大師們的5項日常活動：時間應該這樣管理

Why is it that geniuses tend to have the most intriguing routines?
爲什麼大師們的日常事務總是那麼有趣呢？

According to Mason Curry, author of "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work," a "solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies."
在《日常事務：藝術家如何工作》的作者麥森-卡里看來，固定的日常事務爲人們的心理能量提供了爛熟的套路。

In other words, having a set routine lets you put all of your energy into the work you're doing, rather than spend your time deciding which work to do.
換句話說，固定的日程安排能讓你把精力專注到正在做的事情上，而不用浪費時間猶豫該做哪件事情。

Harvard Business Review writer Sarah Green recently looked into the routines of brilliant artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jane Austen, and Ernest Hemingway, to find out how they got their work done. Here's what she found:
《哈佛商業評論》的作者薩拉·格林最近調查了畢加索、奧斯汀以及海明威等傑出藝術家們的日常活動，進而探究他們是如何完成工作的。下面就是薩拉的發現：

1. They minimized distractions.
他們儘量避免分心。

With our increasing use of technology, brain researchers are finding that we're more distracted, and it's making us dumber. But history's creatives — authors especially — knew to block out the noise. William Faulkner didn't have a lock on the door to his study, so he brought the doorknob with him. Austen kept a door hinge squeaky so she'd always know when people were approaching. And if Mark Twain's family wanted to speak with him, they'd blow a horn, so as to not disturb him with a knock.
隨着科技應用的日益普及，大腦研究人員發現，人們變得更容易分心，也更加愚鈍。但歷史上的大師們，尤其是作家，都懂得如何屏蔽干擾。威廉·福克納的書房沒有門鎖，所以他就把門把手帶在身邊。奧斯汀則刻意讓門有吱呀聲，這樣一有人來她就知道了。還有馬克·吐溫，家人要跟他講話時就吹喇叭，這樣就不用敲門打擾他了。

2. They went for a daily walk.
他們每天都散步。

Armed with a notebook, Friedrich Nietzsche took a two-hour walk twice a day, once in the morning and again after lunch. Immanuel Kant also had a daily walk after lunch. Meanwhile, Charles Dickens, Soren Kierkegaard, and Ludwig van Beethoven all did their thinking while meandering. (Although Beethoven did some of his best composing while bathing.)
尼采每天早上和飯後都要夾上一本筆記去散步，每次都有2個小時。康德每天飯後也必定會去散步。此外，狄更斯、索倫·克爾凱郭爾和貝多芬通常也在散步時進行思考。（不過貝多芬一些最好的作品是在泡澡時萌發靈感的。）

3. They drew a line between important work and busywork.
他們將重要事務和繁忙事務分得很清楚。

"Before there was email, there were letters," Green writes at HBR. "Many (creative geniuses) would divide the day into real work (such as composing or painting in the morning) and busywork (answering letters in the afternoon)."
“郵件未發明之前，人們都是採用信件，“格林在《哈佛商業評論》中這樣寫道，” 許多大師會將一天分成真正的工作（比如早上創作或作畫）和繁忙的工作（下午回信）。4. They weren't very social.
他們不太熱衷於社交。

While some behavioral scientists have found that having strong connections makes you more successful, some of the most influential creative people lived in relative isolation.
儘管有些行爲科學家認爲，廣泛的社交關係有助於人們取得更大成功；但是，有些頗具影響的大師實際上生活得相對隔絕。

Take Simone de Beauvoir, whose 1949 "The Second Sex" gave a theoretical voice to feminism. A friend of Beauvoir's said her lifestyle included "no parties, no receptions, no bourgeois values… It was an uncluttered kind of life, a simplicity deliberately constructed so that she could do her work.”
就比如波伏娃吧，她在1949年問世的《第二性》爲女權主義發出了理論吶喊。但波伏娃的一個朋友透露說，她的生活“沒有聚會、沒有訪客、沒有資產階級享樂……是一種簡單純粹的生活，是一種刻意營造的簡潔，這樣她才能專心工作。”

Semi-isolation worked for painters, too. As Green reports, Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier designated their Sundays as "at-home" days, so they wouldn't have to deal with the "obligations of friendship."
畫家也有存在半隔絕狀態的。格林寫道，畢加索和他的女朋友費爾南德·奧利弗把星期日稱爲“宅着的日子”，這樣他們就不用應付“友誼之責任”了。

5. They stopped before they were running on empty.
他們懂得適可而止，而不是盲目前進。

Hemingway was rigorous about his productivity. He'd track the number of words he wrote per day on a chart, "so as not to kid myself.” But he was also careful not to exhaust his creative stores. In an interview with the Paris Review, Hemingway emphasized the importance of building a creative rhythm, saying you shouldn't finish your work for the day unless you know how you'll start tomorrow.
海明威對自己的寫作產量非常嚴格。他把自己每天要寫的字數記在一張表格上，“這樣就不會糊弄自己。” 同時，他也非常注意不要過分榨取自己的靈感。在《巴黎評論》的一次採訪中，海明威強調了形成創作節奏的重要性，他認爲除非清楚第二天該如何開始，否則不可以結束一天的工作。

"The important thing is to have good water in the well," Hemingway said, "and it is better to take a regular amount out than to pump the well dry and wait for it to refill."
“重要的是井裏要有好泉水，”海明威說，“與其一下子就把水榨乾然後乾等，不如循序漸進每次汲取一定量的泉水。”