We live in a time-pressed culture. There is never enough time. And we see it, we feel it around us every day. We live in a world that valorizes work, accomplishment, busyness. And there’s real upside to that; there’s real value. We’re pushed, we’re driven toward achievement and action and creation. And that’s great, but there’s also a downside. And that's something that I think is worth talking about.
我们生活在一个 快节奏的文化氛围中。 时间似乎永远不够用。 我们能够看到, 我们能每天无时不刻的感受到它。 我们生活在一个以工作, 成就,忙碌的世界中。 这当然是有好处的; 因为它有真正价值。 我们被迫, 去追求成就和行动、追求创造。 这当然很好, 但也有不好的一面。 我认为这是一个值得讨论的事情。
There was a study done a while back, by the Management Research Group, of 10,000 senior leaders. And they asked them, “What is key to your organization’s success?” And 97 percent said long-term strategic thinking. I mean, when was the last time that 97 percent of people agreed on anything? There is near unanimity that being a long-term thinker -- having perspective, having the ability to think and ask big questions -- is essential to our success. And yet in a separate study, 96 percent of leaders were surveyed, and they said they don’t have time for strategic thinking.
不久前,研究管理小组 做过一项研究, 针对 10,000 个高管。 参与者被问到, 你认为你的团队成功的关键是什么? 97% 的受访者认为 是长期的战略性思考。 我很好奇,上一次让 97% 的人 达成如此一致是什么时候? 人们几乎一致认为,有远见, 有思考、提出重大问题的能力-- 是我们获得成功的基础。 然而在另一项研究中, 96%的高管参与了调查, 然而,他们表示没有时间 去进行战略性的思考。
(Laughter)
(笑声)
What is going on? Why is it -- how can it be that 96 percent of people are not doing the one thing that they say is most critical to their success?
这是怎么回事? 为什么会这样? 怎么回事呢? 96% 的人没有去做他们认为 对成功最关键的事情?
Well, I think we know the answer ... or at least we think we do. The average professional attends 62 meetings per month. That sounds pretty outrageous. How could that be? But if you actually break it down, it’s not that many. It’s two to three meetings per day, which is probably average for many of you. So 62 meetings a month. That does not help, and that is not wrong. It is a contributor.
我想我们知道答案...... 或者说,至少我们认为我们知道。 专业人士每个月 平均参加 62 次会议。 这听起来很不可思议。 怎么做到的? 但是如果你分开来看, 那其实也不是很多。 平均到每天,有 2-3 次会议, 这和大多数人的平均水平一致 所以,一个月开 62 次会。 这说明不了什么, 但这也没什么错。 这是其中的一个 影响我们认知的因素。
Also, we know -- we know what else ... email. A study a while back by McKinsey showed that the average professional spends 28 percent of their time just responding to email. Of course that drains us, of course that makes us busy.
而且我们知道, 一些其他的例子...... 电子邮件 麦肯锡不久前的一项研究表明, 职业人士平均花费 28% 的时间 用来专门回复邮件 当然,这耗费精力 也让我们变得忙碌起来。
But the truth is, it’s also, I believe, not the full picture. Those are manifestations. Those are problems, legitimately. But there are also some other things going on underneath the surface, reasons that perhaps we are, in some ways, working at cross-purposes. Because for so long almost all of us have said we want desperately to be less busy, and yet we keep making choices that put ourselves in the position where we’re just as busy as we’ve always been.
但我相信事实全貌并非如此。 这些都只是表现形式。 这些都是合理的问题。 但是在表面之下 还有一些其他的事情在发生, 原因可能是,在某些方面, 目标不一致导致的。 因为这么久以来, 几乎我们所有人都说过, 我们迫切希望能少忙碌一点, 但我们还是不断选择让自己陷入 一如既往的忙碌之中
What is going on? Well, some research out of Columbia University sheds a little bit of light on this. Silvia Bellezza and her colleagues have done interesting research into the fact that in some cultures -- American culture chief among them -- busyness is actually a form of status. When we say, “Oh, I am so crazy busy,” what we’re really saying is a societally-accepted version of “I am so important --
这是怎么回事? 一些哥伦比亚大学的研究 给我们提供了一些启示 Silvia Bellezza 和她的同事们 做了一项有趣的研究 在某些文化中-- 其中,尤其是美国文化-- 忙碌是一种社会身份。 当我们说”噢,我忙得要命” 我们实际上在说, 寻求一种社会认同, “我是如此重要” (笑声) ,
(Laughter)
“我很受欢迎!”
“I am so popular! I am so in demand!” And the truth is that feeling can be hard to give up ... even if we say that we want to.
“我正被人需要!” 事实是,这种感觉 很难摆脱掉...... 即使我们想要去摆脱它。
That’s not the only reason, of course. It turns out it is very hard for the human mind to deal with conditions of uncertainty. And in modern life, there’s a lot of it. Sometimes we are given tasks or challenges, and the truth is, tactically, we just don’t know how to do it. “Increase sales by 30 percent.” Well, how? There’s a lot of ways you could do it. You’re not sure how. Sometimes it’s easier, frankly, to just double down and keep doing more of what you’re already doing. That might not be the best answer, but it’s an answer, and it removes uncertainty.
当然,这不是唯一的原因。 事实证明, 人类的大脑处理 不确定性的事件是非常困难的。 在现代生活中, 有很多这样的事例, 有时候我们被赋予任务或挑战, 事实上我们无从下手 “增加 30% 的销售额。” 该怎么实现这个目标? 有很多方法可以实现, 但你不确定该如何做。 坦率地说,有时候更简单的做法是 继续加倍去努力做你已经在做的事。 这可能不是最好的答案, 但这也是一个答案, 这也解除了不确定性。
The picture gets even worse when we’re talking about existential questions; when we’re talking about uncomfortable matters that we might not actually really want to deal with. That might be, “Am I in the right job?” It might be, “Am I in the right career?” Those are often questions, truth be told, we might not want the answer to. And so we become busy as a way so that we don’t even have to ask the question.
当我们谈论存在主义的问题时 情况就更加糟糕了; 当我们谈论我们可能并不想解决的问题 关于一些令人不愉快的事情。 可能是“这个工作到底适合我吗?” 可能是“我的事业发展是否正确?” 说实话,这些问题, 我们可能不想知道答案。 所以我们忙碌起来, 这样我们就不用问这个问题了。
Now, there's a third reason, and I’ll admit it’s one that I know well, personally, and that is that sometimes we use busyness as a way to numb ourselves out. I’ve experienced that. This is my boy Gideon, and he died in 2013. I’d had him for 17 years, and he was my best friend. And after he died, I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to be home because I knew that he wouldn’t be there. And so for two years, my life basically was an Uber to an airport, to a hotel and back again, because I just really didn’t want to face that. For a lot of us, there are things we sometimes don’t want to face. What we’re really looking for with work is an anesthetic. And as I like to say, work is better than crack --
还有第三个原因, 我承认这是我身边的一个熟人, 有时候我们用忙碌来麻痹自己。 我也有过同样的经历。 他就是我儿子 Gideon, 于 2013 年逝世。 我们陪伴了彼此 17 年, 他是我最好的朋友。 他离世后,老实说, 我不想回家了 因为我知道, 他再也不会出现在那里了。 所以这两年来, 我的生活基本上就是打车去机场, 去酒店, 来回往返, 因为我真的不想面对这个事实。 对于我们中的很多人来说, 很多事情有时候我们不想去面对。 我们真正需要的是一种麻醉剂。 正如我想说的, 工作总比吸毒好-- (笑声)
(Laughter)
所以如果你选择了……
so if you’re choosing ...
(笑声)
(Laughter)
这也不是最糟的。
it’s not the worst.
(Laughter)
(Laughter)
But the truth is, it's also not a sustainable solution. For many of us, we get trapped in the pattern of busyness, of overwork. It's hard sometimes even to remember what it was like before. Oftentimes in our mind’s eye, when we think of busyness, what we think of is this. What we think of is triumphant success and the world at your fingertips. The truth is, more often, busyness looks like this. It looks like loneliness. It looks like frustration. It looks like having a life that’s not really in your full control.
但事实上,这也不是一个 可持续的解决方案。 对我们中的许多人来说, 我们陷入忙碌的状态, 过度劳累, 有时甚至很难回忆起以前的情形。 常常在我们的脑海中, 当我们想到忙碌, 我们想到的是这个。 我们想到的是取得胜利式的成功 世界就在你的掌控之中。 事实上,更常见的忙碌是这样的。 看起来像是孤独。 像是沮丧。 看起来像是有了自己的生活 这不是你能完全控制的。
So I would like to propose that we make a change. Because if we are ever going to succeed in beating back busyness once and for all, first of all, we have to get real and acknowledge what is actually behind some of the busyness that is filling our days. We have to really get honest about what it is that’s motivating us so that we can make a different choice. Because it is about our choice. We need to recognize that real freedom is about creating the space so that we can breathe, the space so that we can think. Ultimately, real freedom is about choosing how and with whom we want to be spending our time.
所以我建议我们做出一些改变。 因为如果我们要成功地、 一劳永逸地避免庸碌, 首先,我们得面对现实 承认在忙碌的背后, 究竟是什么充斥了我们的日常生活。 我们必须诚实地面对,是什么激励着我们 这样我们就能做出不同的选择。 因为这是我们的选择。 我们需要认识到, 真正的自由是创造属于自己的空间 这样我们才能自由呼吸, 有自我思考的空间。 最终,真正的自由是选择 如何度过我们的时间 以及和谁一起度过。
Thank you.
谢谢。 (欢呼)
(Cheers)
(鼓掌)
(Applause)
(鼓掌)