你也在和拖延症戰鬥嗎？
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Are You Fighting Procrastination?
你也在和拖延症戰鬥嗎？
When a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this.
一般的學生寫論文時，他們可能會這樣安排：
You know --you get started maybe a little slowly, but you get enough done in the first week,
你可能開頭會慢一點，但第一周有這些已經足夠。
with some heavier days later on, everything gets done, things stay civil.
後期再一點點的增加，最後任務完成，非常的有條理。
But then, the funniest thing happened.
但後來，好笑的事情出現了。
Those first few months? They came and went, and turned into two weeks.
頭幾個月時光匆匆而逝，眨眼就變成了2周。
And one day I woke up with three days until the deadline, still not having written a word.
一天我醒來，發現離交稿日期只剩3天了，但我還一個字都沒寫。
The procrastinator"s brain has an Instant Gratification Monkey.
在拖延症患者的大腦里，有一個及時行樂的猴子。
Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator?
那這對拖延症患者來說意味著什麼呢?
Well, it means everything"s fine until this happens.
這意味著平時沒什麼異樣，但一旦發生了以下的情況，
So the Rational Decision-Maker will make the rational decision to do something productive,
理性的決策人做出理性的決策，要去做一些實際的工作，
but the Monkey doesn"t like that plan, so he actually takes the wheel.
但猴子不喜歡這個計劃，所以他搶過了方向盤。
Then --Then we"re going to go over to the fridge, to see if there"s anything new in there since 10 minutes ago.
然後我們會去翻冰箱，看看和十分鐘前相比有沒有什麼新的東西。
After that, we"re going to go on a YouTube spiral.
然後我們去YouTube看一連串的視頻。
All of that"s going to take a while, so we"re not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today. Sorry!
以上這些事情都得花時間，所以抱歉，我們今天沒有時間再來工作了。
The Instant Gratification Monkey, he lives entirely in the present moment.
這個及時行樂的猴子,他完全生活在當下。
He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future, and he only cares about two things: easy and fun.
沒有過去的記憶，也沒有未來的概念。他只關注兩件事情：簡單和開心。
It turns out that there are two kinds of procrastination.
拖延分為兩種，
Everything I"ve talked about this moment they all have deadlines.
我所說的拖延都是有截止日期的。
And when there are deadlines, the effects of procrastination are contained to the short term because the Panic Monster gets involved.
一旦有了截止日期，拖延的影響會被限制在一定時期內，因為後期驚慌怪獸會出現。
But there"s a second kind of procrastination that happens in situations when there is no deadline.
但還有第二種拖延，這種拖延是沒有截止日期的，
So if you wanted a career where you"re a self-starter –
所以如果你想在一些領域內自學成才——
something in the arts, something entrepreneurial -- there"s no deadlines on those things at first, because nothing"s happening,
比如學個藝術或者創個業——這些事情開始都是沒有截止日期的，因為開始不會有什麼變化，
not until you"ve gone out and done the hard work to get momentum, get things going.
直到你拼盡全力，辛勤投入，才會有一點起色，你才能看到進展。
There"s also all kinds of important things outside of your career that don"t involve any deadlines,
除了工作之外，還有很多其他重要的事情，也是沒有截止日期的，
like seeing your family or exercising and taking care of your health,
比如看望家人、鍛煉身體、保持健康、
working on your relationship or getting out of a relationship that isn"t working.
維繫感情，或者從一段不合適的感情中抽身。
Now if the procrastinator"s only mechanism of doing these hard things is the Panic Monster, that"s a problem,
如果說拖延症患者處理這些困難的唯一機制，是驚慌怪獸的話，那就有問題了，
because in all of these non-deadline situations, the Panic Monster doesn"t show up.
因為在這些沒有截止日期的情況下，驚慌怪獸是不會現身的。
He has nothing to wake up for, so the effects of procrastination, they"re not contained; they just extend outward forever.
沒有喚醒他的條件，所以這一類拖延的後果是沒有限制的，他們會不斷地肆意延伸。
And it"s this long-term kind of procrastination that"s much less visible and much less talked about
和有截止日期的、滑稽的短期拖延相比，
than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind.
這種長時期的拖延，更不易被人察覺，也更少被談論到。
It"s usually suffered quietly and privately.
和有截止日期的、滑稽的短期拖延相比，
And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness, and regrets.
他常常在無聲無息中折磨著人們，可以說是大部分長期抑鬱和悔恨的根源。
Now, I want to show you one last thing. I call this a Life Calendar.
最後我想給大家看一個東西，我稱之為「生命日曆」。
That"s one box for every week of a 90-year life.
這裡的每一個格子都代表90年生命中的一周，
That"s not that many boxes, especially since we"ve already used a bunch of those.
格子數並不是很多，尤其我們已經用掉了許多。
So I think we need to all take a long, hard look at that calendar.
我想我們需要好好花時間，認真看看這個日曆。
We need to think about what we"re really procrastinating on,
我們需要想一下，我們真正在拖延的是什麼，
because everyone is procrastinating on something in life.
因為每個人在生命中都有拖延一些東西。
And because there are not that many boxes on there, it"s a job that should probably start today.
因為這裡的格子數並不多，所以或許我們今天就應該行動起來。
Well, maybe not today, but ...You know. Sometime soon.
或許……不一定是今天，你懂的，儘快吧……
朗讀者：鄭瑾
BGM：十指流玉 - flower dance
文本及翻譯來源：TED演講https://www.ted.com/talks?language=zh-cn&page=3&sort=newest
有道看天下
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