一、How to Finish Your Work, One Bite at a Time(如何完成艰巨的任务？每次啃一小口)——The Best of Scott Young: Productive

“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.”
“如何才能吃掉一头大像，每次啃一小口。”

If you’ve ever run more than a few miles, you probably understand why you need to pace yourself. Runners that sprint at the start of a race will be exhausted far before they cross the finish line.The same principle applies when trying to get work done.One solution for pacing my work that I’ve found incredibly effective is maintaining weekly/daily to-do lists.
如果你一次跑过几公里以上，你可能会明白你为什么需要分配你的速度。跑步者在比赛一开始就冲刺，会在离终点很远的地方就精疲力尽了。同样的原理也可以应用到工作中。如何合理的规划自己的任务进度，我发现了一个极其有效的方法，那就是制定每周/每天的任务计划。

Weekly/Daily To-Do Lists
每周/每日任务列表

The principle behind the WD To-Do List method is simple:
这个方法采用的原则很简单:

At the end of the week, write a list containing everything you want to get accomplished.
1.在每一周结束的时候，列一个下一周你想完成的所有的任务的列表

At the end of the day, write a list containing what parts of that weekly list you want to be finished tomorrow.
2. 在每一天的结束，根据周任务列表，列下明天要完成其中的部分任务

After you finish your daily list, you stop. Don’t work on more projects or tasks. You have the rest of the day to relax. And after you finish the weekly list, you’re done for the week. This means if you finish by Friday afternoon, you don’t start work again until Monday morning.
在完成你每天的任务列表后，你就停下。不用继续做项目或完成任务。剩下的时间用来休息放松。完成每周的任务列表，这意味着如果你在周五下午做完， 那么直到周一早上你都不需要再工作了。

Although this technique might sound obvious(and it is), there are some key advantages using a WD system has over the typical, Getting things Done approach of keeping Next Action or project lists.
尽管这个方法听上去或许平淡无奇(也确实如此)，但相比典型的GTP(Get Things Done)方法（不断地制定下一行动目标的列表），每周/每日任务列表有几个核心优势。

Why the Weekly/Daily To-Do List System Rocks:
每周/每日任务列表为什么非常有用

After using this method for several months, I’ve found it beats the other systems in a few key places:
在使用这种方法几个月后，我发现它在一些关键方面优于其他的任务管理方法：

1）A WD system manages your energy.
1）有效地管理和分配你的精力

The problem isn’t running out of time, it’s running out of energy. You may have 24 hours in the day, but many of those are taken away eating, sleeping and relaxing after a few hours of exhausting work. Any productivity system that doesn’t take this into account is broken.
问题不是没有足够的时间，而是没有足够的精力。一天有24小时，但很多时间被花在吃饭、睡觉和休息上，在几个小时的全力工作之后，任何没有考虑这些因素的生产力系统都是低效的。

A Weekly/Daily system, instead, blocks out your work into manageable chunks. Instead of trying to complete everything each day, I just complete everything each day, I just complete my daily list. The same is true for the entire week. With a WD system you get a maximum amount of work done, while leaving yourself time to relax and enjoy selective unproductivity.
每周/每日任务列表将你要做的事划分成易处理的任务块。每天只需要完成当天任务列表上的事项，而不是试图在一天中做完所有事。对于一周来说如此。利用每周/每天的任务列表，你可以最大限度地完成要做的事，同时留有时间放松，享受不用追求效率的悠闲生活。


2）A WD system stops procrastination
2）让你告别拖延症

Procrastination can happen when you see the mountain of work in front of you ,and can’t visualize an easy finish. By splitting up your to-do list into daily lists, your elephant-sized projects can become bite-sized tasks.
当你看到面前堆积如山的任务时，而又想不出办法轻松完成，拖延症就会发生了。通过把待办的事项分配到每天的任务列表上，你像大象一样大的任务就能变成可以一口口啃的任务了。

3）A WD system makes you proactive
3）让你具有前瞻性

My system for a few years prior to implementing this method was to use a daily to-do list. Unfortunately, I found that this method made me lose sight of bigger tasks that weren’t urgent. When you already have ten items on your to-do list, adding an eleventh for the day doesn’t seem appealing.
我在使用这个方法之前一直使用每日任务列表。遗憾的是，我发现这样做让我忽视了不紧急的重大任务。当你的每日任务列表上已经有了10项任务时，增加每11项任务不是一件好事。

But when you’re writing the weekly list, you’re in a different frame of mind. With six days to finish everything(assuming you take a day off), it is easier to put in those important, but non-urgent tasks.
但当你在制定每周的任务列表时，你的思考层次就不同了。你有6天时间完成所有事情（假设有一天休息），在列表中加入更重要但不紧急的任务就容易多了

4）A WD system keeps you from burning out
4）避免筋疲力尽，透支自己

Earlier I wrote about how I accidentally overloaded my schedule last week. Using the Week/Daily system kept me from burning out or feeling stressed, even thought I was dealing with 2-3x the workload. By automatically dividing up my work into a weekly total and daily increments, I could focus on the next bit, instead of the entire elephant.
早些时候，我不经意的在一周写了过多的任务。但使用周/日任务列表即使我处理2-3倍的工作量时，也能避免精疲力竭或焦虑。通过把我要做的事情切分到每一周和每一天的量，我可以一直把注意力集中在“下一口”，而不是“整头大象”。

How to Use a Weekly/Daily To-Do List
如何使用每周/日任务列表

The heading for this section might seem pretty self-explanatory. Write out your weekly list and your daily lists, finish them, repeat. But after using this approach for a few months, there are a few nuances you might want to consider.
这一节的标题看起来似乎不言自明。写下你的每周任务和每日任务，完成它们，重复这个过程。但在使用这个方法几个月后，有一些小细节，你也许值得了解。

Focus on the daily List.
专注于每日任务列表

The point of the weekly list is to server as the starting point for writing daily lists. After you’ve broken off the chunk you want to handle tomorrow, the other tasks in the week shouldn’t be on your mind.You can pretend they don’t exist, as if the only tasks in the world were the ones tomorrow.
每周任务列表的关键是作为制定每日任务列表的起点。在从周列表中分解出明天要完成任务块之后，这一周其它任务就不应该再萦绕在你的脑海里。你可以假装他们不存在，就好像在这世界上唯一的任务就是明天要做的那些。

This approach is an incredible stress-reliever.It’s easy to worry about how you’re going to finish everything.But when "everything’ becomes seven or eight tasks tomorrow, it becomes easier to manage.
这种方法将极大缓解你的精神压力。人们经常很担心怎样完成所有的事情，但当所有的事情变成7或8个任务时，就变得容易应付了。

Don’t Expand the Lists.
不要扩充任务列表。

If you finish your daily or weekly list earlier than you expected, you might be tempted to expand. Why not add a few extra activities, you have the time, right?
如果你完成了每周/每日任务列表比预期的早，你可能禁不住要扩充这个列表。为什么要加额外的任务呢，你有时间，对吗？

This is a bad idea because it stops you from focusing on the daily.As soon as you create the possibility for expansion, your ‘everything’ goes from being the tasks to finish tomorrow, back to your infinite to-do list. Stress and procrastination soon follow.
这是一个不好的主意，它会使你不在专注每日的工作任务列表。一旦开了这个先例，你的“所有事情”将不在待在切分好的明天要完成的列表中，而成了你可以无限添加的待办事项。此时焦虑和拖延症就会紧随而来。

Obviously, there will be times when you have to make adjustments. Last-minute tasks that need to be appended to your lists. But try to avoid expanding your lists just because you have free time.
当然，肯定会有多次必须的调整。紧要的任务需要加入你的列表中。但尽量避免扩充你的列表，由于你有空余的时间。

Take a Monthly Review.
进行月度回顾

One area the WD system ignore is a monthly list. There are some projects and activities that may be too large/non-urgent that they might be skipped under the weekly list. Unfortunately, maintaining a monthly list is more effort than it is worth. It’s hard to predict all the small tasks you’ll need to accomplish a month ahead of time, so it stops becoming relevant to your weekly lists.
每周/每日任务列表这种方法并不包含一个每月任务列表。有一些过于大型的项目或活动，可能在制定每周任务列表时会略过了。但是，始终保持一个每月任务列表性价比不高，得不偿失。你很难提前一个月就预见到下个月需要完成的所有小任务，因此它对于你制定每周任务列表也没有什么帮助。

Instead I like to do a regular monthly review. In that review, I’ll pick out a few larger projects I want to finish that month. I can keep these in mind when I write my weekly lists.
而是每月我要经常的回顾。我会选出几个那个月想完成的大项目。当我写周任务列表时，我能一直在心理想着。

A Weekly/Daily To-Do List isn’t complicated. Life doesn’t have to be complicated to work. Try using a WD system for a month. You can setup your lists with pencil and paper or go with my favorite tool, Ta-Da List. What do you have to lose?
每周/每日任务列表并不复杂。生活也不需要太复杂就能过好。试着使用一个每周/每日任务列表。你可以使用铅笔和纸或最喜欢的——滴答清单。试一试你有什么损失呢？