（这是一篇断断续续翻译了一个月的文 质量也巨烂但还是先收着吧）
题目：How to achieve work-life balance?
（雅思真题2012.03.08：Currently, many people fail to balance the work with the other parts of lives, what are the reasons and how to solve it?）
这个题目好像连续好几周出现在新东方雅思预测帖里了……照例，建议先写再看。
范文：6 Tips For Better Work-Life Balance (Forbes, 2014)
6 Tips For Better Work-Life Balance
六条建议使你的工作与生活更平衡
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These days, work-life balance can seem like an impossible feat.
在这个年代，能够保持工作与生活的平衡似乎是一件不可能完成的壮举。
Technology makes workers accessible around the clock.
科技使得员工更趋向于昼夜不停的工作。
Fears of job loss incentivize longer hours.
唯恐失去工作的恐惧感无形中延长了工作时间。
In fact, a whopping 94% of working professionals reported working more than 50 hours per week and nearly half said they worked more than 65 hours per week in a Harvard Business School survey.
事实上，据哈佛大学商学院的研究报告显示，数量高达94%的工作人员表示他们一周工作超过50小时，近一半以上的人甚至工作时长超过65小时/周。
Experts agree: the compounding stress from the never-ending workday is damaging.
专家们认为：来自于永无休止工作下的复合应力是有害的。
It can hurt relationships, health and overall happiness.
其对人际关系、健康和总体幸福感都有负面影响。
Work-life balance means something different to every individual, but here health and career experts share tips to help you find the balance that’s right for you.
对不同人来说，保持工作与生活平衡的度也不同，但是这里有一些健康和事业方面的专家提出的一些小意见，或许它们能帮你找到适合自己的平衡点。
1) Let go of perfectionism
放弃完美主义
A lot of overachievers develop perfectionist tendencies at a young age when demands on their time are limited to school, hobbies and maybe an after-school job.
很多苛求完美的人在他们儿时就有完美主义者的倾向，那时他们不用花费很多时间在学校、业余爱好或者其他课外工作上。
It’s easier to maintain that perfectionist habit as a kid, but as you grow up, life gets more complicated.
当你是个孩子的时候，保持一个完美主义者的习惯相对容易，但当你成年后，生活变得更加复杂了。
As you climb the ladder at work and as your family grows, your responsibilities mushroom.
当你在事业上逐步攀升，当你的构建了属于自己的家庭时，你的责任便越来越多。
Perfectionism becomes out of reach, and if that habit is left unchecked, it can become destructive, says executive coach Marilyn Puder-York, PhD, who wrote The Office Survival Guide.
据著有《办公室生存指南》的经理人教练Marilyn Puder-York博士认为，完美主义变得遥不可及，并且如果任由这个习惯发展下去，很可能会趋向于有破坏力。
The key to avoid burning out is to let go of perfectionism, says Puder-York.
免于疯狂的秘诀就在于放弃完美主义， Puder-York如是说。
“As life gets more expanded it’s very hard, both neurologically and psychologically, to keep that habit of perfection going,” she says, adding that the healthier option is to strive not for perfection, but for excellence.
她说：“当生活不断延展开后，保持完美主义的习惯不管从精神上还是从心理上来说都是非常困难的。”
2) Unplug
拔掉电源插头
From telecommuting to programs that make work easier, technology has helped our lives in many ways.
通过远程办公的确使我们的工作更加容易，科技确确实实在很多方面有益于我们的生活。
But it has also created expectations of constant accessibility.
但它同时为我们的生活了创造了时时刻刻可被联系到的期望。
The work day never seems to end.
工作日似乎永远没有尽头。
“There are times when you should just shut your phone off and enjoy the moment,” says Robert Brooks, a professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and co-author of The Power of Resilience: Achieving Balance, Confidence and Personal Strength in Your Life.
哈佛大学医学院的心理学教授，同时也是《弹性力：使你在在生活中获得自信、个人力量与平衡》的联合作者的Robert Brooksm说：“你应该留出一段关掉手机并且享受生活的时间。”
Brooks says that phone notifications interrupt your off time and inject an undercurrent of stress in your system.
Brooks表示手机提醒打断了你的离线时间并且给你的生活注入了潜在的压力。
So don’t text at your kid’s soccer game and don’t send work emails while you’re hanging out with family, Brooks advises.
Brooks建议道：所以不要在你还在的足球时间给他们发短信，也不要在你与家人出游时回复工作邮件。
Make quality time true quality time.
使有质量的时间真正变得有品质起来。
By not reacting to the updates from work, you will developing a stronger habit of resilience.
通过不对工作更新作出反应，你将会慢慢养成具有更强弹性力的习惯。
“Resilient people feel a greater sense of control over their lives,” says Brooks, while reactive people have less control and are more prone to stress.
Brooks认为：“拥有弹性力的人对他们的生活有更好的掌控力”，相比之下反应型的人很难控制自己的生活并且更容易紧张。
3) Exercise and meditate
锻炼与思考
Even when we’re busy, we make time for the crucial things in life.
即使我们很忙，也应该抽出时间来做生命中重要的事情。
We eat. We go to the bathroom. We sleep. And yet one of our most crucial needs – exercise – is often the first thing to go when our calendars fill up.
我们要吃饭。我们要去洗手间。我们要睡觉。并且仍然还有最重要的需要——锻炼——同样是当我们日程表填满时需要做的第一件事。
Exercise is an effective stress reducer.
锻炼是有效的减压手段。
It pumps feel-good endorphins through your body.
它能为你的身体产生脑内啡有助你状态的提升。
It helps lift your mood and can even serve a one-two punch by also putting you in a meditative state, according to the Mayo Clinic.
据 Mayo 诊所所说，这能够振奋你的情绪甚至拳击能让你进入冥想的境界。
Puder-York recommends dedicating a few chunks of time each week to self-care, whether it’s exercise, yoga or meditation.
Puder-York建议每周将一段时间花费在自我护理上，无论是锻炼、瑜伽还是冥想。
And if you’re really pressed for time, start small with deep breathing exercises during your commute, a quick five minute meditation session morning and night, or replacing drinking alcohol with a healthier form of stress reduction.
如果你真的没有时间，在上下班期间多做几次深呼吸运动，早晚做一次五分钟的冥想或者以健康的方式喝一点酒来缓解压力。
“When I talk about balance, not everything has to be the completion and achievement of a task, it also has to include self-care so that your body, mind and soul are being refreshed,” says Puder-York.
Puder-York说：“当我在谈论平衡的时候，并不是所有事都是一个任务的完成与实现，它同样包括着自我护理，这样你的身心与灵魂都会得到净化。”
These exercises require minor effort but offer major payoffs.
这些锻炼需要小小的努力但收获是巨大的。
Psychotherapist Bryan Robinson, who is also professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte and author of the book Chained to the Desk, explains that our autonomic nervous system includes two branches: the sympathetic nervous system (our body’s stress response) and the parasympathetic nervous system (our body’s rest and digest response).
精神治疗师，北卡罗来纳大学夏洛特分校荣誉退休教授以及《被栓在桌子上》的作者Bryan Robinson解释说，我们的自主神经系统有两个分支：交感神经系统（人体的应激反应）和副交感神经系统（我们身体的休息和消化反应）。
“The key is to find something that you can build into your life that will activate your parasympathetic nervous system,” says Robinson.
Robinson说：“关键是你能找到激活你副交感神经系统的东西来进入你的生活。”
Short, meditative exercises like deep breathing or grounding your senses in your present surroundings, are great places to start.
像深呼吸或者在你所处的环境内充分感知这类短暂的冥想练习就是好的开始。
The more you do these, the more you activate your parasympathetic nervous system, which “calms everything down, (and) not just in the moment,” says Robinson.
Robinson说，你越做这类练习，你越能激活你的副交感神经系统，这样有助于“让一切都平静下来，并且有持久的效果。”
“Over time you start to notice that in your life, your parasympathetic nervous system will start to trump your sympathetic nervous system.”
“随着时间的推移你关注自己的生活，你的副交感神经系统将超越交感神经系统。”
4) Limit time-wasting activities and people
少做浪费时间的事也少与浪费时间的人交往
First, identify what’s most important in your life.
首先，辨明什么是你生活中最重要的事。
This list will differ for everyone, so make sure it truly reflects your priorities, not someone else’s.
每个人的清单都不一样，所以要确定出最能反映自己生活的首要事项，而不是其他人的。
Next, draw firm boundaries so you can devote quality time to these high-priority people and activities.
之后，画出清楚的界限这样你能把最高效的时间留给重要的人和事。
From there, it will be easier to determine what needs to be trimmed from the schedule.
通过这个，整理出需要从计划表移除的事项就会容易很多。
If email or internet surfing sends you into a time-wasting spiral, establish rules to keep you on task.
倘若邮件或者上网使你陷入了浪费时间的怪圈，那么就制订规则以保证你能完成任务。
That may mean turning off email notifications and replying in batches during limited times each day.
这或许意味着关闭邮件提醒并且每天在固定时间批量回复。
If you’re mindlessly surfing Facebook or cat blogs when you should be getting work done, try using productivity software like Freedom, LeechBlock or RescueTime.
如果你在本应完成工作的时间漫无目的的刷Facebook或博客，尝试用诸如Freedom, LeechBlock 或RescueTime的效率软件吧。
And if you find your time being gobbled up by less constructive people, find ways to diplomatically limit these interactions.
如果你发现自己的时间被一些无用的人占据了，尽量使用外交途径来减少这些联系。
Cornered every morning by the office chatterbox?
每天早上都对办公室闲聊感兴趣？
Politely excuse yourself.
礼貌的原谅自己（毛线？！）
Drinks with the work gang the night before a busy, important day?
在重要的日子前一天晚上熬夜工作？
Bow out and get a good night sleep.
休息一下并且睡个好觉吧。
Focus on the people and activities that reward you the most.
对能给你带来最高回报的人与活动集中注意力。
To some, this may seem selfish.
从某种程度上来说，这看起来有点自私。
“But it isn’t selfish,” says Robinson.
“事实上并非如此。”Robinson说。
“It’s that whole airplane metaphor. If you have a child, you put the oxygen mask on yourself first, not on the child.”
”这是一个有关飞机的比喻。如果你有孩子，你也是先自己带上氧气面罩，而不是为孩子。“
When it comes to being a good friend, spouse, parent or worker, “the better you are yourself, the better you are going to be in all those areas as well.”
当谈论到扮演一个好朋友、伴侣、父母或者工作者的角色时，“你自己做的越好，你将在这些领域里做的越棒。”
5) Change the structure of your life
改变自己生活的结构
Sometimes we fall into a rut and assume our habits are set in stone.
有时候我们会陷入一种惯例并且以为我们的习惯会是一成不变的。
Take a birds-eye view of your life and ask yourself: What changes could make life easier?
换一个角度俯瞰你的生活并且扪心自问：有什么能够让你的生活更容易？
Puder-York remembers meeting with a senior executive woman who, for 20 years of her marriage, arranged dinner for her husband every night.
Puder-York记得他曾见过一位结婚20年后仍然与丈夫进行晚餐约会的高级行政官。
But as the higher earner with the more demanding job, the trips to the grocery store and daily meal preparations were adding too much stress to her life.
但是作为承担了如此高任务的高薪职员，每日去食杂店卖菜的路途确实为她的生活添加了太多的压力。
“My response to her was, “Maybe it’s time to change the habit,’” recalls Puder-York.
Puder-York回忆说：“我对她的建议是，或许是时候该改变这一生活习惯了。”
The executive worried her husband might be upset, but Puder-York insisted that, if she wanted to reduce stress, this structural change could accomplish just that.
这位女士担心他的丈夫或许会因此而不甘心，但Puder-York坚持，如果她想要减轻压力，这种结构性的改变能够帮助完成。
So instead of trying to do it all, focus on activities you specialize in and value most.
所以不是试图做全部的事，将自己的精力专注于最看重的活动之上。
Delegate or outsource everything else.
将其他事情放开手去。
Delegating can be a win-win situation, says Stewart Freidman, a management professor at the University of Pennsylvania Wharton School and author of Leading the Life You Want: Skills for Integrating Work and Life.
宾夕法尼亚大学沃顿商学院的管理学教授，同时也是《过你想要的生活：融入生活与工作的技巧》的作者Stewart Freidman认为：委派可以获得双赢。
Freidman recommends talking to the “key stakeholders” in different areas of your life, which could include employees or colleagues at work, a spouse or a partner in a community project.
Freidman建议与生活中不同领域的“关键利益相关者”聊天，他们可以是你工作上的同事或者员工，你在社区活动中的朋友或者伙伴。
“Find out what you can do to let go in ways that benefit other people by giving them opportunities to grow,” he says.
他说：“找到你能为他们做的事，通过给予机会让他们成长而收益。”
This will give them a chance to learn something new and free you up so you may devote attention to your higher priorities.
这样你可以给他们学习新技能的机会同时让你缓口气来做拥有最高回馈的事情。
6) Start small. Build from there.
不积跬步，无以至千里
We’ve all been there: crash diets that fizzle out, New Year’s resolutions we forget by February.
我们都遇到过这样的情况：励志节食却功亏一篑，新年发下的宏愿在二月就忘了个一干二净。
It’s the same with work-life balance when we take on too much too quickly, says Brooks.
Brooks认为，假如我们被生活的重担压迫太紧的话，工作与生活的平衡也会遇到上述情形。
Many of his workaholic clients commit to drastic changes: cutting their hours from 80 hours a week to 40, bumping up their daily run from zero miles a day to five miles a day.
他的很多工作狂客户被要求作出如下改变：将一周原有的80小时工作减少为40个，从原来一天不跑步增加为一天跑步5英里。
It’s a recipe for failure, says Brooks.
Brooks认为，这是失败的原因。
When one client, who was always absent from his family dinners, vowed to begin attending the meals nightly, Brooks urged him to start smaller.
有一次，一位总是缺席家庭晚餐的客户发誓从此他再也不落下与家人共进晚餐的机会，Brooks却建议他从细微之处改变。
So he began with one evening a week.
所以他起初一星期与家人吃一次晚饭。
Eventually, he worked his way up to two to three dinners per week.
最终，他成功的每周与家人一起吃饭两到三次。
“If you’re trying to change a certain script in your life, start small and experience some success. Build from there,” says Brooks.
Brooks说：“倘若你想改变生活中固有的习惯的话，最好从小开始改变从而体会到成功感。而这将会是你成功的起点。”