Do you have an elephant? You know, that big task that you have not gotten around to?你有一頭大象嗎？也就是你沒有抽出時間來做的重要任務？

The one that you are dreading…你害怕的任務……

The one that has been hanging around….停滯不前的任務……

The one that is too obvious…太過容易的任務……

It’s in the middle of the room and no one wants to talk about it.這只大象就站在屋子中央，可是沒有人想要談論它。

What is your elephant? And how are you going to deal with it?你的大象是什么？你打算如何去處理它？

Just A Little Bite就那么一小口

I had an elephant recently. It was to clean up the garage. 我最近有了一頭大象。那就是清理車庫。

It had become piled up with “stuff” after the holidays.  From boxes to recyclables to just… well, stuff!假期之后車庫里就堆滿了東西。從箱子到可回收物到……哦，反正就是各種東西！

I was not looking forward to cleaning it up.  I kept telling myself that I would get to it. That I would spend an entire Saturday and do it all at once.我并不期盼去清理它。我不停地對自己說我會著手去做。我會花掉整個星期六的時間，一次性搞定。

Well, several weekends came and went.  It got put off each time. After all, taking a whole day out of your weekend is difficult.好吧，好幾個周末來了又走。每一次這件事都被推遲了。畢竟從周末中抽出一整天是很困難的。

So, one morning when I was up early, I decided I was going to eat the elephant. But, just one bite.因此，某天早上我早起的時候，我決定要去吃掉這頭大象。但是，就吃一口。

I went out in the garage and cleaned for 10 minutes. I threw some things out. I re-shelved a few other things.我來到車庫，清理了有10分鐘。我把一些東西扔了出去，把幾樣東西重新放到了架子上。

And then I stopped. Then the next day, I did it again… for 10 more minutes. By the third day, I was setting a timer. And for exactly 10 minutes, I cleaned again.然后我停了下來。第二天，我又去清理車庫了……花了十多分鐘。到第三天，我放了一個計時器。我又清理了一遍，精確地用了10分鐘。

I was eating this elephant 10 minutes at a time!我每次花10分鐘吃這頭大象！

By the end of the week, 80% of my elephant was gone!  All with only a few minutes of effort a day! Taking care of the rest was going to be a cinch.  And I had momentum on my side.到本周末，大象的80%被我吃掉了！每天只花了幾分鐘的工夫就把這全搞定了！處理好剩余的事情成了小菜一碟。而且我自己也有了動力。

Eat Your Elephant吃掉你的大象

What is your elephant?  What big project have you been avoiding?你的大象是什么？你在逃避什么重大計劃？

You know you need to do it.  But, it seems too big to start.你知道你需要去做這件事。但是，這件事似乎太大了，不知道該從何入手。

It could be a creative project. It could be a report. It could be a book. A skill you need to learn. Or it could even be routine stuff like cleaning the car or house.它可能是一件創造性的工程，可能是一份報告，可能是一本書，是你需要去學習的技巧。或者它甚至可能是日常工作，例如洗車或者打掃房屋。

All of these are good projects for 10 minute attacks. Start by breaking it down. Take just a small bite.所有這些事情都是花10分鐘就能開始的項目。先把它分解開來。只吃一小口。

Here are some tips to help you….以下的一些小貼士會對你有所幫助……

Just a Few Minutes – Go into the task with the expectation that you will stop after 10 minutes.  Several hours of work can seem overwhelming, but only 10 minutes is much more doable.只用幾分鐘——開始這項工作時，預期你會在10分鐘內停下來。幾個小時的工作似乎會壓得人喘不過氣，但是只用10分鐘就可行得多。

Set a Timer – The timer can be both a boundary and a motivator.  You may find that you increase your productivity while racing the clock. You will find some days you spend more than 10 minutes.  That is OK!放一個計時器——計時器既可以限制你也可以激勵你。你可能會發現，在你與時鐘賽跑時你也提高了自己的工作效率。你會發現有幾天你花的時間超過了10分鐘。這挺好的！

Stop in the Middle – The goal here is little bites. Do not hesitate to stop in the middle of something when the time is up. You can come back to it next time.做到中間時停下來——在這里，我們的目標是一小口。如果時間到了，你才做到一半就要停下來，不要猶豫。你可以下次再回來。

Break Off a Piece – For really large projects, it can help to attack a smaller subset of the work.  For example, for a report, maybe just gather the necessary research materials. The next time you return, it will not seem as daunting to start.把一件事情分開來做——對于真正巨大的項目，把工作分成小部分開始做是有幫助的。例如，對于一份報告來說，可能只是收集必要的調查材料。下次你再來做的時候，要開始似乎也不是那么讓人怯步了。

Laser Focus – It is easy to focus for 10 minutes.  In short bursts, your productivity can be extremely high. For long tasks you will find yourself getting distracted by other things. Like when you are writing that document and suddenly find yourself surfing Wikipedia. Stay dedicated to your elephant for the full 10 minutes.像激光一樣聚焦——集中10分鐘是很簡單的。在短時間內，你的工作效率可以是極其高的。對于耗時長的任務，你會發現自己被其他的事情所分心。就像你正在寫那份文件，突然發現自己在看維基百科。把整整10分鐘完全奉獻給你的大象。

Not So Big After All終究沒有這么龐大

When faced with a large task that seems overwhelming, sometimes it is best to start small.當面對一個龐大的任務似乎那么勢不可擋的時候，有時從小處開始最好。

Don’t think you have to do it all in one sitting. Take a big task and attack it for 10 minutes a day.不要認為你必須一氣兒把它全部完成。接受一個龐大的任務，每天花10分鐘全力解決。

You may think that 10 minutes is not enough time to “get in the zone” for large endeavors. However, you will be amazed how much you can actually get done in that short timeframe.你可能認為10分鐘的時間不足以集中精力做很大努力。然而，在這么短的時間里你真正能做多少事情將會讓你非常吃驚。

After all, doing something for 4 hours is not fun, but 10 minutes is not so bad.畢竟，花四個小時做某件事并不好玩，但是10分鐘卻沒有那么糟。

Take smaller pieces… bit by bit… bite by bite.把事情分成小份……一點一點......一小口一小口地來。

Soon, your elephant won’t seem so big after all.用不了多久，你的大象就沒有這么大了。

What is your elephant? How do you deal with it?你的大象是什么？你會怎么處理它？

查看更多英語翻譯學習網站相關文章，就到英語翻譯學習網站分站吧>>