“Tomorrow is often the busiest day of the week。”——Spanish Proverb

“明天總是一周中最忙的一天。”——西班牙諺語(yǔ)

One of the most common problems is procrastination. We know what we want to do and should do. But still we end up spending hours upon hours doing “easier” work or escaping via TV, blogs or music。

拖延癥是極其常見的一個(gè)毛病。我們都知道自己想做什么、該做什么，可最后還是會(huì)一而再地磨洋工，挑容易的事做，或者干脆選擇看電視、讀博客、聽音樂來逃避。

Now, nothing wrong with a little escape from time to time. But if you procrastinate too much you will not get the most important things done. And you will also send yourself into negative spirals where your self-esteem plummets and you spend your days or more in a vague negative funk。

當(dāng)然，偶爾稍微逃避一下也無(wú)可厚非。只是如果拖得太久太多，你會(huì)無(wú)法完成最重要的事情。而且，你還會(huì)陷入消極循環(huán)狀態(tài)，自信心跌入谷底，整天茫然無(wú)緒地消沉下去。

So what can you do? Here are 7 timeless tips to help you to stop procrastinating and start living your life more fully。

那該怎么辦呢?下面這7個(gè)建議持久有效，能幫你克服拖延，從而開啟更充實(shí)的生活。

1. Stop thinking. Start doing。

停止東想西想，立即采取行動(dòng)。

A bit of planning can certainly help you to achieve what you want to achieve. A lot of planning and thinking tends to have the opposite effect。

有點(diǎn)計(jì)劃確實(shí)有助于實(shí)現(xiàn)目標(biāo)，但若思慮并計(jì)劃太多，則會(huì)適得其反。

You think and think and try to come up with “the perfect plan”. A plan where you don’t have to make mistakes, where you will never be rejected, where there will be no pain or difficulties. Such a thing does of course not exist. But as long as you work on that plan you can protect yourself。

你絞盡腦汁想得出一個(gè)“完美計(jì)劃”——用這個(gè)計(jì)劃，你就能避免犯錯(cuò)，永遠(yuǎn)都不會(huì)碰壁，也不會(huì)遭遇痛苦或困難。毋庸置疑，這種事壓根兒就不存在。其實(shí)，只要堅(jiān)持實(shí)行一個(gè)計(jì)劃，你也能保護(hù)好自己免受拖延癥后果之苦。

2. Don’t blow a task out of proportion。

不要過猶不及。

By over thinking and putting things off you are not only trying to protect yourself from pain. You also make mountains out of molehills. The quotes above are so true it isn’t even funny. The more hours and days you put something off the worse it grows in your mind。

思慮過頭或不斷拖延推遲并不能使你免受痛苦。你只是小題大做罷了。前面那句諺語(yǔ)確實(shí)是至理名言啊。拖延時(shí)間越久，你受到的煎熬就越大。

Because you are dwelling on it. And so it expands in your mind. And since you are putting it off you are probably thinking about it in a negative way. So plan a little and then take action。

因?yàn)槟憧偸侵共蛔∪ハ�，腦子里全是這事兒;而且因?yàn)檫@事兒被一拖再拖，你的情緒也跟著消極起來。所以還是把計(jì)劃定小一些，然后采取行動(dòng)吧。

3. Just take the first step。

只需邁出第一步。

When you start to look too far into the future any task or project can seem close to impossible. And so you shut down because you become overwhelmed and start surfing the internet aimlessly instead. That is one of the reasons why it is good to plan for the future but then to shift your focus back to today and the present moment。

如果你目光太遠(yuǎn)，那么任何任務(wù)或項(xiàng)目看上去幾乎都無(wú)法達(dá)成了。接著你會(huì)望而卻步，因?yàn)槟阌X得不堪重負(fù)，倒不如漫無(wú)目的地上網(wǎng)呢!所以，計(jì)劃將來雖好，但緊接著必須把精力投入到此時(shí)此刻。

Then you just focus on taking the first step today. That is all you need to focus on, nothing else. By taking the first step you change you mental state from resistant to “hey, I’m doing this, cool”。

然后，你只需全心全意做好第一步就行。沒錯(cuò)，別管其他的，只看第一步。開始了第一步后，你的心理會(huì)從抵觸變成“嗨，我已經(jīng)開始啦，還不錯(cuò)嘛!”

4. Start with the hardest task of your day。

從最棘手的任務(wù)著手。

Maybe you have an important call to make that you also fear might be uncomfortable. Maybe you know you have gotten behind on answering your emails and have big pile to dig into. Maybe you have the last five pages of your paper to finish。

或許你得打一個(gè)重要電話，但你心里有些抗拒;或許你意識(shí)到郵件已經(jīng)積了一大堆，必須得去處理了;又或許你的論文還有最后五頁(yè)需要趕一趕。

Whatever it may be, get it out of your way the first thing you do。

不管是什么任務(wù)，都請(qǐng)立馬動(dòng)手處理吧。

If you start your day this way you will feel relieved. You feel relaxed and good about yourself. And the rest of the day – and your to-do list – tends to feel a lot lighter and easier to move through. It’s amazing what difference this one action makes。

如果每天先處理棘手任務(wù)，你將大大松一口氣、放松且自我感覺良好。接下來你的任務(wù)清單也更容易搞定。只需采取小小行動(dòng)，你將發(fā)現(xiàn)效果大有不同!

5. Just make a decision. Any decision。

只需下定決心，任何決定都行。

We feel bad when we sit on our hands and don’t take action because it’s unnatural. The natural thing is to be a decisive human and take action。

當(dāng)我們干坐著什么也不做時(shí)，情緒會(huì)變得很壞，因?yàn)檫@是有違天性的。我們的天性就是不斷作出決定、采取行動(dòng)。

When you procrastinate you want to do something but you don’t take the action that is in alignment with that thought. You become conflicted within。

你明明想做某件事，但卻一拖再拖、不采取行動(dòng)來配合那個(gè)想法，那么你的內(nèi)在就變成了一個(gè)矛盾體。

What you do always sends signals back to you about who you are. Sure, doing affirmations where you say to yourself that you are confident can help you. But taking the confident actions you want to take over and over again is what really builds your self confidence and a self-image of you being a confident person。

你所做的事能反映出你是個(gè)怎樣的人。自然，當(dāng)你暗示自己自信時(shí)，也確實(shí)能產(chǎn)生積極效果。只有反復(fù)不斷地采取自信行動(dòng)，才能真正塑造你的自信心，讓你成為一個(gè)自信的人。

6. Face your fear。

直面內(nèi)心恐懼。

I think this is true. It’s easier to live on that “someday…” thought. It’s harder to just take action. To risk looking like a fool. To make mistakes, stumble and not avoid that pain. To take responsibility for your own life。

我覺得這一點(diǎn)很正確：人們很容易陷入“將來某一天……”的思維模式，卻很難拿出行動(dòng)來。請(qǐng)像傻瓜一樣去冒險(xiǎn)吧，請(qǐng)去犯錯(cuò)誤、去碰壁、去經(jīng)歷痛苦吧。你要為你自己的人生負(fù)責(zé)。

The easier choice can come with a sense of comfort, with a certain level of success, pangs of regret for all the things you never dared to do and a vague sense of being unfulfilled. You wonder about what would have happened if you had taken more action and more chances。

容易的選擇能帶來舒心和某種程度的成功，但你也將會(huì)為所有不敢嘗試的事情而感到后悔，你將會(huì)感到空虛，你會(huì)特別想知道：如果抓住更多機(jī)遇、采取更多行動(dòng)，事情將會(huì)怎么樣呢?

7. Finish it。

堅(jiān)持完成。

Not taking the first step to start accomplishing something can make you feel bad. But not finishing what you have started can also leave you in a sort of negative funk. You feel fatigued or stressed and sometimes you don’t even know why. It’s like someone zapped your inner power。

沒有邁開第一步去完成某事會(huì)讓你感到糟糕，但沒有完成已經(jīng)開始的事情也會(huì)讓你變得情緒低落。你會(huì)感到疲倦或壓力重重，有時(shí)你甚至也搞不懂到底怎么了。就好像有什么東西掏空了你內(nèi)心的力量一樣。

If that is the case, go over tasks and projects what you are currently involved in. Is there something there you know you want to finish but haven’t yet? Try to get that finished as soon as you can you will start to feel a whole lot better。

如果你遇到了這種情況，那就去回顧一下自己已經(jīng)著手的任務(wù)或項(xiàng)目吧。你是不是有什么想完成的事情、但一直還沒去做?試著盡快去搞定它吧，搞定后你肯定會(huì)感到大為暢快的!