神理論:胳膊摔斷後工作效率反而高了

Two weeks ago I was cycling home after visiting my 90-year-old father who had fallen over and broken a hip. It was a fine spring evening, my bike had just been tuned up and I was racing along feeling grateful not to be ancient, frail and immobilised.

前一陣子，我看望父親後騎車回家。他已經90歲高齡，之前摔了一跤，摔斷了盆骨。那是個春風和煦的美好夜晚，我的車子剛剛調好，我一路飛馳，慶幸自己依然年輕、身體強健、活動自如。

Halfway down Dalston Lane, the hipster cycling in front of me took a corner too fast, lost control of his bike and fell under my front wheel. I panicked, swerved and fell off myself.

當我在達爾斯頓路(Dalston Lane)上騎到一半時，騎在我前面的那位潮人拐彎太快，車子失去控制，摔倒在我的前輪下。我被嚇了一跳，猛地轉向，也摔下車來。

As I lay on the tarmac, I had a sense of déjà vu. The first thought that came into my head was: I’ve had a bike accident — again.

我躺在柏油馬路上，感覺有些似曾相識。出現在腦海中的第一個念頭是：我又一次遭遇了自行車車禍。

Readers of this column might be getting a sense of déjà vu too. It’s not the first time they have had to read about me falling off my favourite means of transport. When I presented myself at work the next day a colleague took one look at my arm, hanging feebly in a sling, and said: “How annoying! You can’t even turn it into a column, as you’ve written that one already.”

這個專欄的讀者或許也有似曾相識的感覺。這不是他們第一次讀到關於我從我最喜歡的交通工具上摔下的文章了。第二天當我去上班時，一位同事看了一眼我打着吊帶無力懸掛着的胳膊，說：“真討厭！你都不能把這寫成一篇專欄，你已經寫過這類事了。”

At the time I agreed. But two weeks on, I’ve changed my mind. This time it’s different. My father’s broken hip and my own broken arm have taught me two lessons in how to get more done that are so profound, I have a duty to share them.

當時我對此沒有異議。但是兩週後，我改變了想法。這一次不一樣。我父親摔斷的盆骨和我自己摔斷的胳膊讓我學到了兩個關於如何能完成更多工作的深刻教訓，我有責任分享出來。

When I came off my bike last year, I landed on my face, got a black eye, and grazes and bruises on forehead, cheek and chin. The subject of the column I wrote then was how to pretend to be a professional woman when you look like the victim of domestic abuse. That article now strikes me as being of niche interest — although I did receive an email from a woman who had come off her bike, lost seven teeth and gone into the office the next day to chair a meeting.

去年當我從車上摔下時，我是臉着地，摔得眼眶烏青，前額、臉頰和下巴都有擦傷和淤血。我當時寫的那篇專欄的主題是，當你看起來像家暴受害者一樣時，該如何假裝成職業女性。現在在我看來，那篇文章只會引起小衆興趣——儘管我的確收到了來自一名從自行車上摔下、磕掉了7顆牙的女性的郵件，事故第二天她就去上班主持會議了。

This time what I’ve learnt is of wider appeal. The two fractures establish two counterintuitive laws of productivity that can be used by anyone.

這一次我得到的教訓能引起更廣泛讀者的興趣。我從兩次骨折事件中得到的兩條違反直覺的工作效率法則，可以適用於任何人。

The first law I have invented myself and it goes like this: if you slow technology down, you go faster.

第一條法則是我自己發明的，它是這麼說的：如果你把技術放慢，你會走得更快。

I have a small break at the top of my right arm, which means I can move my fingers and wrist, but the arm is strapped up so I can type only very slowly. Instead of being a disaster for someone who spends the whole day at the keyboard it has made me write more efficiently than I’ve done in years.

我右臂最上處有一處小骨折，這意味着我可以動手指和手腕，但是因爲胳膊包紮起來了，所以我打字非常慢。對於整日與鍵盤爲伍的人來說，這非但不是災難，反而讓我的寫作效率達到多年來最高。

Because typing is hard, I am having to practise the long-forgotten skill of thinking before I write — a requirement in the days of the manual typewriter, when the strictures of the Tipp-Ex bottle meant getting it right first time. Now, thanks to my computer’s infinite tolerance of mistakes, I think nothing of getting it wrong 20 times before finally getting a grip and writing something intelligible.

因爲打字困難，我不得不練習起寫作之前先思考這項遺忘已久的技能——在手動打字機時代（Tipp-Ex修正液的限制意味着要一次性寫對），這是一項基本要求。如今，由於我的電腦對錯誤的無限容忍，在最終抓住核心、寫下通順的句子前，錯上20次也沒什麼關係。

While my right hand is just about up to typing, operating a mouse is too much, and I’ve had to pass the job to my left hand — which is entirely unequal to it. I now find that clicking on anything at all makes me feel like a contestant in The Golden Shot, the 1970s British television game in which a blindfolded cameraman holding a crossbow was guided by a contestant on where to aim it: up a little. Stop. Left a little. Stop. Up a little . . . Getting the dratted cursor in the right position is so arduous that multitasking has lost all appeal. There is no temptation to spend the day flitting from email to Twitter to eBay and back. I’ve had to pick a task and stick to it.

儘管我的右手剛好可以打字，但是確實沒辦法操作鼠標，於是我把這個任務交給了左手——而左手實在是沒法和右手比。現在我發現，每次點擊都讓我感覺像是《The Golden Shot》（上世紀70年代的英國電視遊戲，一名蒙着眼睛、拿着弩的攝像師在競賽者的指引下瞄準目標）中的競賽者：向上一點、停、向左一點、停、向上一點……把那可惡的光標移動到正確的位置實在太費勁了，以至於多重任務處理徹底失去了吸引力。我實在沒興趣耗費一整天的時間從郵件切換到Twitter、切換到eBay、再回到郵件。我只能選擇一個任務然後堅持做完。

I have discovered these joys the hard way, but I don’t see why they couldn’t be enjoyed without falling off a bike. Anyone can operate the mouse on the wrong side — although I should warn them that the learning curve is so steep that after a few days my left hand has started to get the hang of it, sending productivity tanking.

我用一種極不容易的方式發現了這些樂趣，但是我想不出爲何不能在不摔下車的情況下享受這些樂趣。任何人都可以用不常用的手操作鼠標——不過我應該提醒他們，學習曲線非常陡峭以至於幾天後我的左手纔開始進入狀態，工作效率慘不忍睹。

A more permanent solution is needed. Hardware manufacturers should set out to produce cumbersome technology for offices — anti-ergonomic keyboards and mice that are as hard to control as supermarket trolleys — making us masters of our computers once again, rather than vice versa.

我們需要一個更永久性的解決方案。硬件製造商應該着手爲辦公室開發難用的技術產品——像超市手推車一樣難控制的反人體工程學鍵盤和鼠標——讓我們再次成爲電腦的主人，而不是被電腦牽着鼻子走。

The second counterintuitive law of productivity is not entirely my own invention. C Northcote Parkinson was the first to notice the indisputable truth that work expands to fill the time available. But in the past few days I have been shrinking time so drastically, often downing tools at 4pm to go to see my father, that I am starting to wonder if Parkinson went far enough. If you reduce your hours at work, not only do you achieve the same amount, you may achieve more.

第二條違反直覺的工作效率法則並不完全是我的發明。西里爾•諾思科特•帕金森(Cyril Northcote Parkinson)首先注意到了這個無可爭議的事實：工作會擴張到佔滿所有可用時間。但是過去這些天，我大幅壓縮工作時間，通常在下午4點前就停下工作去看望我父親，於是我開始質疑帕金森的推斷是否足夠深入。如果你減少工作時長，你不僅能完成相同的工作量，或許還能完成更多工作。

What I can do when I’m on a roll for four hours is greater than what I can do in 10 when I’m not on one.

我全力以赴4個小時能完成的工作比我不在狀態時10個小時完成的工作更多。

Again, you don’t need a father with a broken hip to be spurred into bouts of intense work. We just need something — anything — in our lives with a more urgent claim on our time than work to make us whip through the tasks in a jiffy.

再強調一次，你不需要父親摔斷盆骨才能刺激自己緊張工作。我們只需要生活中出現一些比工作更緊急的事——任何事——來讓自己快馬加鞭地完成工作。