每个人都会拖延，即使是最成功的人每天也要跟拖延斗争。但这些成功人士做了一些我们大多数人都没有做的事——克服它。他们不为此找借口，或是任由拖延影响自己的工作。他们想出聪明的、可行性高的策略去打破过去的心理障碍，从而保持高效。

 Here are eight ways successful people defeat procrastination.

下面就是成功人士战胜拖延的八个方法。

1. They keep themselves accountable.

1. 他们对自己负责

Show yourself commitment to getting things done. Making a commitment to yourself helps keep you accountable. You can do this by writing your goals down, keeping a to-do list with you, and creating reminders in your phone and on your calendar.

给自己许下把事情做完的承诺。对自己许诺能够帮助你保持责任感。你可以通过把目标写下来、随身携带待办事项以及在手机上或日历上设置提醒的方法来实现。

There are other more creative things you can do to keep yourself accountable Change the wallpaper on your phone or computer to something that says “get work done”. Write your tasks and goals on a whiteboard or large sticky you keep on your monitor. Set the new tab screen of your browser to something that reminds you of the day’s priorities using Momentum or Limitless.

你还可以做一些其他更有创造性的事情来让自己保持责任感：把你的手机或电脑屏幕壁纸设置成“做完工作”这样的话，把任务和目标写在白板或是显示屏的便签上。用Momentum或是Limitless在浏览器上建立新标签页，提醒你每天优先做的事。

2. They make themselves accountable to others.

2. 他们对别人负责

If you can’t stay accountable to yourself, you might have more success staying accountable to other people.

如果你不能保持对自己负责，那你可能更容易做到对别人负责。

Tell everyone what you plan to do and talk about your goals. Tell friends, employees and employers your intentions and you won’t want to let them down. For example, if you want to go to the gym every day, ask a friend to text you every evening asking “did you go to the gym today?”

告诉大家你的计划并且谈论你的目标。告诉朋友、员工、雇主你的打算，你并不想让他们失望。比如说，如果你想每天都去健身房，叫一个朋友每天晚上发信息问你：“你今天去健身房了吗？”

Another suggestion is to start documenting and sharing your journey. A blog or vlog where you share the projects you’re working on and your progress will encourage you to get things done. Allowing yourself to be under public scrutiny can help light a fire under you.

还有一个建议是开始记录并且分享你的进程。在微博或视频播客上晒出正在进行的项目以及获得的进步将会督促你把事情做完。把自己置于公众的审查之下可以点燃你体内的热情。

3. They tie themselves to the mast.

3. 他们把自己绑在桅杆上

In Homer’s Odyssey, Odysseus has his ship’s crew tie him to the mast so that he could hear the Sirens’ song without being drawn in and tempted to jump into the sea. If you’re a chronic procrastinator and simply can’t resist the temptations of things like Facebook and Youtube, it might be time to tie yourself to the mast.

在《荷马的奥德赛》一书中，奥德修斯让他的船员们把他绑在桅杆上，这样他就能听到塞壬的歌声而不被引诱并试图跳进海中。如果你是一个慢性拖延症患者，对Facebook和Youtube这类诱惑物没有抵抗力的话，是时候把自己绑在桅杆上了。（塞壬：古希腊传说中半人半鸟的女海妖，惯以美妙的歌声引诱水手，使他们的船只或触礁或驶入危险水域）

There are tools such as Rescue Time, SelfControl and Focus that will temporarily block access to distracting websites like Facebook so you can work on the things that matter. It’s an extreme measure but also very effective.

一些类似于Rescue Time、SelfControl、Focus的工具可以暂时阻止你进入Facebook这类让人分心的网站，这样你就能专心做重要的事情。方法比较极端，但确实非常有效。

There are less aggressive tools such as Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator and Distraction Free Youtube. These will allow you to have access to Facebook and Youtube but block the distracting parts of these websites (such as the newsfeed) so you can still use them for business purposes, like managing ads.

还有一些不那么极端的工具，像是Facebook Newsfeed Eradicator和Distraction Free Youtube，这些工具能让你接触Facebook和Youtube，但是会禁用一些让人分心的模块（如新闻供应）。这样一来你仍然可以用它们进行工作，比如管理广告。

4. They have self awareness.

4. 他们有自我意识

Self-awareness is a common trait many successful people have. Having self-awareness allows you to properly understand why you’re even procrastinating in the first place.

自我意识是很多成功人士都有的一个共同特征。拥有自我意识会让你正确地认识到从一开始为什么会拖延。

Once you understand why you’re procrastinating, it will be easier for you to form a plan to beat it. This will allow you to see the root cause of your procrastination, which you can then either solve the problem or formulate a strategy to overcome it.

一旦你明白了自己为什么拖延，制定计划去战胜它就变得比较容易了。这会让你看到拖延的根本原因，之后你可以解决问题或是制定战略克服它。

Becoming aware of why you procrastinate means taking a step back and looking at some of the possible reasons such as boredom, lack of confidence in the project, lack of self-confidence, and feeling overwhelmed. Once you know the reason, it’s a matter of finding things to remedy it and cut your procrastination off at the source.

意识到自己为什么拖延意味着后退一步看看可能出现的原因，比如厌烦、对项目缺乏信心、缺乏自信，或是感觉受打击。一旦你知道了原因，这就是想办法补救的事情了，并且要从源头切断拖延。

5. They plan ahead.

5. 他们提前做计划

How often do you, at the start of your work day, sit at your desk and begin looking for things to work on, only to wind up on Reddit or checking email?

在一天工作的开始，有多少次你坐在桌子旁，看着你需要做的工作，最后只是在看看Reddit网站或是查收邮件中结束？

If you get to your work desk and have no idea where to start, it can lead you to work on low-impact tasks (such as checking email) or other worse forms of procrastinating.

如果你到了办公室却不知道怎么开始，那你只能完成低强度的任务（如查收邮件）或是其他更糟糕的工作。

Those without a map, wander. Put together a plan or to-do list before starting work or any project.

那些没有地图的人一直在徘徊。在工作或任何项目开始之前，整合一个计划或任务清单。

The night before is a good time to do this. It allows you to reflect on what you’ve accomplished during the day and then come up with what needs to get done tomorrow. Now, when you start your work day, you know exactly what you need to work on and what’s the highest priority.

前一天晚上非常适合做这项工作。它能让你仔细思考过去的这一天完成了什么工作，明天还有什么需要完成。此时，当你开始工作时，你清楚地知道自己该做什么并且什么是最该优先做的。

6. They commit to at least showing up.

6. 他们承诺至少会出现

After starting a task, you’ll likely stick with it a lot longer than you initially committed to.

在开始一项任务后，你可能比一开始承诺的能坚持更久。

It’s like working out. Half the battle is just showing up to the gym.

就像是锻炼，出现在健身房就成功了一半。

Commit to just showing up and you’ll find yourself completing a lot more tasks. The next time you don’t feel like tackling a task, commit to only working on it for one minute. Set a timer for 60 seconds, then sit down and get to work. More often than not, you’ll find yourself wanting to go beyond the 60 seconds and continue.

只是承诺出现，你会发现自己完成了更多的任务。下一次你不想解决任务时，承诺只工作一分钟。设置60秒的定时，然后坐下来开始工作。通常情况下，你会发现自己想超过这60秒继续工作。

I constantly use this technique to trick myself into working on tedious tasks.

我经常用这种方法欺骗自己去做乏味的任务。

7. They break up large tasks into smaller tasks.

7. 他们把大任务拆分成小任务

The classic but seldom-followed productivity advice to conquering large or overwhelming tasks is to break them up into smaller chunks. Successful people understand that tasks need to be broken down into much more specific and measurable sub-tasks.

当克服很大的或是压倒性的任务时，一个很经典但是却很少被使用的提高效率的建议是，把他们拆分成小块。成功人士知道任务需要被拆分成具体可行的子任务。

For example, an overwhelming to-do list item might be “write book.” Does that item in my to-do list mean I need to write the entire book today, or does only writing one sentence count towards the completion of the task?

例如，一个难办的待办事项条目可能是“写书”。在待办事项中的这个条目是说我今天就要写完一整本书呢？还是只写一句话就算完成？

A better approach would be to set a goal of writing a specific number or words each day, or spend  a certain amount of time researching.

一个更好的方法是设置一个目标，明确规定每天要写多少数量或多少字，或是花固定的时间研究。

“Write 1000 words” or “spend 30 minutes researching examples of productive CEOs for book” are much more specific tasks, and therefore easier to tackle. This often encourages me to get more done and feel accomplished and motivated by scratching to-do items off of my list.

“写100个字”或是“花30分钟研究高效的CEO写书的例子”是更为具体的任务，也因此更容易处理。这经常能鼓励我完成更多工作，把工作从待办事项的清单中划掉是非常有成就感也是非常鼓舞人的。

8. They give up.

8. 他们会放弃

Just because you already poured hours into a project, doesn’t mean you need to finish it. This is known as the “sunk cost fallacy.” The “sunk cost fallacy” affects gamblers, investors, and even procrastinators. Sometimes, a project just isn’t worth burning more hours over, and you ultimately need to figure out if it’s time to quit.

只是因为你早已在一个项目上花费了好几个小时，并不意味着你必须要完成它。这就是所谓的“沉没成本误区”。“沉没成本误区”对赌徒、投资者、甚至是拖延者都造成了影响。有时候，一项任务不值得花费更多的时间，最终你需要意识到是否到了该放弃的时候。

Take a step back and figure out the reason you’re procrastinating on the project or task. Is it because it’s actually not that important, or doesn’t move you closer to your big picture goal?

后退一步看看你在项目或任务上为什么会拖延。是因为它真的不重要吗？或者是没能让你更接近你的目标蓝图？

Subtraction, instead of addition, is efficient and productive. Maybe you need to focus on doing fewer things. Maybe this project you’re procrastinating on is actually making you much less productive and needs to be dropped.

减法比加法更有效。可能你需要把精力集中在少数的事情上，可能你拖延的这个项目让你变得低效，那么你确实需要放弃它。

Your turn.

轮到你了。

Procrastination can be beat, it just takes some self-awareness and effort. Applying even just a few of any of the above methods can put you on the path to being a much more productive individual.

拖延能被打败，只是需要一些自我意识和努力。应用上面的方法（哪怕只有其中的几个）能帮助你走上更高效的道路。