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.
我們生活在時間緊迫的文化中。 時間永遠不夠。 每天,我們在周遭 都可以看到、感覺到。 我們所處的世界重視 工作、成就、 忙碌。 這個現象有好的一面, 是真的有價值的。 我們被逼迫、被驅使 朝向成就、行動,和創造邁進。 那很棒, 但也有不好的一面。 我認為那是值得談談的題材。
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.
「管理研究團體」 不久前做了一項研究, 對象是一萬名資深領導者。 他們被問到: 「你的組織會成功,關鍵是什麼?」 97% 的受訪者 都說是長期策略思考。 97% 的人都認同 一件事,是多麼難得啊? 幾乎全體一致認同, 做一個「長思」的人—— 有遠景,有能力 去思考並問重要的問題—— 是成功不可或缺的條件。 但,在另一項研究中, 被調查的領導者中有 96% 都說他們沒有時間做策略性思考。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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?
這是怎麼回事? 為什麼——怎麼可能 96% 的人沒做他們認為 對他們的成功最關鍵的那件事呢?
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,我們知道答案…… 或者,至少,我們認為我們知道。 一般的專業人士每個月 要參與六十二場會議。 聽起來好誇張,怎麼有可能? 但如果你真的拆開來看, 並沒有那麼多, 一天只有兩、三場會議, 對在座很多人來說可能是常態。 所以,一個月六十二場會議。 那沒有幫助,那沒有錯。 它是一個促成因子。
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.
此外,我們知道—— 我們知道還有什麼…… 電子郵件。 麥肯錫不久前做的研究 顯示,一般專業人士 會把他們 28% 的時間 花在回覆電子郵件上。 那當然會榨乾我們, 當然會讓我們忙碌。
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,事實是,我相信, 這也還不是全貌。 那些只是表現出來的狀況。 那些是問題,名正言順。 但在表面之下還有 其他的因素在運作, 理由可能是,也許我們在某種層面上 為了相反的目的在做事。 因為,長久以來,幾乎所有人都會說 我們非常希望能不要這麼忙碌, 但,我們卻不斷做出選擇, 讓我們的處境 維持和原本一樣忙碌。
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 --
這是怎麼回事? 哥倫比亞大學有項研究 多少可以解釋一點這個現象。 希爾薇雅‧貝萊札和她的同事 做了有趣的研究,探討的是, 在某些文化中—— 特別是美國文化—— 忙碌其實是地位的一種形式。 當我們說: 「喔,我忙到翻了。」 我們在做的其實 是用社會能接受的版本來說
(Laughter)
「我超重要的——」(笑聲)
“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.
「我好搶手!好多人需要我!」 而事實是, 那種感覺是很難放棄掉的…… 即使我們嘴上說想擺脫它。
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.
當然,那不是唯一的理由。 結果發現, 人類的大腦很難 去處理充滿不確定性的狀況。 在現代生活中,這種狀況很多。 有時,我們會被賦予任務或難題, 事實是,戰略上來說, 我們就是不知道該怎麼做。 「業績要增加三成。」 嗯,怎麼做? 有很多方式可以用, 你不確定要怎麼做。 有時,坦白說,比較容易的是 更努力持續去做更多 你已經在做的事。 那可能不是最好的答案, 但那是個答案, 且能去除不確定性。
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.
更糟糕的是 如果我們談的是存在主義的問題; 如果我們談的是讓人不舒服的事, 可能是我們並不想真正去處理的事。 可能是:「這是適合我的工作嗎?」 可能是: 「我選對職業了嗎?」 通常,對於這些問題, 說實話, 我們可能不想知道答案。 所以我們就變忙碌, 這麼一來,我們就 不需要問這類問題了。
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 --
還有第三個理由, 且,我承認, 我個人和這個理由很熟, 那就是,有時,我們把忙碌當作是 讓我們自己麻木的方式。 我就曾經經歷過。 這是我的毛孩子吉迪安, 牠在 2013 年過世。 牠跟我在一起十七年, 牠是我最好的朋友。 牠過世之後, 老實說,我不想待在家裡, 因為我知道牠不會在那裡。 所以,有兩年的時間, 我的人生基本上就是: 搭優步去機場, 再到飯店, 再回來, 因為我就是不想面對它。 很多人有時都會有不想面對的事。 我們工作所尋求的其實是麻醉效果。 我常說工作總比古柯鹼好。 (笑聲)
(Laughter)
所以,如果你要選的話……
so if you’re choosing ...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
it’s not the worst.
它不是最糟的。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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,事實是, 這也不是永續的解決方案。 我們許多人都被困住了, 困在忙碌的模式中, 工作過度的模式中。 有時,甚至很難記得 以前是什麼樣子的。 通常,在我們的想像中, 談到忙碌時, 這是我們會聯想到的。 我們會聯想到勝利成功, 世界垂手可得。 事實上,忙碌更常 看起來像是這個樣子。 它看起來像是寂寞。 它看起來像是挫折。 它看起來像是你的人生 並非你能全權掌控。
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.
所以我想要提議 我們做個改變。 如果我們真的想要成功 一勞永逸擊退忙碌, 首先,我們得要回到現實, 並承認 背後有什麼原因造成用忙碌 塞滿我們的一整天。 我們必須要真正坦誠面對 驅使我們的原因,這樣 我們才能做不同的選擇。 因為重點就是我們的選擇。 我們得要了解, 真正的自由,重點在於 創造出讓我們能呼吸的空間, 讓我們能思考的空間。 最終,真正的自由,重點是在於選擇 我們要把時間花在誰身上、怎麼花。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Cheers)
(歡呼聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)