想提高效率，试试这10个方法

生产率即效率——以更少的资源，用更快的速度，做更多的事情。随着当今随时随地工作场所的要求日益提高，生产率也变得日益重要。而要想最大程度提高生产率，你必须专注于生活中的三个部分：

时间

众所周知，人类并不擅长处理多任务，所以管理时间对于提高生产率至关重要。而最浪费时间的莫过于意外（并且通常是不重要的）任务。我们都会有一种冲动，去阅读刚刚收到的电子邮件，或者瞥一眼弹出来的最新通知——心理学家、《有条理的思维》（The Organized Mind）一书的作者丹尼尔·莱维坦将这种倾向称作“新奇事物偏见”。这种非故意的任务转换所浪费的时间，可能超乎你的想象。加州大学（University of California ）的信息学家格洛里亚·马克发现，人们平均需要26分钟才能从琐碎的干扰事件中恢复专注。为了避免浪费时间，提前计划每天的时间，区分意外的干扰：

1. 每天开始时，计划“个人专属时间”：查看晚上积累的电子邮件和社交媒体更新，对积压的工作确定优先次序。迅速完成快速回复和转发，使人们能够开始执行任务。安排更重要的任务。删除情报性或不重要的任务。

2. 利用通勤时间完成协调任务：如果不利用通勤时间挑选出最耗时间的任务，那就太荒唐了。在早晨通勤途中，我会完成对外部顾问情况的综述——了解开放项目的最新进展，确定他们是否需要协助。在抵达办公室时，我已经对项目进度有了准确的了解。

3. 将会议时间缩短25%：你在会议上完成的工作量不会因此减少，因为许多时间被浪费在了解决电话会议安排和无用的玩笑上。如果每天将五人会议的时间从一个小时缩短到45分钟，你每个月将节省25个小时的工作时间。这相当于每年300个小时——几乎是两个月的工作时间！

4. 安排固定的休息时间：马不停蹄地参加会议并不代表高效率，因为你会疲惫不堪，失去专注力。在日历中留出休息时间。将这些休息变成一种惯例，能够提高可预测性，形成一种有规律的时间安排，让你的思维保持条理。如果有条件，午餐之后“有效午睡”10至20分钟。

空间

所谓“空间”是指你的环境——包括办公场所和虚拟空间。工作空间或许并非最后的边界，但却是提高工作效率的一个重要元素。下面是一些与空间有关的建议：

5. 在合理的情况下在“场外”办公：如果你需要撰写一份文件或研究一个课题，排除办公室里的干扰能够提高专注度。有些公司发现，允许员工在家办公还有其他好处，例如缩短通勤时间和午餐时间，减少病假天数等。你可以考虑如何将中国旅游网站携程（Ctrip）、AIIM和Wordpress的成文策略，应用于自己的工作环境。

6. 合并所有为你提供信息的应用：你需要操作太多应用——电子邮件、Yammer等微博工具、Lync等聊天工具、Twitter和LinkedIn等社交媒体应用，还有SAP、甲骨文（Oracle）和Salesforce等操作系统等。把所有应用的通知集中到一个地方。

7. 关闭移动设备和台式机上的弹出通知：不要让令人讨厌的应用程序弹出信息干扰你的专注度。关闭它们。马上。并且限制自己仅在每天的设定时间查看电子邮件。你不会为此感到遗憾。

心态

调整自己的状态，使你能够在当前专注于正确的任务：

8. 进行对话，不要发送电子邮件：拿起电话，或者穿过大厅，直接与同事面对面交流。对于在异地的同事，利用聊天工具。因为你可以在对话中给出准确的指示，迅速消除误会。进行没完没了的电子邮件对话所浪费的时间令人难以置信——而且会产生无意义的错误。

9. 把问题由大化小：这样做能够减少因为承担重大任务所产生的不堪重负和拖延的感觉。一种实用的方法是采用敏捷技术管理工作任务。敏捷任务管理诞生于软件开发领域，其对任务管理的巨大贡献在于把重大任务划分为“短时间的冲刺”。在整个过程中掌握一种解决方案，可以减少处理重大任务的焦虑。

10. 利用重复性任务核查清单，减少错误：尤其是在疲劳过度或时间紧张的情况下，清单能够让你不会偏离轨道。关于如何使用清单的优秀指导，请参阅阿图·葛文德的《清单革命》（The Checklist Manifesto）一书。（财富中文网）

译者：刘进龙/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.