Define your MITs. MIT stands for most important task， and just by taking a few moments to identify 3–5 things you must accomplish each day， you will improve your overall productivity—because you cant focus on your important work if you dont know whats important.

確定你最重要的任務（MIT）。MIT代表的是最重要的任務，而只需花很少的時間來確定每天必須完成的3到5件事，就能提高你的整體效率——因為如果你不知道哪些工作是重要的，你就不可能專注于重要的工作。

Do the thing you want to do the least， first. Prioritize those items you are most likely to procrastinate—your day will go much more smoothly when the phone call youre dreading or the report you dont want to write are finished and no longer weighing on your mind.

最先做你最不想做的工作。將你最有可能拖延的工作優(yōu)先完成——當你把最不想打的電話打完或最不想寫的報告寫完，你的一天會順利得多，而這些事也不會積壓在你心上。

Dont multi-task. We live in a multi-tab， multiple device kind of world， but scientists tell us that none of us is truly a good multi-tasker. Working on one thing at a time will make you faster and less apt to make mistakes.

不要一心多用。我們生活在一個多任務、多方法的世界，但是科學家告訴我們，沒有人能真正同時兼顧多項任務。一次只專注于一項工作能夠提高效率并減少錯誤。

Work offline. The Internet is a fantastic， but tempting place. If you have difficulty avoiding its distractions， work offline or take your work somewhere without an Internet connection to force some focus. You can get so much work done on long plane journeys and sometimes you can go to a local coffee shop for some uninterrupted work.

離線工作?；ヂ?lián)網是一個新奇但誘惑巨大的地方。如果你很難避免它帶來的分心，離線工作或者去沒有網絡的地方工作，強迫自己專心。你可以在長途旅行的飛機上就做很多工作，有時你還可以去當地的咖啡店專心工作，避免被打擾。

Do important work. In the classic Seven Habits of Highly Effective People， Steven Covey presents a matrix that divides our activities into four categories： urgent and important， not urgent but important， urgent and unimportant， and not urgent not important. The key is to spend most of our time in quadrant two， doing the important work that isnt driven by crisis.

做重要的工作。在《高效人士的七個習慣》這本經典中，斯蒂芬·科維展示了一個矩陣，他將人類活動分為四類：緊急和重要的，非緊急但重要的，緊急但不重要的，以及非緊急也不重要的。關鍵就是要將我們大部分的時間放在第二象限，即做那些非緊急但重要的工作。

Be succinct. When writing emails， get to the point quickly. A good rule of thumb is to limit your email to five sentences or less.

做到簡明扼要。當你寫電子郵件時，以最快速度講到重點。一個好辦法是電子郵件不要超過五句話。

Batch similar tasks. The simplest example of this is choosing to process emails only once or twice a day rather than jumping like one of Pavlovs dogs every time the computer dings. Identify tasks that are interrupting your flow （email， phone calls， meetings， etc.） and schedule a time to do them all at once.

批量處理相似任務。最簡單的例子就是每天抽出一或兩段時間只處理郵件，而不是像巴甫洛夫的狗那樣，電腦一響就跳過去查看。找出那些容易打斷你工作流程的任務（電子郵件、電話、會議等等），定個時間把它們一次性處理完。

In our modern world， everyone is looking to do things faster， better， smarter， so its no wonder that productivity hacks are incredibly popular.

But the truth is that theres nothing new under the sun； despite whatever the newest book， product， or guru wants to sell you， you can learn to become more productive with work habits people have used for many years. Apply even a few of these and you will increase your productivity， guaranteed：

現(xiàn)代社會，每個人做事都力求更快、更好、更漂亮，所以難怪提高效率的方法廣受歡迎。

但事實上，天下原無新鮮事；盡管不斷有各種新書、產品或者任何權威專家想要賣給你的東西，你完全可以憑借人們已沿用多年的工作習慣來提高效率。嘗試養(yǎng)成其中幾種習慣，就能保證提高你的效率：

Create a morning routine （and an afternoon routine and an evening routine）. For many people， defining and sticking to a morning routine can help ensure a smooth start to the day. If you know you operate at your best when you have exercised and had a good breakfast， making those things a priority will positively affect the rest of your day. Likewise， routines for other times of the day can streamline daily tasks.

養(yǎng)成早晨的固定習慣（以及下午和晚上的）。對很多人來說，確定并堅持早晨的固定習慣能夠幫助確保一天平穩(wěn)度過。如果你知道自己在鍛煉和享受豐盛早餐之后能夠以最佳狀態(tài)工作，那么優(yōu)先完成這兩件事情能夠對余下的一天有積極影響。同樣地，其他時間的固定習慣也能使一天過得更流暢。

Eliminate， automate， delegate. Doing your best work often requires eliminating or minimizing tasks that you dont need to do. First， eliminate anything you can from your to do list； determine if any tasks can be automated with technology or templates； and finally， delegate any tasks that dont need your personal attention to a co-worker or assistant.

篩選，自動化，委派。把工作做到最好要求篩選并淘汰掉你不需要做的任務。首先，從你的任務清單中去除所有你能做的；考察是否有任務可以通過技術手段或模板自動完成；最后，將不需要你特別注意的工作委派給同事或助手。

Edit your input streams and simplify. Most people wouldnt want to give up their newsletters， social media， or blog reading， but there are ways to make your media consumption more productive. First， ruthlessly edit your media streams to the most valuable and important ones； then， find ways to streamline your consumption with RSS feeds， apps like Hootsuite， and offline readers.

編輯你的流媒體并精簡。不少人不愿意放棄閱讀簡報、瀏覽社交媒體和博客，但是其他方式可以讓你的流媒體消費更加有效。首先，只將最有價值、最重要的流媒體留下來；然后，通過一些手段精簡你的RSS訂閱，比如應用程序Hootsuite和其他離線閱讀器都是很好的選擇。