The Real Reason You Feel So Busy (and What To Do About It) | Dorie Clark | TED

Transcriber: Leslie Gauthier

翻译人员: Siyu Guo 校对人员: Yuwei Wu

We live in a time-pressed culture.

我们生活在一个 快节奏的文化氛围中。

There is never enough time.

时间似乎永远不够用。

And we see it,

我们能够看到，

we feel it around us every day.

我们能每天无时不刻的感受到它。

We live in a world that valorizes work,

我们生活在一个以工作，

accomplishment,

成就，忙碌的世界中。

busyness.

And there’s real upside to that;

这当然是有好处的；

there’s real value.

因为它有真正价值。

We’re pushed,

我们被迫，

we’re driven toward achievement and action and creation.

去追求成就和行动、追求创造。

And that’s great,

这当然很好，

but there’s also a downside.

但也有不好的一面。

And that's something that I think is worth talking about.

我认为这是一个值得讨论的事情。

There was a study done a while back,

不久前，研究管理小组 做过一项研究，

by the Management Research Group,

of 10,000 senior leaders.

针对 10,000 个高管。

And they asked them,

参与者被问到，

“What is key to your organization’s success?”

你认为你的团队成功的关键是什么？

And 97 percent said long-term strategic thinking.

97% 的受访者认为 是长期的战略性思考。

I mean, when was the last time that 97 percent of people agreed on anything?

我很好奇，上一次让 97% 的人 达成如此一致是什么时候？

There is near unanimity that being a long-term thinker --

人们几乎一致认为，有远见，

having perspective,

having the ability to think and ask big questions --

有思考、提出重大问题的能力--

is essential to our success.

是我们获得成功的基础。

And yet in a separate study,

然而在另一项研究中，

96 percent of leaders were surveyed,

96%的高管参与了调查，

and they said they don’t have time for strategic thinking.

然而，他们表示没有时间 去进行战略性的思考。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

What is going on?

这是怎么回事？

Why is it --

为什么会这样？

how can it be

怎么回事呢？

that 96 percent of people are not doing the one thing

96% 的人没有去做他们认为

that they say is most critical to their success?

对成功最关键的事情？

Well, I think we know the answer ...

我想我们知道答案......

or at least we think we do.

或者说，至少我们认为我们知道。

The average professional attends 62 meetings per month.

专业人士每个月 平均参加 62 次会议。

That sounds pretty outrageous.

这听起来很不可思议。

How could that be?

怎么做到的？

But if you actually break it down,

但是如果你分开来看， 那其实也不是很多。

it’s not that many.

It’s two to three meetings per day,

平均到每天，有 2-3 次会议，

which is probably average for many of you.

这和大多数人的平均水平一致

So 62 meetings a month.

所以，一个月开 62 次会。

That does not help,

这说明不了什么，

and that is not wrong.

但这也没什么错。

It is a contributor.

这是其中的一个 影响我们认知的因素。

Also, we know --

而且我们知道，

we know what else ...

一些其他的例子......

email.

电子邮件

A study a while back by McKinsey

麦肯锡不久前的一项研究表明，

showed that the average professional spends 28 percent of their time

职业人士平均花费 28% 的时间

just responding to email.

用来专门回复邮件

Of course that drains us,

当然，这耗费精力

of course that makes us busy.

也让我们变得忙碌起来。

But the truth is, it’s also, I believe, not the full picture.

但我相信事实全貌并非如此。

Those are manifestations.

这些都只是表现形式。

Those are problems, legitimately.

这些都是合理的问题。

But there are also some other things going on underneath the surface,

但是在表面之下 还有一些其他的事情在发生,

reasons that perhaps we are,

原因可能是，在某些方面,

in some ways,

目标不一致导致的。

working at cross-purposes.

Because for so long

因为这么久以来，

almost all of us have said we want desperately to be less busy,

几乎我们所有人都说过， 我们迫切希望能少忙碌一点，

and yet we keep making choices that put ourselves in the position

但我们还是不断选择让自己陷入

where we’re just as busy as we’ve always been.

一如既往的忙碌之中

What is going on?

这是怎么回事？

Well, some research out of Columbia University

一些哥伦比亚大学的研究

sheds a little bit of light on this.

给我们提供了一些启示

Silvia Bellezza and her colleagues have done interesting research

Silvia Bellezza 和她的同事们 做了一项有趣的研究

into the fact that in some cultures --

在某些文化中--

American culture chief among them --

其中，尤其是美国文化--

busyness is actually a form of status.

忙碌是一种社会身份。

When we say, “Oh, I am so crazy busy,”

当我们说”噢，我忙得要命”

what we’re really saying

我们实际上在说，

is a societally-accepted version of “I am so important --

寻求一种社会认同， “我是如此重要” (笑声) ，

(Laughter)

“我很受欢迎！”

“I am so popular!

I am so in demand!”

“我正被人需要！”

And the truth is that feeling can be hard to give up ...

事实是，这种感觉 很难摆脱掉......

even if we say that we want to.

即使我们想要去摆脱它。

That’s not the only reason, of course.

当然，这不是唯一的原因。

It turns out it is very hard

事实证明，

for the human mind to deal with conditions of uncertainty.

人类的大脑处理 不确定性的事件是非常困难的。

And in modern life, there’s a lot of it.

在现代生活中， 有很多这样的事例，

Sometimes we are given tasks or challenges,

有时候我们被赋予任务或挑战，

and the truth is, tactically, we just don’t know how to do it.

事实上我们无从下手

“Increase sales by 30 percent.”

“增加 30% 的销售额。”

Well, how?

该怎么实现这个目标？

There’s a lot of ways you could do it.

有很多方法可以实现， 但你不确定该如何做。

You’re not sure how.

Sometimes it’s easier, frankly, to just double down

坦率地说，有时候更简单的做法是

and keep doing more of what you’re already doing.

继续加倍去努力做你已经在做的事。

That might not be the best answer,

这可能不是最好的答案，

but it’s an answer,

但这也是一个答案，

and it removes uncertainty.

这也解除了不确定性。

The picture gets even worse

当我们谈论存在主义的问题时

when we’re talking about existential questions;

情况就更加糟糕了；

when we’re talking about uncomfortable matters

当我们谈论我们可能并不想解决的问题

that we might not actually really want to deal with.

关于一些令人不愉快的事情。

That might be, “Am I in the right job?”

可能是“这个工作到底适合我吗？”

It might be, “Am I in the right career?”

可能是“我的事业发展是否正确？”

Those are often questions,

说实话，这些问题,

truth be told,

我们可能不想知道答案。

we might not want the answer to.

And so we become busy

所以我们忙碌起来，

as a way so that we don’t even have to ask the question.

这样我们就不用问这个问题了。

Now, there's a third reason,

还有第三个原因，

and I’ll admit it’s one that I know well, personally,

我承认这是我身边的一个熟人，

and that is that sometimes we use busyness as a way to numb ourselves out.

有时候我们用忙碌来麻痹自己。

I’ve experienced that.

我也有过同样的经历。

This is my boy Gideon,

他就是我儿子 Gideon，

and he died in 2013.

于 2013 年逝世。

I’d had him for 17 years,

我们陪伴了彼此 17 年，

and he was my best friend.

他是我最好的朋友。

And after he died,

他离世后，老实说，

I’ll be honest,

我不想回家了

I didn’t want to be home

because I knew that he wouldn’t be there.

因为我知道， 他再也不会出现在那里了。

And so for two years,

所以这两年来，

my life basically was an Uber to an airport,

我的生活基本上就是打车去机场，

to a hotel

去酒店，

and back again,

来回往返，

because I just really didn’t want to face that.

因为我真的不想面对这个事实。

For a lot of us, there are things we sometimes don’t want to face.

对于我们中的很多人来说，

很多事情有时候我们不想去面对。

What we’re really looking for with work is an anesthetic.

我们真正需要的是一种麻醉剂。

And as I like to say,

正如我想说的,

work is better than crack --

工作总比吸毒好-- (笑声)

(Laughter)

所以如果你选择了……

so if you’re choosing ...

(Laughter)

（笑声）

it’s not the worst.

这也不是最糟的。

(Laughter)

(Laughter)

But the truth is, it's also not a sustainable solution.

但事实上，这也不是一个 可持续的解决方案。

For many of us, we get trapped in the pattern of busyness,

对我们中的许多人来说， 我们陷入忙碌的状态，

of overwork.

过度劳累，

It's hard sometimes even to remember what it was like before.

有时甚至很难回忆起以前的情形。

Oftentimes in our mind’s eye,

常常在我们的脑海中,

when we think of busyness,

当我们想到忙碌,

what we think of is this.

我们想到的是这个。

What we think of is triumphant success

我们想到的是取得胜利式的成功

and the world at your fingertips.

世界就在你的掌控之中。

The truth is, more often, busyness looks like this.

事实上，更常见的忙碌是这样的。

It looks like loneliness.

看起来像是孤独。

It looks like frustration.

像是沮丧。

It looks like having a life

看起来像是有了自己的生活

that’s not really in your full control.

这不是你能完全控制的。

So I would like to propose that we make a change.

所以我建议我们做出一些改变。

Because if we are ever going to succeed

因为如果我们要成功地、

in beating back busyness once and for all,

一劳永逸地避免庸碌,

first of all, we have to get real

首先，我们得面对现实

and acknowledge what is actually behind some of the busyness

承认在忙碌的背后，

究竟是什么充斥了我们的日常生活。

that is filling our days.

We have to really get honest about what it is that’s motivating us

我们必须诚实地面对，是什么激励着我们

so that we can make a different choice.

这样我们就能做出不同的选择。

Because it is about our choice.

因为这是我们的选择。

We need to recognize that real freedom is about creating the space

我们需要认识到， 真正的自由是创造属于自己的空间

so that we can breathe,

这样我们才能自由呼吸，

the space so that we can think.

有自我思考的空间。

Ultimately, real freedom is about choosing how

最终，真正的自由是选择 如何度过我们的时间

and with whom we want to be spending our time.

以及和谁一起度过。

Thank you.

谢谢。 （欢呼）

(Cheers)

（鼓掌）

(Applause)

（鼓掌）