How to gain control of your free time | Laura Vanderkam | TED · TED
时间管理专家Laura Vanderkam分享如何通过合理规划时间，找到属于自己的自由时间。适合练习时间管理与目标规划。
Translator: Leslie Gauthier Reviewer: Camille Martínez
翻译者：Leslie Gauthier 审稿人：Camille Martínez
When people find out I write about time management, they assume two things.
当人们得知我从事时间管理方面的写作工作时，他们通常会想到两件事。
One is that I'm always on time, and I'm not.
其中一个问题是：我总是声称自己会准时到达，但实际上却从来做不到。
I have four small children, and I would like to blame them for my occasional tardiness, but sometimes it's just not their fault.
我有四个年幼的孩子，有时候我想把自己的迟到归咎于他们，但事实上有时候这真的不是他们的错。
I was once late to my own speech on time management.
有一次，我在自己举办的关于时间管理的演讲上迟到了……不过演讲本身还是按时进行的。
We all had to just take a moment together and savor that irony.
我们都需要花点时间，共同品味这种讽刺意味。
The second thing they assume is that I have lots of tips and tricks for saving bits of time here and there.
他们第二个认为的是：我掌握了很多节省时间的小技巧和方法。
Sometimes I'll hear from magazines that are doing a story along these lines,
有时候我会收到一些杂志的通知，它们正在策划相关内容的报道。
generally on how to help their readers find an extra hour in the day.
这些内容通常都是关于如何帮助读者在日常生活中挤出更多时间的建议。
And the idea is that we'll shave bits of time off everyday activities, add it up, and we'll have time for the good stuff.
我们的想法是：通过减少日常活动所花费的时间，把这些节省下来的时间累积起来，从而有更多的时间去做那些真正有意义的事情。
I question the entire premise of this piece, but I'm always interested in hearing what they've come up with before they call me.
我对这篇文章的整个论点都存有疑问，但我总是很感兴趣，想在对方联系我之前听听他们提出了什么想法。
Some of my favorites: doing errands where you only have to make right-hand turns --
以下是我最喜欢的一些活动：去办理一些只需要右转的琐事……
Being extremely judicious in microwave usage: it says three to three-and-a-half minutes on the package, we're totally getting in on the bottom side of that.
在使用微波炉时必须格外谨慎：包装上标注的加热时间为 3 至 3.5 分钟，而我们实际使用的加热时间肯定处于这个时间范围的最低端。
And my personal favorite, which makes sense on some level, is to DVR your favorite shows so you can fast-forward through the commercials.
我个人最喜欢的方法（从某种程度上来说这也是合理的）就是将你喜欢的节目录下来（使用数字录像设备，即 DVR），这样你就可以直接跳过广告部分，快速观看节目内容了。
That way, you save eight minutes every half hour, so in the course of two hours of watching TV,
这样一来，你每半小时就能节省 8 分钟的时间。因此，在观看电视的两个小时里，
you find 32 minutes to exercise.
你竟然能抽出 32 分钟来锻炼身体。
Which is true.
哪一个是正确的呢？
You know another way to find 32 minutes to exercise?
你知道另一种方法来挤出32分钟来锻炼吗？
Don't watch two hours of TV a day, right?
别每天看两个小时的电视，对吧？
Anyway, the idea is we'll save bits of time here and there, add it up, we will finally get to everything we want to do.
无论如何，我们的目标就是通过节省一些时间（这些时间可能来自各个环节），把这些节省下来的时间加起来，最终能够完成我们想要做的所有事情。
But after studying how successful people spend their time and looking at their schedules hour by hour, I think this idea has it completely backward.
但在研究了那些成功人士是如何安排自己的时间之后，并仔细查看了他们的日程安排（甚至详细到每一小时的具体安排），我发现这个观点完全搞反了。
We don't build the lives we want by saving time.
我们无法通过节省时间来创造自己想要的生活。
We build the lives we want, and then time saves itself.
我们按照自己的意愿去创造生活，这样一来，时间也就自然会“节省”下来（即我们会更高效地利用时间）。
Here's what I mean.
我的意思是这样的。
I recently did a time diary project looking at 1,001 days in the lives of extremely busy women.
我最近完成了一个时间日记项目，记录了1001位非常忙碌的女性在日常生活中的点滴。
They had demanding jobs, sometimes their own businesses, kids to care for, maybe parents to care for, community commitments -- busy,
他们的工作要求很高，有时还要自己创业；需要照顾孩子，可能还要照顾父母；同时还要履行各种社区义务——总之，他们非常忙碌。
busy people.
忙碌的人们。
I had them keep track of their time for a week so I could add up how much they worked and slept,
我让他们记录自己一周内的时间使用情况，这样我就能统计出他们总共工作了多少小时、又睡了多少小时。
and I interviewed them about their strategies, for my book.
为了我的书，我采访了他们，了解了他们的策略。
One of the women whose time log I studied goes out on a Wednesday night for something.
在我研究过的时间记录中，有一位女性每周三晚上都会外出办事。
She comes home to find that her water heater has broken, and there is now water all over her basement.
她回到家后发现热水器坏了，整个地下室都充满了水。
If you've ever had anything like this happen to you, you know it is a hugely damaging, frightening,
如果你曾经遇到过类似的事情，你就会知道这种经历极具破坏性，令人恐惧至极。
sopping mess.
一片狼藉……
So she's dealing with the immediate aftermath that night, next day she's got plumbers coming in, day after that,
所以她当时正在处理当晚发生的紧急情况；第二天，水管工们就被叫来了；之后的一天又一天，类似的事情不断发生……
professional cleaning crew dealing with the ruined carpet.
专业的清洁团队正在处理那块已经损坏的地毯。
All this is being recorded on her time log.
所有这些内容都会被记录在她的时间日志中。
Winds up taking seven hours of her week.
这最终占用了她每周七个小时的时间。
Seven hours.
七个小时。
That's like finding an extra hour in the day.
这就好比在一天中多找出了一个小时的时间一样。
But I'm sure if you had asked her at the start of the week, "Could you find seven hours to train for a triathlon?"
但我敢肯定，如果你在上周初就问她：“你能抽出七个小时来为铁人三项比赛进行训练吗？