原文：https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-effective-and-proven-time-management-techniques
第三次尝试翻译，感觉这篇文字很简单，但是不好翻译呀，自己看都觉得中文看不懂了，请多指教。
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What are the most effective and proven time management techniques?
什么是最有效且已被证实的时间管理方法？
Answer by Oliver Emberton（https://www.quora.com/Oliver-Emberton）
The secret to time management is simple: Jedi time tricks.
时间管理的秘诀其实很简单：绝地时间技巧。
Imagine you were a Jedi master called Bob (your parents, whilst skilled in the ways of the force weren’t the best at choosing names). The love of your life - Princess Lucia – is trapped in a burning building as you hurry to save her.
想象你是一个绝地主宰，名叫Bob（你的父母，擅长于武力而不擅长选择名字）。你命中注定的那个人——公主Lucia——被困在一座燃烧的建筑中，而你急切地想去救她。
You might think of Lucia as the embodiment of your dreams, your aspirations – she is your most important thing.
你可以把Lucia看成你梦想、抱负的化身——她是你最重要的东西。
Unfortunately, before you can reach her an army of stormtroopers open fire. The incoming stream of lasers demand your attention – if you fail to dodge them, you’re dead. You might think of them as an urgent distraction from saving your princess.
不幸的是，在你能够触碰到她之前，一支帝国突击队（参考电影《星球大战》）向你开枪了。近在眉睫的镭射波需要你集中注意力——如果你不能躲闪他们，你就会死去。你可以认为他们是在迫切地转移你拯救公主的注意力。
We all know how a hero resolves this dilemma. If he takes his eye off the ultimate goal - his princess - then all his other efforts are for nought. He can engage an army of stormtroopers, cutting them down with graceful ease, but their numbers are limitless, and whilst momentarily satisfying they only distract him. Delayed too long, his princess will die.
我们都知道英雄是如何解决这个两难的问题的。如果他不顾最终目标——他的公主——那么他所有的努力都将化为泡影。他可以解决这支帝国突击队，用优雅的方式轻而易举地战胜他们，但是他们的数量是无穷无尽的，并且短暂的自我满足只能分散他的注意力。时间拖得太久，公主就会死亡。
And so it is with your life. You have things that are most important and things that are most urgent in permanent competition:
你的生命也是如此。你拥有最重要的事情和当前竞争下最迫切的事情：
The secret to mastering your time is to systematically focus on importance and suppress urgency. Humans are pre-wired to focus on things which demand an immediate response, like alerts on their phones – and to postpone things which are most important, like going to the gym. You need to reverse that, which goes against your brain and most of human society.
主宰你的时间的秘密就是系统地关注重要性和压抑紧迫性。人类本能的关注那些需要立即响应的事情，像是他们手机上的闹钟，然后拖延一些真正最为重要的事情，比如去健身房。你需要彻底改变这种情况，因为这是违反你的大脑和大多数人类社会的。
Look at what you spend your day doing. Most of it, I’ll warrant, is not anything you chose – it’s what is being asked of you. Here’s how we fix that, young padawan:
看看你如何度过你的一天吧。最多的情况是，我敢保证，不是在做你选择做的任何事情——而是在做那些你被要求做的事情。下面是我要教你如何纠正这种情况，年轻的绝地学徒：
• Say no. Most of us follow an implicit social contract: when someone asks you to do something you almost always say yes. It may feel very noble, but don’t forget there’s a dying princess you need to save, and you just agreed to slow yourself down because you were asked nicely. You may need to sacrifice some social comfort to save a life (as a bonus, people tend to instinctively respect those who can say no).
· 说不。我们大多数人都遵循默认的社会契约：当某人让你做一些事情时，你几乎总是会答应。这看起来十分高尚，但是不要忘记了还有垂死的公主等着你去拯救，你刚刚同意的事情减慢了你的步伐因为你实在太好说话了。你也许需要牺牲一些社会支持去拯救一条生命（就像奖赏，人们通常本能地敬佩那些谦虚拒绝的人）
• Unplug the TV. I haven’t had a TV signal for 7 years, which has given me about 12,376 hours more than the average American who indulges in 34 hours a week. I do watch some shows – usually one hour a day whilst eating dinner - but only ones I’ve chosen and bought. You can do a lot with 12,000 hours, and still keep up with Mad Men.
· 拔掉电视插头。我已经七年没有收到过电视信号了，这让我比那些每周花费34小时沉浸于电视中的普通美国人多拥有了大约12376个小时。我确实有看一些电视节目——通常是在吃正餐时的一个小时——但仅限于我选择并购买的节目。你可以用这12000个小时做很多事情，并且依然能够跟上广告狂人的播出进度。
• Kill notifications. Modern technology has evolved to exploit our urgency addiction: email, Facebook, Twitter, Quora and more will fight to distract you constantly. Fortunately, this is easily fixed: turn off all your notifications. Choose to check these things when you have time to be distracted – say, during a lunch break – and work through them together, saving time.
· 杀死提醒。现代科技已经发展到开发出迫切性附加品：邮件，脸书，推特，Quora和更多致力于经常地分散你注意力的东西。幸运的是，这很容易被修正：关掉你所有的新消息提醒。当你有足够的时间可以被分散时，再选择查看这些东西——比如，在吃饭的间隙——然后将他们一并解决掉，节省时间。
• Schedule your priorities. Humans are such funny critters. If you have a friend to meet, you’ll arrange to see them at a set time. But if you have something that matters to you more than anything – say writing a book, or going to the gym - you won’t schedule it. You’ll just ‘get round to it’. Treat your highest priorities like flights you have to catch: give them a set time in advance and say no to anything that would stop you making your flight.
· 规划你的优先次序。人类是如此有趣的可怜的动物。如果你有一个需要见面的朋友，你将会安排一个确定的时间去见他们。但是如果你有一些比其他东西更加重要的事情时——比如写一本书，或者去健身房——你将不会为它们设定时间。你将仅仅是抽出时间做这些事情。像一场必须面对的战斗一样对待你最优先的事情吧：提前给他们设定一个时间并且对其他任何阻止你战斗的事情说不。
• First things first. What is the single most important (not urgent) thing you could possibly be doing? Do some of that today. Remember there’s a limitless number of distracting stormtroopers – don’t fool yourself by thinking “if I just do this thing first then I can”. Jedi don’t live by excuses.
· 重要的事情先来。什么可能是你即将做的最重要（不是最紧迫）的事情？今天就做一些吧。记住分散注意力的帝国突击队是无穷无尽的——不要用“如果我先做这件事情那么我就可以”这样的想法来欺骗自己。绝地武士不依赖借口生存。
• Less volume, more time. There’s always millions of things you could be doing. The trick is to pick no more than 1 - 3 a day, and relentlessly pursue those. Your brain won’t like this limit. Other people won’t like this limit. Do it anyway. Focusing your all on one task at a time is infinitely more efficient than multi-tasking and gives you time to excel at your work.
· 少量，多次。生活中永远有成千上万件事情你可以去做。而诀窍就是选择不多于每天一到三件事情，并且坚持不懈地继续。你的大脑不会喜欢这个限制，其他人也不喜欢。但无论如何你都得这么做。比起一个时间段同时进行多个任务，全身心地专注于一个任务毫无疑问是更加有效的方式，并且能够给你时间去精通你的工作。
• Ignore. It’s rude, unprofessional and often utterly necessary. There are people you won’t find time to reply to. There are requests you will allow yourself to forget. You can be slow to do things like tidy up, pay bills or open mail. The world won't fall apart. The payoff is you get done what matters.
· 忽略。这是粗暴的，不专业的，并且通常情况下是绝对需要的。总有些人你找不到时间去回复。你需要允许你自己去忽略一些答复。你可以慢慢地做一些事情，像是整理房间，支付账单或者打开邮件。这个世界不会因此分崩离析。而忽略的报酬就是你能做真正重要的事情。
One final lesson from the Jedi: they're heroes.
绝地武士的最后一课：他们是英雄。
Heroes inspire us for many reasons: they make tough decisions, they keep going and they get done what matters. But there’s another reason we love our heroes. Inside us all, we know we have the power to become one ourselves.
英雄感动我们有很多原因：他们做出艰难的决定，他们保持前进并且他们做真正重要的事情。但是还有一个我们爱英雄的原因。在我们所有人的内心深处，我们都知道我们有力量变成我们自己。