2020年,是什么在偷走你的时间?我们又该如何找回它?
最近Glassdoor网站的一项民意调查发现,79%的美国雇员都表示,比起涨薪,他们更希望多点时间上的福利。由于2020年的封锁政策以及企业的线上转型,我们之中许多人的时间观念已经改变了。哈佛商学院的艾希礼·惠兰斯认为,以下四种方法可以让我们充分利用时间。
If you feel that your perception of time has changed recently, you are not alone.
如果你觉得最近自己的时间观念发生了变化——你不是一个人。
Ottawa’s Christina Chenard is one of those folks whose sense of time has been revamped, and it has changed her life for the better.
常驻渥太华的克里斯蒂娜·切纳德也觉得自己的时间观念发生了改变,并且这个转变让她的生活变得更好了。
Before the pandemic, the director of alumni and donor relations for Carleton University, said she used to run around like a headless chicken: rising extremely early, getting two kids off to daycare, navigating traffic and then zigzagging around campus for meetings much of the day, before coming home to “collapse and start all over again.”
克里斯蒂娜·切纳德是卡尔顿大学管理校友及捐赠者关系的主任。她说,在流感大流行之前,她常常像一只无头苍蝇一样到处乱跑。每天起得非常早,把两个孩子送到托儿所,在繁忙的车流中穿梭,一天中的大部分时间都在校园里转来转去参加各种会议,最后回到家“整个人瘫倒,然后第二天又重复同样的生活”。
Now she works mainly from home, and time is opening up. Chenard sleeps more, commutes less and spends more quality time with her family.
现在她主要在家工作,时间也越来越宽裕了。切纳德休息的时间更长了,也省了些通勤的时间,和家人共度的欢乐时光更多了。
“What works for me is setting up blocks of time when I’m just not available for work, like when I’m with family or doing things around the house,” Chenard said. “I never would have done that before.”
切纳德说:“对我来说,给自己规定一些不能工作的时间段是很奏效的,比如当我和家人呆在一起,或者在家里做些什么事情的时候。以前的我是绝不会那么做的。”
Similar calibrations are being felt around the globe.
其实全球人民都在经历着类似的改变。
For example, a survey from jobs site Glassdoor found that 79% of U.S. employees say they would prefer more time-related benefits over a pay raise – including vacation days (37%), paid sick days (32%) and a flexible schedule (30%).
例如,就业网站Glassdoor的一项调查发现,79%的美国雇员都表示,比起涨薪,他们更希望多点时间上的福利。这种福利包括假期(37%)、带薪病假(32%)和灵活的日程安排(30%)。
“This moment has made us all more attuned to things that are truly important in life, and changed our relationship to work,” says Ashley Whillans, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School whose new book “Time Smart: How To Reclaim Your Time & Live a Happier Life” will be released this month. “At the end of the day, time is our most valuable resource, and we can never get it back.”
艾希礼·惠兰斯是哈佛商学院的助理教授,她的新书《时间的智慧:如何找回时间,过更幸福的生活》将于本月发行。她说:“这个时间点让我们更加认识到了什么是人生真正重要的东西,我们与工作的关系也改变了。归根结底,时间是我们最宝贵的资源,我们再也拿不回来了。”
Put time first in your decision-making, and instead of feeling permanently frazzled and worn out, you will find yourself becoming what Whillans calls “time affluent”.
做决定时,把时间放在第一位,这样你就会发现自己变得如惠兰斯所说的那样“时间富足”,而不是总感到疲惫不堪、筋疲力尽。
Here are four tips to create time affluence from Whillans.
这里有四个来自惠兰斯的小建议,可以帮助你实现时间上的富足。
Catalog it
学会做记录
In any review of your financial life, Job One is figuring out exactly where your cash is going. The same holds true for time.
当你在梳理自己的财务生活时,第一项工作永远是弄清楚你的钱到底花在了哪儿。对待时间也该如此。
Write down how you are spending your days, down to the minute, and then take a hard look at the results. Presumably, far too much time is being spent on uNPRoductive periods like commutes; scrolling through anxiety-producing news feeds; or doing stuff you really dislike, mainly because you think you have to.
请记录下你是如何度过每一天的,细化到每一分钟,然后仔细看看自己写的东西。想必我们有太多的时间都花在了毫无生产力的东西上,比如日常通勤、浏览制造焦虑的新闻推送,或者做自己完全不喜欢的事情,而这些主要都是因为你觉得自己必须要这么做。
Buy more time
花钱买时间
Yes, you can essentially fund more free time for yourself, by outsourcing chores you despise – like, say, cleaning your house. It will cost you in monetary terms, but if you can afford it, the effect on your life happiness will be wildly disproportionate.
实际上,你可以通过外包你厌恶的杂事来为自己买到更多的空闲时间,比如你可以雇别人来打扫你的房子。这样的确会费一些钱,但如果你能负担得起,花这点钱其实能极大地提升你生活的幸福感。
Whillans even came up with a metric to quantify that tradeoff: “Happiness Dollars”. For instance, she estimates that outsourcing disliked tasks produces the happiness equivalent of an extra $16,000 in annual household income.
Whillans甚至提出了一个量化这种交易的指标:“幸福美元”。比如,根据她的估计,把不喜欢的工作外包出去带来的幸福感能等同于家庭年收入增加1.6万美元。
Reshape your workday
重塑工作日
Making time-first decisions could change what your office life looks like – and with everything in flux right now, your bosses might be more amenable to creative solutions.
把时间放在首位做决定可能会改变你的办公生活。但现在一切都在变化,你的老板或许也更愿意接受创新性的做事方案。
If your day is clogged with time-sucking meetings, perhaps there are some you could skip. If your office reopens, perhaps you could negotiate working from home a couple of days a week. Multiply those time savings over the course of a year, and you are creating vast amounts of new space in your calendar.
如果你的一整天都被各种耗费时间的会议塞满了,或许你也可以翘掉一些。如果你的办公室复工了,或许你也可以协商一周在家工作几天。放眼一整年,这些节省下来的时间可以让你的日历空出大量的新空间。
Leisure time matters
合理利用闲暇
The point of generating more time for yourself is not so you can spend it all playing games on your smart phone or zoning out in front of a TV screen.
为自己创造更多的时间并非为了让你把它完全用来玩手机游戏,或者在电视屏幕前呆着一动不动。
That is “passive” leisure, and it is fine in moderation – but aim for more “active” leisure that is proven to produce real happiness, like having meals with friends, volunteering, exercising, or engaging in your favorite hobbies.
这些是“被动”休闲,如果能做到适度倒也可以,但我们要争取更多的“主动”休闲,比如和朋友一起吃饭、做志愿服务、锻炼身体或者发展你的各项爱好。“主动休闲”才是被证实能带来真正幸福感的方式。
“Time affluence doesn’t necessarily require major life changes, like quitting your job or retiring early,” Whillans said. “It can also be about smaller changes around the margins, like how you use the next 30 minutes. Use your hours deliberately, with more intention, and it will have powerful effects on your happiness.”
Whillans说:“时间富足并不一定需要你做出重大的生活改变,比如辞职或提前退休等。它也可以是关于边际时间的小改变,就比如决定要如何利用接下来的30分钟。学会有意识地利用你的时间,做任何事都有明确的目的性,这会对你的幸福感产生巨大的影响。”