You already know that you should wake up early to become more productive, and perhaps you have also heard that you shouldn’t check your email first thing in the morning. While this advice is good and well-documented, there is also another kind of productivity advice that is as effective as well. Even if the tips are less-known and somewhat counter-intuitive, you just have to give them a try and see how they work for you.

你早已知道為了提高效率你應該早起，或許你也早已耳聞你不該在早上頭一件事就檢查電子郵件。這些建議都是很好的而且證據(jù)充分的，然而還是有很多其他同樣有效的提高效率的方法。盡管這些建議相對來說比較不為人知，而且有點有違常理。但你還是應該試一試，看看它們在你身上起不起作用。

1. Work when there is a distraction around

1.在有干擾的情況下工作

Your environment doesn’t have to be 100% quiet if you want to get work done. Let’s say that you are working from home and you have kids. Let’s also assume that you don’t have a dedicated workspace in your home to do your work. Naturally, you could decide to do work during the quiet hours (before the rest of the family wakes up), but not all of the tasks have to be done then.

在你想要完成一件工作的時候，你周圍的環(huán)境并不一定要100%的安靜。比方說你在家里工作，而你有幾個孩子。假設你在家里并沒有專門的工作場所，當然，你可以選擇在安靜的時間工作。(在其他家庭成員起床以前)，但那樣的話就不一定能把所有的工作都做完了。

The fact is that there are certain tasks which allow more distraction than others, and when you know this, you can plan your days more efficiently. In fact, you could dedicate those quiet hours to working on something valuable while the rest of the time (when your family is awake) you can finish less valuable tasks. For instance, I can check most of my social media accounts, do some simple blog-related maintenance tasks or check my e-mail (most of the time) even if my son is pulling my sleeve or if the TV is on in the background. When I know that certain tasks do not require my full concentration, it’s easier to plan my days with that knowledge in mind.

事實上，有些任務比起其他任務來說能夠忍受更多的干擾，如果你知道這點，你就能更有效率地規(guī)劃你的生活了。事實上，你可以花些安靜的時間去做那些更有價值的工作，而用剩下的時間(你的家人還醒著的時候)做一些不那么有價值的任務。比如說，即使我兒子正在扯我的袖子，或者電視打開著，我還是可以檢查我大部分的社交媒體賬戶，做一些簡單的博客維護工作，檢查電子郵件(大部分時間)。當我知道了有些特定的任務不需要完全的精神集中，我安排日程的時候就方便得多了。

2. Drink coffee before taking a nap

2.在小睡前喝一杯咖啡

Want to boost your afternoon productivity? Then take a caffeine nap! According to a study by Jim Maas, PhD, professor of psychology at Cornell University, combining coffee and napping time can have a big improvement in one’s personal productivity. Coffee enters your bloodstream approximately 20 minutes after you have consumed it. The minute figure is exactly the same as the length of your nap, so these two play well together. In order to implement this technique, do this:

你想要大幅提高你下午的效率嗎?打個帶咖啡因的盹吧!根據(jù)康奈爾大學心理學教授Jim Maas博士的一項研究表明，把咖啡和午睡結(jié)合起來能大大地提高一個人的效率。你喝了咖啡大約20分鐘后它才會進入你的血液循環(huán)中。這個時間和你午睡的時間正好相等，所以它們能夠合作無間。為了實施好這個方法，你要這么做：

Drink a cup of coffee

喝一杯咖啡

Take a 20-minute nap right afterward

喝完馬上打一個20分鐘的盹

Wake-up refreshed

清醒地醒來

If you are not a coffee drinker, that’s fine too: even with a 20-minute nap alone, you can feel super-fresh and productive as well.

假如你不是個愛喝咖啡的人，也沒問題：就算只是打個20分鐘的盹，你也會感到非常清醒，充滿效率。

更多提高效率方法：時間管理【通關(guān)班】

3. Work in a train

3.在火車上工作

It’s so funny to think that the places that seem like the last ones in which to get anything done are the best for productivity. I’m talking about trains, and when I travel alone, I look forward to getting work done there. The effect is almost like working in a coffee shop, where people come and go and there is some distraction around all of the time. This kind of ambience is the same on trains, but the distraction doesn’t bother me at all. In fact, I have done a lot of work during my trips when I’m moving from one place to another. To maximize your train working experience, prepare yourself in the following way:

把看起來最不適合工作的地方想成效率最高的地方，這看起來有些好笑。沒錯，我確實是在說火車，當我一個人旅行的時候，我非常期待在上面完成工作。那種效果就好像在一家咖啡店里工作一樣，人們走來走去，無論何時都充滿了干擾。這種氣氛和在火車上是一樣的，只是這種干擾完全不會對我產(chǎn)生困擾。事實上，我已經(jīng)在旅途中完成了許多工作了。為了最大化地利用好你在火車上的工作時間，你應該這樣做：

Have your material ready (for e.g. I have outlined all my blog posts before I start writing them)

準備好資料(比方說，在我寫所有博文之前，我都早已給它們寫了個大綱)

The material can be used offline if necessary (download the documents and other files to your local computer in advance)

確保資料能離線使用(把文件提前下載到你的電腦里)

Have a mobile Internet access with you

帶一個移動上網(wǎng)工具

Headphones (for listening to podcasts and educational material, or even listening to music when working)

準備好耳機(為了聽播客或是教育性材料，甚至是在工作時聽聽音樂)

An e-book reader (if for some reason your laptop batteries die down, you can use your time productively)

帶一個電子書閱讀器(以免你的電腦如果死機了，你可以有效率地利用你的時間)

Finally, decide in advance what you want to do. For instance, I have been writing e-books, blog posts or going through some educational materials while I travel. When you plan your train time, you can get started with your tasks right away and no time is spent on figuring out what to do when you should be already working.

最后，提前決定好你要做什么。比如說，我曾經(jīng)在旅行時寫電子書、博文或是聽一些教育性的材料。當你計劃你在火車上的時間時，應該確保你可以直接開始工作，這樣當你正在工作時就不用考慮要做什么了。

4. Close the curtains

4.拉上窗簾

It may sound funny that closing the curtains can improve your productivity but it’s actually true. For instance, I might do some work at the dining table where there is a window to the left of me. Since I can see the nearby parking space through the window (and the people and moving cars as well), the movement might catch my attention, so the simplest way to prevent the distraction is to close the curtains. That way I’m not able to sense the movement and I can put all of my attention to my work. If you have similar kinds of experiences, do this simple thing to fix the situation.

拉上窗簾能提高效率聽上去或許顯得有些好笑，但這是真的。比方說，我必須在餐桌上做一些工作，而我左邊正好有一面窗。我從窗里能看到附近的停車位(還有行人和車輛)，這些動靜或許會吸引我的注意力，因此最簡單的避免干擾的方法就是把窗簾拉上。這樣我就不會去關(guān)注那些動靜，從而能把所有注意力都集中在工作上。如果你也有類似的經(jīng)歷，和我一樣做來解決這個問題吧。

5. Multitasking

5.一心多用

Would you believe me if I said that multitasking can make you more productive? Well, that’s what I’m telling you and I’ll let you know how. In normal circumstances you should focus on one thing at a time: for instance, if you are creating something (like writing a blog post), you should focus on the writing part and nothing else. But what about those boring tasks that you have to do—no matter what? Let’s imagine that you have to do manual data input work and there is no way around that. To make things a little bit easier, you could do something that is referred as “mindful multitasking,” and the basic idea is to use multitasking to get the boring thing done.

要是我說一心多用能提高你的效率你會相信嗎?好吧，這正是我要說的，我也會告訴你要怎么做。一般情況下，你同時只會關(guān)注于一件事情：比方說，你在創(chuàng)作什么東西(比如寫一篇博文)，你應該專注于寫作。但是干那些無聊的任務的時候呢?想象一下你要做手動信息輸入工作，而且除了手打沒有別的方法。為了讓事情更簡單，你可以進行“提神性的一心多用”，它的基本思想是，在做無聊的事情時做些別的事情。

In our example, when you are doing a data entry task, you could check your Facebook page or your e-mail every once in a while to make you more alert. When you do this, you are more energized to take care of the boring tasks. The mindful part comes from understanding that you are indeed multitasking. You also realize that this is decreasing your performance, but at the same time, you are willing to accept the costs, since it helps you to get the tedious work done.

比方說，當你在做信息錄入工作時，你可以隔一段時間看看你的Facebook主頁或是電子郵件來讓你保持清醒。當你這么做的時候，你就更有動力做那些無聊的任務了。提神的部分來自于你知道你在一心多用，而你也明白這會降低你的效率，但同時，你也欣然接受這份損失，因為它幫助你完成了那件無聊的工作。