生產率即效率——以更少的資源，用更快的速度，做更多的事情。隨著當今隨時隨地工作場所的要求日益提高，生產率也變得日益重要。而要想最大程度提高生產率，你必須專注于生活中的三個部分：

時間

眾所周知，人類并不擅長處理多任務，所以管理時間對于提高生產率至關重要。而最浪費時間的莫過于意外（并且通常是不重要的）任務。我們都會有一種沖動，去閱讀剛剛收到的電子郵件，或者瞥一眼彈出來的最新通知——心理學家、《有條理的思維》（The Organized Mind）一書的作者丹尼爾·萊維坦將這種傾向稱作“新奇事物偏見”。這種非故意的任務轉換所浪費的時間，可能超乎你的想象。加州大學（University of California ）的信息學家格洛里亞·馬克發現，人們平均需要26分鐘才能從瑣碎的干擾事件中恢復專注。為了避免浪費時間，提前計劃每天的時間，區分意外的干擾：

1. 每天開始時，計劃“個人專屬時間”：查看晚上積累的電子郵件和社交媒體更新，對積壓的工作確定優先次序。迅速完成快速回復和轉發，使人們能夠開始執行任務。安排更重要的任務。刪除情報性或不重要的任務。

2. 利用通勤時間完成協調任務：如果不利用通勤時間挑選出最耗時間的任務，那就太荒唐了。在早晨通勤途中，我會完成對外部顧問情況的綜述——了解開放項目的最新進展，確定他們是否需要協助。在抵達辦公室時，我已經對項目進度有了準確的了解。

3. 將會議時間縮短25%：你在會議上完成的工作量不會因此減少，因為許多時間被浪費在了解決電話會議安排和無用的玩笑上。如果每天將五人會議的時間從一個小時縮短到45分鐘，你每個月將節省25個小時的工作時間。這相當于每年300個小時——幾乎是兩個月的工作時間！

4. 安排固定的休息時間：馬不停蹄地參加會議并不代表高效率，因為你會疲憊不堪，失去專注力。在日歷中留出休息時間。將這些休息變成一種慣例，能夠提高可預測性，形成一種有規律的時間安排，讓你的思維保持條理。如果有條件，午餐之后“有效午睡”10至20分鐘。

空間

所謂“空間”是指你的環境——包括辦公場所和虛擬空間。工作空間或許并非最后的邊界，但卻是提高工作效率的一個重要元素。下面是一些與空間有關的建議：

5. 在合理的情況下在“場外”辦公：如果你需要撰寫一份文件或研究一個課題，排除辦公室里的干擾能夠提高專注度。有些公司發現，允許員工在家辦公還有其他好處，例如縮短通勤時間和午餐時間，減少病假天數等。你可以考慮如何將中國旅游網站攜程（Ctrip）、AIIM和Wordpress的成文策略，應用于自己的工作環境。

6. 合并所有為你提供信息的應用：你需要操作太多應用——電子郵件、Yammer等微博工具、Lync等聊天工具、Twitter和LinkedIn等社交媒體應用，還有SAP、甲骨文（Oracle）和Salesforce等操作系統等。把所有應用的通知集中到一個地方。

7. 關閉移動設備和臺式機上的彈出通知：不要讓令人討厭的應用程序彈出信息干擾你的專注度。關閉它們。馬上。并且限制自己僅在每天的設定時間查看電子郵件。你不會為此感到遺憾。

心態

調整自己的狀態，使你能夠在當前專注于正確的任務：

8. 進行對話，不要發送電子郵件：拿起電話，或者穿過大廳，直接與同事面對面交流。對于在異地的同事，利用聊天工具。因為你可以在對話中給出準確的指示，迅速消除誤會。進行沒完沒了的電子郵件對話所浪費的時間令人難以置信——而且會產生無意義的錯誤。

9. 把問題由大化小：這樣做能夠減少因為承擔重大任務所產生的不堪重負和拖延的感覺。一種實用的方法是采用敏捷技術管理工作任務。敏捷任務管理誕生于軟件開發領域，其對任務管理的巨大貢獻在于把重大任務劃分為“短時間的沖刺”。在整個過程中掌握一種解決方案，可以減少處理重大任務的焦慮。

10. 利用重復性任務核查清單，減少錯誤：尤其是在疲勞過度或時間緊張的情況下，清單能夠讓你不會偏離軌道。關于如何使用清單的優秀指導，請參閱阿圖·葛文德的《清單革命》（The Checklist Manifesto）一書。（財富中文網）

譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

Productivity is all about efficiency—doing more, faster and with less. And with increasing demands from today’s anytime, anywhere workplace, it is has never been more important. To get the most out of your day, you need to focus on these three segments of your life:

Time

Humans are notoriously poor multitaskers, so managing your time is critical to improving productivity. The biggest time suck is unexpected (and usually unimportant) tasks. We all know that urge to read the email that just came in or to peek at the latest notification to pop up—an inclination psychologist Daniel Levitan, author of The Organized Mind, calls the novelty bias. This unintentional task-switching eats up more time than you might think. University of California information scientist Gloria Mark found that it takes an average of 26 minutes to recover from trivial interruptions. To avoid this, plan out your day and compartmentalize unexpected interruptions:

1. Start the day with structured 'me time': Go through email and social media updates that have piled up overnight and triage the backlog. Knock out quick responses and referrals, so other people can start working on tasks. Schedule the bigger tasks. And delete the stuff that is informational or not important.

2. Use commute time to complete coordination tasks: It’s crazy not to use commute time to winnow out time-intensive tasks. During my morning commute, I do a roundup of my external consultants—getting an update on open projects and finding out if they need assistance. By the time I arrive at the office, I have an accurate picture of my projects’ status.

3. Reduce all meeting times by 25 percent: You will get the same amount of work done, because so much time is wasted dealing with conference call setup and useless banter. If you cut one five-person meeting per day from one hour down to 45 minutes, you will gain back 25 hours a month of work time. That’s roughly 300 hours a year—almost two months of work!

4. Schedule regular breaks during the day: Running from back-to-back meetings is not productive, because you get tired and lose focus. Block off time in your calendar and take breaks. Making these breaks a routine increases predictability, creating a regular schedule to keep your mind organized. If you can afford it, take a 10- to 20-minute power nap after lunch, too.

Space

“Space” refers to your environment—your office locale as well as to your virtual space. Workspace may not be the final frontier, but it is an important element for increasing work productivity. Here are a few space-related tips:

5. Work 'offsite' when it makes sense: When you need to write a document or research a topic, the absence of office interruptions will improve concentration. Some companies are finding that letting employees work from home has other advantages including reduced commute time, shorter lunch times and fewer sick days. See how you can apply documented strategies from Chinese travel site Ctrip, the AIIM and Wordpress to your own work environment.

6. Consolidate the number of places you need to go for information: There are too many apps to navigate—email, microblogging tools like Yammer, chat tools like Lync, social media utilities like Twitter and LinkedIn and operational systems like SAP, Oracle and Salesforce. Make notifications from each application appear in one place.

7. Switch off popup notifications on mobile devices and on desktop: Don’t let applications interrupt your concentration with annoying popup messages. Shut them off. Now. And limit checking your email to set times during the day. You won’t regret it.

Mindset

Put yourself in a position where you can focus on doing the right task for the moment:

8. Converse, don’t email: Pick up the phone or walk down the hall and talk directly to colleagues. For geographically remote folks, use chat. You can give precise direction and clear up misunderstandings quickly. The amount of time wasted perpetuating endless email threads is mindboggling—and the pointless mistakes generated.

9. Chop up big problems into smaller chunks: This will reduce the feeling of overload and the procrastination associated with taking on big jobs. One practical way to do this is to adopt Agile techniques for managing your work tasks. Born in the software development world, Agile’s big contribution to task management is breaking big jobs down into short sprints. Having a solution in hand throughout the process reduces the anxiety of tackling big jobs.

10. Use checklists for repetitive tasks to reduce errors: Particularly when you are overworked or are operating under time constraints, checklists keep you on track. For an excellent guide for using checklists, take a look at Atul Gawande’s The Checklist Manifesto.