職場父母時間管理6大錦囊妙計
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????親愛的安妮：我快30歲了，是謝麗爾?桑德伯格《向前一步》（Lean In）的忠實粉絲。我的確有像這本書的副標題所列的“領導意愿”，但我也有兩個小孩，而一天只有24個小時。桑德伯格很會激勵人，但對于她在成長過程中（在她變得富有，有能力聘請全能的保姆和獲得其他居家幫助之前），她如何打理所有的事情，她從未深入探討那些細節問題。 ????我和其他可能還有數百萬的工作父母，真正能應用的是一些實用的時間管理技巧，平衡我們手頭的所有事情。你知道一些什么技巧？ --俄亥俄州的不堪重負 ????親愛的不堪重負：如果可以的話，我想向你再推薦一本書。特瑞薩?泰勒也曾經面臨與你相同的狀況，現在她已經就此寫了一本書。她在事業巔峰期曾擔任總部位于丹佛的電信公司Qwest（2011年被CenturyLink收購）的首席運營官，還曾經入圍《財富》雜志最具影響力女性的高薪排行榜。 ????《平衡的奧妙：反思工作與生活之平衡》（The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success）一書提供了大量你希望看到的那些“細枝末節”。這本書開宗明義地寫道，“工作與生活平衡”的整個理念是一個不現實的目標，只會讓人們感到他們事事都做不好。“像‘多任務處理’和‘平衡’這樣的字眼，等于是說要比同事跑得更快，或者要像最優秀的中國雜耍演員一樣讓盤子持續在空中旋轉，”泰勒寫到。“這類理念的問題是，人總是會有失誤，旋轉的盤子也終究會因重力作用而掉下來。” ????全球廣告公司Zeno Group對于1,000位擁有本科以上學歷的千禧女性（出生于1980年至1992年）進行的最新調查顯示，這個前景看起來對于你這個年齡段的女性尤為突出，只有15%的人表示，她們想在大機構獲得高職位工作。這項調查發現，超過四分之三（80%）的人“擔心她們是否有能力在個人目標與職業目標間取得平衡”。10人中有9人認為，女性必須比男性“作出更多的犧牲”，而且有近一半的人（49%）表示，這些犧牲意味著高強度工作“并不值得”。 ????因此，泰勒此書的出版可謂正當其時，至少可以激勵一些年輕的奮斗者不要過早放棄。下面簡要概括一下泰勒及其丈夫撫養兩個兒子時使用的6大技巧： ????1.停止一心二用。不要嘗試同時做幾件事，每天做規劃，讓你有整塊的時間 （即使只是10分鐘或15分鐘）專門做一件事。泰勒寫道：“因為我能夠對我專注做的事情給予百分百的投入——不用多任務來管理整塊時間，我比以往任何時候都更加高效。” ????2.做任何事都要設定時間期限。 泰勒把這條規定應用到工作和家庭中，無論是包裝假日禮物，還是準備客戶演示都是如此。“一旦到了規定的時間期限，就停下來，”她說。“不要不停地調整，也不要再改變細枝末節。” ????這一點需要一些練習，以及愿意放棄完美。“這也是一個學習機會，”泰勒指出。比方說，要將所有禮物都包好的時間不夠用，這意味著“我需要計劃更大塊的時間，或者找到其他方法來完成這項工作——比方說下次使用禮品袋或者棉紙。 |
????Dear Annie: I am in my late 20s and a big fan of Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In, and I do have what the book's subtitle calls "the will to lead," but I also have two little kids and only 24 hours in the day. Inspiring as she is, Sandberg never quite gets around to filling in the nitty-gritty details about how she managed to do everything on her way up (before she got rich and could hire hot-and-cold-running nannies and other household help). ????What I, and probably several million other working parents, could really use is some down-to-earth time-management techniques for balancing everything we've got going on. Do you know of any? -- Overloaded in Ohio ????Dear Overloaded: I'd like to recommend another addition to your bookshelf, if I may. Teresa Taylor -- who, at the pinnacle of her career, was chief operating officer of Denver-based telecom Qwest (acquired by CenturyLink (CTL) in 2011) and among the highest paid on Fortune's Most Powerful Women list -- has been in your shoes, and now she's written a book about it. ????The Balance Myth: Rethinking Work-Life Success is packed with the kind of "nitty-gritty details" you're looking for, starting with the premise that the whole idea of "work-life balance" is an unrealistic goal that just makes people feel as if they're failing at everything. "Words like 'multitasking' and 'balance' are code words for the ability to run faster than an officemate or the ability to keep plates spinning in the air like the best Chinese juggler," Taylor writes. "The problem with these concepts is that eventually one trips, or gravity wins." ????That prospect seems to be so daunting to women in your age group that only 15% say they would want a top job at a big organization, says a new survey of 1,000 college-educated female millennials (born between 1980 and 1992) by global ad agency Zeno Group. The poll found that more than three-quarters (80%) are "concerned about their ability to achieve a balance between personal and professional goals." Nine in 10 agree that women "have to make more sacrifices" than their male peers, and about half (49%) say those sacrifices mean that high-powered jobs "aren't worth it." ????So Taylor's book seems well-timed to encourage at least some young strivers not to give up too soon. Here's a brief synopsis of six techniques that worked for Taylor, while she and her husband were raising two sons: ????1. Stop multitasking. Instead of trying to do several things at once, plan your day so that you have blocks of time (even if they're only 10 or 15 minutes long) where you are working exclusively on one thing. "Because I was able to give 100 percent to whatever I was focused on -- managing my blocks of time without multitasking -- I was more effective at my job than I had ever been before," Taylor writes. ????2. Assign a time limit to everything you do. Taylor applied this rule to both work and home, whether wrapping holiday presents or readying a client presentation. "Once you reach the time limit for a given task, stop," she says. "Don't keep modifying it or changing small details." ????This takes some practice and a willingness to let go of perfectionism. "It's also a learning opportunity," Taylor notes. Running out of time before all the gifts are wrapped, for example, means "I need to schedule a larger block of time, or find another solution to get the job done -- like using gift bags and tissue paper next time." |
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