如房间里额外的小房间，

储物室，

the basement,

the coffee shop, the library.

咖啡馆，图书馆。

And then you'll hear things like the train,

此外，你还会听到火车，

a plane, a car -- so, the commute.

飞机，汽车这种行程的回答。

And then you'll hear people say,

最后，你会听到大家说，

"Well, it doesn't really matter where I am,

“恩，其实在哪里工作并不重要，

as long as it's early in the morning or late at night or on the weekends."

只要是在清晨，午夜或是周末，我办公效率就好。”

你会发现，大家几乎不会提到办公室。

You almost never hear someone say, "The office."

但是公司企业把所有的钱都用于办公室的建造，

But businesses are spending all this money on this place called the office,

并规定员工每天到办公室工作，

and they're making people go to it all the time,

然而，大家在办公室里几乎不怎么工作。

yet people don't do work in the office.

这意味着什么？

What is that about?

(Laughter)

为什么会这样？

Why is that? Why is that happening?

原因又是什么呢？

And what you find out is,

如果你深入的分析一下，你就会发现原因，

if you dig a little bit deeper, you find out that people --

你发现大家，

事实情况就是这样发生的--

this is what happens:

People go to work,

大家去上班，

and they're basically trading in their work day

基本上工作日的各个时间段

for a series of "work moments" -- that's what happens at the office.

都是以工作瞬间来计算。

这就是办公室的情况。

You don't have a work day anymore. You have work moments.

你工作已经不是按“整工作日”算，而是被拆分成“工作瞬间”。

这就好比当你走过办公室的前门，

It's like the front door of the office is like a Cuisinart,

and you walk in and your day is shredded to bits,

一跨入办公室，你的工作日就被分成一段段的瞬间。

因为你这边忙15分钟，那边忙30分钟，

because you have 15 minutes here, 30 minutes there,

and something else happens, you're pulled off your work,

然后突发什么事的时候，你还得分神去处理；

你跑去做别的事之后，再工作个20分钟，就是午餐时间了。

then you have 20 minutes, then it's lunch, then you have something else to do ...

然后你就又有别的事要做了，

Then you've got 15 minutes, and someone pulls you aside and asks you a question,

你刚专心15分钟后，又有人跑来问你问题。

当你回过神来的时候，已经是下班时间5点了，

and before you know it, it's 5 p.m.,

and you look back on the day,

当你回顾这一天，

and you realize that you didn't get anything done.

就会发现你根本什么都没有做。

我想我们都应该有过这种经历。

We've all been through this.

We probably went through it yesterday or the day before, or the day before that.

也许昨天就是这样度过的，

或者是前天，大前天。

You look back on your day,

每天回顾，发现什么事都没做。

and you're like, "I got nothing done today.

I was at work. I sat at my desk. I used my expensive computer.

在应该工作的时间里，

我坐在书桌前，用着昂贵的电脑，

I used the software they told me to use.

用着他们叫我用的软件，

I went to these meetings I was asked to go to.

参见各种上头要求参加的会议。

I did these conference calls. I did all this stuff.

我打电话会议，做各种杂事。

But I didn't actually do anything.

但事实上，我什么都没有做。

I just did tasks.

我只是做些“琐事”而已。

I didn't actually get meaningful work done."

我几乎没做什么有意义的工作。

And what you find is that, especially with creative people --

同时，你会发现，尤其是当你跟一些有创造力的人在一起的时候，

designers, programmers, writers, engineers, thinkers --

比如设计师，工程师，

作家，程序工程师，

思想家，

that people really need long stretches of uninterrupted time

这些人真得需要

用很长的一段不受干扰的时间来做些事情。

to get something done.

You cannot ask somebody to be creative in 15 minutes

你不能要求这些搞创造力的人在15分钟的时间就想到创意

and really think about a problem.

还能认真地思考问题。

You might have a quick idea,

搞创造的人可能会有灵感，

but to be in deep thought about a problem and really consider a problem carefully,

但是如果想要深入、仔细的思考问题，

you need long stretches of uninterrupted time.

他们就需要很长的一段不受干扰的时间。

And even though the work day is typically eight hours,

尽管一天的工作日是8个小时，

how many people here have ever had eight hours to themselves at the office?

有多少人是真真的把这8个小时用在工作上？

有7个小时吗？

How about seven hours?

Six? Five? Four?

6个？5个？还是4个？

When's the last time you had three hours to yourself at the office?

你什么时候有过在办公室里独立完成工作3个小时过？

Two hours? One, maybe?

2个小时？也许只有一个小时吧。

Very, very few people actually have

很少人真的有过

long stretches of uninterrupted time at an office.

在办公室长时间不受干扰的工作。

And this is why people choose to do work at home,

这也是为什么大家情愿在家工作，

or they might go to the office,

他们可能会去办公室上班，

but they might go to the office really early in the day,

但是他们可能会很早就去，

或者到很晚，没有一个人的时候才离开，

or late at night when no one's around,

or they stick around after everyone's left,

或者等到大家都离开后，他们会留下来工作，或者是周末的时候加班，

or go in on the weekends,

或者在飞机上也工作，

or they get work done on the plane, in the car or in the train,

还有汽车上，火车上的工作，

because there are no distractions.

这是因为这些时候，人们都不会被打扰。

Now there are different kinds of distractions,

打扰的方式有各种各样的，

but not the really bad distractions, which I'll talk about in a minute.

这里，我就不列举

那些恶劣的打扰方式了。

And this whole phenomenon of having short bursts of time to get things done

这个现象

用一段段零碎的时间来完成工作这个现象，

reminds me of another thing that doesn't work when you're interrupted,

让我想起了一件事-

它就是睡觉，当你睡觉被打扰时，

and that is sleep.

你就很难再入睡。

I think that sleep and work are very closely related --

睡觉跟工作是互有关联的。

不是因为睡觉的时候无法工作

not because you can work while you're sleeping and sleep while you're working.

或者工作的时候不能睡觉。

That's not really what I mean.

这不是我要讲的。

I'm talking specifically about the fact that sleep and work are phase-based,

我要讲的是

工作和睡觉

都是分阶段的、

or stage-based, events.

分时段的状态。

Sleep is about sleep phases, or stages -- some people call them different things.

睡觉分各个阶段、时段--

不同的阶段有不同的名字。

There are five of them, and in order to get to the really deep ones,

总共有五个阶段，

为了进到最深的、最有意义的阶段，

the meaningful ones, you have to go through the early ones.

你必须经历最初的那些阶段。

If you're interrupted while you're going through the early ones --

如果你在前面的阶段就被打扰了，

可能有人翻身碰到你，

if someone bumps you in bed, or there's a sound, or whatever happens --

或者是有什么声音，或其他什么事，

you don't just pick up where you left off.

你没办法回到这个阶段继续睡。

If you're interrupted and woken up,

如果你被打扰了，醒了过来，

you have to start again.

你又得重头开始。

So you have to go back a few phases and start again.

你就得重回到睡眠的前几个阶段。

And what ends up happening -- you might have days like this

结果就是，有的时候，你可能有几天

在早上8点就醒来，有时是7点，

where you wake up at eight or seven in the morning, or whenever you get up,

或者是当你起来的时候，

and you're like, "I didn't sleep very well.

你会觉得一夜没睡好。

I did the sleep thing -- I went to bed, I laid down,

你又去睡觉，上了床，然后躺下，

but I didn't really sleep."

但是你却不能入睡。

People say you go "to" sleep,

我们说去睡觉，

but you don't go to sleep, you go towards sleep; it takes a while.

其实不是一倒下就睡着，而是进入梦境。

这是需要时间的，一个阶段一个阶段的慢慢来。

You've got to go through phases and stuff,

and if you're interrupted, you don't sleep well.

如果你被干扰了，当然就睡不好了。

So does anyone here expect someone to sleep well

这样我们还怎么希望能睡好呢──如果一整晚都被打扰的话，

有人觉得你能睡得好吗？

if they're interrupted all night?

I don't think anyone would say yes.

我觉得应该没人会说睡得好。

Why do we expect people to work well

如果在办公室里不断地被打扰，

if they're being interrupted all day at the office?

我们为什么还希望大家好好工作呢？

如果他们总是被打扰，

How can we possibly expect people to do their job

if they go to the office and are interrupted?

我们又怎能要求他们好好工作呢？

That doesn't really seem like it makes a lot of sense, to me.

对我来说，这很不合理。

So what are the interruptions that happen at the office but not at other places?

那么为什么在其他地方工作的时候，

就不会被打扰了呢？

Because in other places, you can have interruptions like the TV,

因为其他地方，会有干扰，

比如会跑去看电视

or you could go for a walk, or there's a fridge downstairs,

或者是散个步，

到楼下冰箱拿个东西，

or you've got your own couch, or whatever you want to do.

或者你赖在自己的沙发上，想要什么就有什么。

If you talk to certain managers, they'll tell you

如果你这样跟你的经理讲，

他们会要求你不要在家里工作，

that they don't want their employees to work at home

because of these distractions.

由于有这样那样的干扰因素的存在。

They'll sometimes also say,

他们还会说，

有时也会这样说，

"If I can't see the person, how do I know they're working?"

“恩，我甚至看不见他们的身影，我怎样知道他们在工作呢？”

which is ridiculous, but that's one of the excuses that managers give.

这个理由是很荒唐的，但是很多经理人总会拿这一点来做借口。

And I'm one of these managers. I understand. I know how this goes.

我也是这样的经理。

所以我对这些都了解。

We all have to improve on this sort of thing.

但是我们要改善这种情形，

尽管他们常常会举例。

But oftentimes they'll cite distractions:

“我不会允许员工在家里工作。

"I can't let someone work at home.

They'll watch TV, or do this other thing."

他们会看电视，干其他与工作无关的事。”

It turns out those aren't the things that are distracting,

但其实这些事并不会真的干扰你。

Because those are voluntary distractions.

因为这些事都是自愿分心。

You decide when you want to be distracted by the TV,

你可以自己决定什么时候看电视；

when you want to turn something on,

决定什么时候打开冰箱；

or when you want to go downstairs or go for a walk.

决定什么时候下楼、散步。

At the office,

而在办公室里，大多数打搅到工作的

most of the interruptions and distractions

干扰因素

that really cause people not to get work done are involuntary.

都是被动产生的。

So let's go through a couple of those.

让我来举些例。

Now, managers and bosses will often have you think

现在，上司、老板们

会经常认为，工作的时候真真让你分心的是

that the real distractions at work

are things like Facebook and Twitter

Facebook 和 twitter

and YouTube and other websites,

youtube等网站。

and in fact, they'll go so far as to actually ban these sites at work.

事实上，他们也会完全的禁止

上班时游览这些网页。

Some of you may work at places where you can't get to certain sites.

有些办公地甚至打开不了这些网站。

这是在中国吗？这到底是怎么了？

I mean, is this China? What the hell is going on here?

You can't go to a website at work, and that's the problem?

工作的时候竟然不能上这些网，

难道这就是问题的所在之处，这就是大家无法在工作时间里完成工作的原因，

That's why people aren't getting work done,

是因为他们在上Facebook,twitter吗?

because they're on Facebook and Twitter?

这真得很可笑，很荒谬。

That's kind of ridiculous. It's a total decoy.

Today's Facebook and Twitter and YouTube,

今天的Facebook、twitter还有youtube

these things are just modern-day smoke breaks.

等上网时间就等于是当代的抽烟时间而已。

No one cared about letting people take a smoke break for 15 minutes 10 years ago,

从10年前起，人们在上班时间溜出去抽15分钟的烟，根本就没人在乎

，

so why does anyone care if someone goes to Facebook

那么为什么现在偶尔上个Facebook、twitter、youtube

or Twitter or YouTube here and there?

就会有一大堆的意见？

这些根本不是问题的关键所在。

Those aren't the real problems in the office.

The real problems are what I like to call the M&Ms,

问题出在于被我称之为

M&M's上

the Managers and the Meetings.

经理（managers)和会议（meetings)的身上。

Those are the real problems in the modern office today.

这些才是现今办公室里问题的所在，

也是员工没法顺利完成工作的原因，

And this is why things don't get done at work,

it's because of the M&Ms.

因为M&M's的存在。

Now what's interesting is,

有趣的是

if you listen to all the places that people talk about doing work,

当你听到大家谈论各自的高效工作的地点时，

like at home, in the car, on a plane, late at night, or early in the morning,

比如在家里、汽车里、飞机上，

或者在深夜或清晨的讨论，

you don't find managers and meetings.

但就是不会听到关于经理和会议的谈论；

You find a lot of other distractions, but not managers and meetings.

你会发现很多别的干扰因素，但是不会归咎到经理和会议的干扰因素上。

经理和会议只会是办公室办公的干扰因素，

So these are the things that you don't find elsewhere,

它们不会在别处出现。

but you do find at the office.

And managers are basically people whose job it is to interrupt people.

某种意义上来说，经理的工作

就是打扰员工。

That's pretty much what managers are for. They're for interrupting people.

这也是经理喜欢干的，他们喜欢打扰别人工作。

They don't really do the work, so they make sure everyone else is doing work,

他们本身不需要工作，

他们监督下属工作的行为，实际上就是构成了干扰。

which is an interruption.

目前世界上有很多经理，

We have lots of managers in the world now, and a lot of people in the world,

也有很多的员工。

and a lot of interruptions by these managers.

由于经理而造成的干扰就有很多。

They have to check in: "Hey, how's it going?

为了调查工作进度，他们会问：“工作做得怎么样了？

Show me what's up." This sort of thing.

给我展示一下。”等类似的话。

They keep interrupting you at the wrong time,

他们还总是会在不恰当的时间来打扰你，

当你正在努力完成他们分配的任务的时候，

while you're actually trying to do something they're paying you to do,

他们往往在关键时候来打扰你。

they tend to interrupt you.

That's kind of bad.

这是很糟糕的。

But what's even worse is the thing that managers do most of all,

但是还有比这更糟糕的呢，

which is call meetings.

那就是开会。

And meetings are just toxic,

开会的时候是一天中最无聊

terrible, poisonous things

又烦人、又浪费时间

during the day at work.

的事。

(Laughter)

我们都知道这一点事实。

We all know this to be true,

and you would never see a spontaneous meeting called by employees.

你也不会看到以后有员工组织的会议；

这根本不会发生。

It doesn't work that way.

The manager calls the meeting

经理开会的时候

so the employees can all come together,

所有的员工都聚集起来，

and it's an incredibly disruptive thing to do to people --

这真的是一件很具干扰性质的事。

经理们会说：“记住，

to say, "Hey look,

we're going to bring 10 people together right now and have a meeting.

我们现在要召集10个人开会。

I don't care what you're doing,

我不关心你们现在在做什么。

you've got to stop doing it, so you can have this meeting."

你们要做的就是停下一切手头上的事，然后来开这个会。”

I mean, what are the chances that all 10 people are ready to stop?

这10个人就这么突然停下来去开会？

What if they're thinking about something important, or doing important work?

要是他们正在思考重要的事情呢？

做重要的工作呢？

All of a sudden you tell them they have to stop doing that to do something else.

就这么突然，你告诉他们，必须停下来手边的工作

来开会。

So they go into a meeting room, they get together,

他们进入会议室，聚在一起，

and they talk about stuff that doesn't really matter, usually.

并谈论一些根本无关紧要的事。

Because meetings aren't work.

事实上，会议根本起不了任何的作用。

Meetings are places to go to talk about things

开会是为了商讨公司以后的计划。

you're supposed to be doing later.

但是开会有时也是为了提前安排事宜。

But meetings also procreate.

一个又一个

So one meeting tends to lead to another meeting,

开不完的会议。

which leads to another meeting.

There's often too many people in the meetings,

开会的时候，总是有那么多人，

对于组织来说，这是很贵的。

and they're very, very expensive to the organization.

Companies often think of a one-hour meeting as a one-hour meeting,

公司老板总是想着开个1小时的会议，

但是这个是不现实的，除非会议室里只有一个人。

but that's not true, unless there's only one person.

If there are 10 people, it's a 10-hour meeting, not a one-hour meeting.

如果有10个人参加了会议，那这就是10小时的会议，不是1小时会议。

这个10小时的会议是挪用了其他组织或其他人的时间，

It's 10 hours of productivity taken from the rest of the organization

这才有了这1小时的会议，

to have this one-hour meeting, which probably should have been handled

这会议本该是由2个或3个组织者

by two or three people talking for a few minutes.

简短的发言组成。

But instead, there's a long scheduled meeting,

但事实上，最后却变成了一个议程繁多的会议，

because meetings are scheduled the way software works,

因为议程是按软件运行的方式安排的，

which is in increments of 15 minutes, or 30 minutes, or an hour.

延长15分钟，半小时或者1个小时。

You don't schedule an eight-hour meeting with Outlook; you can't.

你用Outlook不会安排一个8小时的会议。

你也不能。当然，我是不知道你能不能。

You can go 15 minutes or 30 minutes or 45 minutes or an hour.

你可以延长15分钟，半小时，45分钟或者1个小时。

And so we tend to fill these times up

当事情紧急的时候，

when things should go really quickly.

我们不得不充分利用时间。

So meetings and managers are two major problems in businesses today,

因此会议和经理是现今商务事业中的主要问题，

尤其是在办公室里。

especially at offices.

These things don't exist outside of the office.

这些情况不会在办公室以外的地方发生。

So I have some suggestions to remedy the situation.

因此，我有以下几条建议

来纠正，解决这些问题。

What can managers do --

经理们可以这样做。

enlightened managers, hopefully --

我指的是开明的经理们。

what can they do to make the office a better place for people to work,

他们可以把办公室进一步改造成适合员工工作的地方，

so it's not the last resort, but it's the first resort,

使得办公室成为大家工作的首选之地。

so that people start to say,

大家都开始说：

"When I really want to get stuff done, I go to the office."

“当我真的想工作的时候，我会去办公室。”

Because the offices are well-equipped;

因为办公室里设备齐全，

everything is there for them to do the work.

所有涉及工作的东西都一应俱全，

But they don't want to go there right now, so how do we change that?

但是，现在大家还不想去办公室工作，那么我们该如何来改变这种现状呢？

我有三条建议，现在就来跟你们分享一下。

I have three suggestions to share with you.

只需要大约3分钟的时间，就能解释清楚。

I have about three minutes, so that'll fit perfectly.

我们都听过星期五是随意工作日。

We've all heard of the Casual Friday thing.

I don't know if people still do that.

我不知道大家是否还在这么做。

But how about "No-talk Thursdays?"

那么不妨设定星期四为无交谈日？

(Laughter)

就这样好了，

Pick one Thursday once a month,

随便挑一个月里的一个星期四，

and cut it in half, just the afternoon -- I'll make it easy for you.

再简单一点，那就取个半天，星期四下午好了。

So just the afternoon, one Thursday.

那就星期四下午。

First Thursday of the month, just the afternoon,

假设就这月第一个星期四的下午，

nobody in the office can talk to each other.

办公室里不准有任何的交谈。

有的只能是安静。

Just silence, that's it.

And what you'll find

然后，你会发现

is that a tremendous amount of work gets done

没有人交谈的时候，

when no one talks to each other.

很多工作很快就会完成。

This is when people actually get stuff done,

所有的工作都完成的时候，

is when no one's bothering them or interrupting them.

正是没有任何干扰的时候。

Giving someone four hours of uninterrupted time

4个小时的无干扰工作时间

is the best gift you can give anybody at work.

是给需要工作的人最好的礼物。

这比电脑还要好，

It's better than a computer,

better than a new monitor, better than new software,

比调制解调器，软件都要高效，

or whatever people typically use.

比大家平常用的任何的东西都要好。

Giving them four hours of quiet time at the office

给他们4个小时安静的办公时间-

is going to be incredibly valuable.

这将会成为珍贵的事。

If you try that, I think you'll agree, and hopefully you can do it more often.

如果你试着做了，你会同意这一点。

也许，你可以多实行几次。

So maybe it's every other week,

也许是每隔一个星期一次，

or every week, once a week,

或者是每个星期一次，

afternoons no one can talk to each other.

下午的时候，都不准许有任何的交谈。

That's something that you'll find will really, really work.

你会发现这真得很有效。

Another thing you can try,

另外你也可以试试

is switching from active communication and collaboration,

从主动

交流和协作的方式，

which is like face-to-face stuff -- tapping people on the shoulder,

也就是从面对面的交谈，

拍拍他们的肩膀，说声你好，包括开会的主动交流，

saying hi to them, having meetings,

and replace that with more passive models of communication,

转变为更被动地交流方式

比如电子邮件，即时通讯，

using things like email and instant messaging,

or collaboration products, things like that.

或者是协作产品等类似的被动交流。

Now some people might say email is really distracting,

有人可能会说，电子邮件非常的干扰人，

I.M. is really distracting, and these other things are really distracting,

即时通讯也很让人头疼，

这些都是干扰因素，

but they're distracting at a time of your own choice and your own choosing.

但是这些干扰因素产生与否在于你自己的选择。

你可以不用电子邮件的功能，但你不能不回复你老板的电邮。

You can quit the email app; you can't quit your boss.

You can quit I.M.;

你可以不用即时通讯，

you can't hide your manager.

但你离不开你的经理。

You can put these things away,

一旦你不用这些交流工具，

and then you can be interrupted on your own schedule, at your own time,

当你有空的时候，你个人时间也会被打乱；

when you're available, when you're ready to go again.

或者当你准备好出发的时候，你的行程又会被打乱。

因为工作就像睡觉一样，它是分阶段的。

Because work, like sleep, happens in phases.

So you'll be going up, doing some work,

你要先做一些其它的事，慢慢铺垫，

and then you'll come down from that work,

然后才能完成后续工作，

and then maybe it's time to check that email or I.M.

那么也许，有时你就得检查电邮，看看即时通讯。

There are very, very few things that are that urgent,

很少有紧急的事

that need to happen, that need to be answered right this second.

同时发生，需要你立刻去解决。

So if you're a manager,

因此如果你的经理

start encouraging people to use more things like I.M. and email

开始鼓励你多使用像即时通讯和电子邮件的工具，

and other things that someone can put away

还有做其他一些可有可无的事，

and then get back to you on their own schedule.

然后让你的步调跟他们的一致。

And the last suggestion I have is that,

我的最后一条建议是

如果你将要开一个会议，

if you do have a meeting coming up,

if you have the power, just cancel it.

如果你有这个权利，

就把会议取消掉，取消掉下一个会议。

Just cancel that next meeting.

(Laughter)

Today's Friday, usually people have meetings on Monday.

今天是星期五，一般来说，会议会在星期一召开。

就取消会议吧！

Just don't have it.

I don't mean move it;

我不是说调动会议，

I mean just erase it from memory, it's gone.

而是忘记这会议，会议没了。

And you'll find out that everything will be just fine.

你会发现一切都很顺利。

All these discussions and decisions you thought you had to make

所有这些你觉得你必须在星期一早上9点做的

商讨和决定，

at this one time at 9 a.m. on Monday,

just forget about them, and things will be fine.

就忘记他们吧，一切都会是顺利的。

这样，大家会觉得，他们将会有一个更加开放的早晨，

People will have a more open morning, they can actually think.

你也会发现，也许这些你觉得你必须要做的事情

You'll find out all these things you thought you had to do,

事实上，你不一定要做。

you don't actually have to do.

这就是我的三条建议，

So those are just three quick suggestions I wanted to give you guys to think about.

我希望你们能够好好思考一下。

同时，我也希望这些建议

I hope that some of these ideas were at least provocative enough

相当挑衅但至少是有用的

for managers and bosses and business owners

不管是对经理，老板还是商务人士

and organizers and people who are in charge of other people,

组织者还是管理人员来说，

to think about laying off a little bit,

大家都能想着，与其裁员，

and giving people more time to get work done.

还不如给大家更多的时间来做些实质工作。

I think it'll all pay off in the end.

这样，我觉得最后一定会有收获的。

So, thanks for listening.

谢谢各位的聆听。

(Applause)

鼓掌