How burnout makes us less creative | The Way We Work, a TED series

Transcriber: TED Translators admin

翻译人员: Yizhuo He 校对人员: Jiasi Hao

A few years ago, my obsession with productivity

几年前， 我对生产效率的过度执着

got so bad that I suffered an episode of burnout

导致我那段时间精疲力竭。

that scared the hell out of me.

这把我自己彻底吓到了。

I'm talking insomnia, weight gain, hair loss -- the works.

我经历了失眠，发胖，脱发—— 但依旧在工作。

由于劳累过度，

I was so overworked that my brain

我的大脑真的一个 新点子都想不出来。

literally couldn't come up with another idea.

That indicated to me that my identity was linked with this idea of productivity.

那表明了我的个人身份认同是与 生产效率联系在一起的。

[The Way We Work]

【我们工作的方式】

Do you feel guilty if you haven't been productive enough during the day?

你会不会因为觉得自己 白天不够高效而产生负罪感？

Do you spend hours reading productivity hacks,

你是否曾花费数小时 阅读那些提高生产力的小窍门，

trying new frameworks and testing new apps

尝试新的工作框架 和新的 app （应用程序）

to get even more done?

以达到完成更多工作的目的？

I've tried them all -- task apps, calendar apps,

所有这些方法我都试过了—— 任务管理 app ，日历 app ，

time-management apps,

时间管理 app ，

things that are meant to manage your day.

那些用来帮助你管理时间的工具。

We've been so obsessed with doing more

我们对完成更多这个目标的痴迷

that we've missed the most important thing.

让我们忽略了最重要的一点。

其实这些工具中的大多数 并不能帮到我们。

Many of these tools aren't helping.

They're making things worse.

它们反而让事情变得更糟了。

我们来谈一谈生产效率这个概念。

OK, let's talk about productivity for a second.

我们现在提到的生产效率

Historically, productivity as we know it today

was used during the industrial revolution.

曾被用在工业革命时期。

那是一个根据持续产出 从而衡量工作表现的系统。

It was a system that measured performance based on consistent output.

You clocked into your shift

你准时打卡上班，

and were responsible for creating X number of widgets

负责在流水线上

生产 X 件零部件。

on the assembly line.

到了每天结束的时候， 很容易就能知道

At the end of the day, it was pretty easy to see

who worked hard and who hadn't.

哪些人工作比较认真， 以及哪些不那么认真。

When we shifted to a knowledge economy,

当我们转变到知识经济时代，

people suddenly had tasks that were much more abstract,

人们的工作任务 忽然就变得更抽象了，

像是写作、解决问题， 或是制定策略，

things like writing, problem-solving or strategizing,

tasks that weren't easy to measure.

这些都是不能被轻易衡量的工作。

Companies struggled to figure out

企业也发现辨别谁在工作，

how to tell who was working and who wasn't,

谁在偷懒变得更难了，

so they just adopted the old systems as best as they could,

所以他们只能尽可能 采用那套旧系统来衡量。

leading to things like the dreaded time sheet

由此导致了诸如令人心生恐惧的 考勤表等事物的诞生，

where everyone is under pressure

让大家为了解释 自己怎么利用工作中的每分每秒

to justify how they spend every second of their day.

而倍感压力。

这只是其中一个问题。

There's just one problem.

These systems don't make a lot of sense for creative work.

这些系统并不适用于 创造性的工作。

我们现在仍然把工作效率 视为一种耐力运动。

We still think of productivity as an endurance sport.

You try to churn out as many blog posts

我们试图写出 尽可能多的博客文章，

or we cram our day full of meetings.

或用各种会议来塞满我们的一天。

But this model of constant output isn't conducive to creative thought.

但是这种持续产出的模型 并不有益于创造性思维。

Today, knowledge workers are facing a big challenge.

现在，知识工作者 面临着一项巨大的挑战。

We're expected to be constantly productive and creative

我们被要求一直维持 在一个有同等效率

和创造力的状态。

in equal measure.

But it's actually almost impossible

但是让我们的大脑持续不断地

for our brains to continuously generate new ideas

迸发出新点子且不停歇

with no rest.

是几乎不可能的。

事实上，适当的休息 对恢复我们的大脑，

In fact, downtime is a necessity for our brain

to recover and to operate properly.

并让其正常运转是必要的。

根据南加州大学

Consider that according to a team of researchers

from the University of Southern California,

一个研究者团队的研究，

letting our minds wander is an essential mental state

让我们的大脑开会小差是一种 必要的精神状态。

它可以帮助塑造我们的身份认同，

that helps us develop our identity,

process social interactions,

处理人际交往，

and it even influences our internal moral compass.

它甚至能影响我们 心灵内部的道德罗盘。

我们对于休息的需要与 我们对忙碌的文化叙述相违背。

Our need for a break flies in the face of our cultural narrative about hustling,

in other words, the stories that we as a society

换句话说，我们身处的社会

tell each other about what success looks like

告诉我们每个人成功是什么样的，

and what it takes to get there.

以及为了达到成功需要付出什么。

Stories like the American Dream,

比如我们其中 一个根深蒂固的信仰：

which is one of our most deeply rooted beliefs.

美国梦。

This tells us that if we work hard, we'll be successful.

它告诉我们只要我们努力工作， 我们就会成功。

But there's a flip side.

但它所隐含的另一面则是：

If you aren't successful,

如果你不成功，

it must mean that you're not working hard enough.

那么这一定是因为你还不够努力。

And if you don't think you're doing enough,

如果你觉得自己做的不够，

of course you're going to stay late, pull all-nighters

那么你当然会 开始加班，开夜车，

and push yourself hard even when you know better.

尽管知道这样做不好 却依然把自己逼得很紧。

Productivity has wrapped itself up in our self-worth,

工作效率把自己 包装成了我们自我价值的一部分。

so that it's almost impossible for us to allow ourselves

造成我们几乎不可能会允许自己

to stop working.

停下工作的脚步。

The average US employee only takes half of their allocated paid vacation leave,

平均而言，每位美国员工 只会用掉一半的带薪假，

further proving that even if we have the option

进一步证明了 就算我们有选择来休息一下，

to take a break, we don't.

我们也不会这么做。

To be clear, I don't think that productivity

事先说明下， 我并不认为工作效率

or trying to improve our performance is bad.

或者试图提高我们的工作表现 是不好的。

I'm just saying that the current models we're using to measure our creative work

我只是说现有的 用来衡量创造性工作的模型

don't make sense.

并不合理。

We need systems that work with our creativity

我们需要 能促进我们创造力的系统，

and not against it.

而不是与之相对的系统。

[SO HOW DO WE FIX IT?]

【所以我们该如何解决这个问题？】

There is no quick fix for this problem.

解决这种情况 并没有什么快方法。

And I know, I know, that sucks.

我也知道，这很糟糕。

No one loves a good framework or a good acronym

没有人能比我更喜欢

一个好的工作框架 或一个好的缩略词了。

better than me.

But the truth is everyone has their own narratives

但是事实是每个人 都有自己的工作节奏。

需要每个人自己去发现。

that they have to uncover.

It wasn't until I started digging around my own beliefs around work

直到我开始挖掘 我自己关于工作的信仰，

that I began to unravel the root of my own work story,

我才发现我自己工作方式的根源，

finally being able to let go of destructive behaviors

并最终舍弃了 那些有害的行为方式，

and make positive, long-lasting changes.

转而做出一些积极长期的改变。

And the only way to do that

而唯一能达到这种状态的方法

is by asking yourself some hard questions.

就是问自己一些比较残酷的问题。

Does being busy make you feel valuable?

忙碌能让你感觉很有自我价值吗？

Who do you hold up as an example of success?

谁是你心中成功的榜样？

Where did your ideas of work ethic come from?

你都是从哪儿 学到那些工作道德的？

How much of who you are is linked to what you do?

你的身份认同在多大程度上 与你做的工作相关？

Your creativity, it has its own rhythms.

你的创造力有它自己的节奏。

Our energy fluctuates daily, weekly, even seasonally.

我们的能量在每天、每周， 甚至每个季节都会上下波动。

I know that I'm always more energetic at the beginning of the week

我知道自己在一周的开头， 通常精力更加充沛，

than at the end,

而非一周的末尾。

so I front-load my workweek to account for that fact.

所以我相应的就把 大部分工作都移到一周的开头。

As a proud night owl, I free up my afternoons and evenings

我很自豪的说我是一个夜猫子， 所以我把下午和晚上的时间

for creative work.

都留给创造性的工作。

And I know I'll get more writing done

我也知道自己通常在舒适的冬季

in the cozy winter months than during the summer.

比夏天能写出更多的文章。

And that's the secret.

而这就是秘诀。

Dismantling myths, challenging your old views,

拨开迷雾， 质疑你原有的观念，

identifying your narratives --

发现你自己的工作节奏，

this is the real work that we need to be doing.

这才是我们真正需要做的。

We aren't machines,

我们并不是机器，

and I think it's time that we stopped working like one.

是时候停止像机器一样工作了。