文章目录[隐藏]
Why does it always seem like there’s too much to do in too little time?
为什么总是觉得时间不够，要做的事情太多了？
We all have just 24 hours in a day. And yet, why are there some people easily able to juggle a full-time job, build their side hustles, and enjoy quality time with family and friends without breaking a sweat while others can barely find the time to do anything besides work and sleep?
我们一天只有24小时。然而，为什么有些人能够轻松地兼顾全职工作，建立自己的副业，享受与家人和朋友在一起的美好时光，而其他人除了工作和睡眠几乎找不到时间做任何事情？
The secret lies in time leverage. Having enough time isn’t about working harder, but rather working smarter and more intentionally making decisions to optimize your life.
秘诀在于时间杠杆。拥有足够的时间并不意味着更努力地工作，而是更聪明地工作，更有意识地做出决定来优化你的生活。
If you want to know how to leverage time to achieve your personal, financial, and career goals without feeling burnt out and utterly exhausted doing so, read on as I’m going to show you how!
如果你想知道如何利用时间来实现你的个人目标、财务目标和职业目标，同时又不感到筋疲力尽，那么请继续读下去，因为我将向你展示如何做到这一点！
What Is Time Leverage?
什么是时间杠杆？
Before diving into how to incorporate time leverage into your busy life, it’s essential to have a firm grasp of what time leverage means.
在深入研究如何将时间杠杆融入你繁忙的生活之前，有必要牢牢把握时间杠杆的含义。
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary,[1]
根据韦氏词典[1]
Leverage is defined as “the action of a lever or the mechanical advantage gained by it”.
杠杆被定义为“杠杆的作用或由杠杆获得的机械优势”。
In other words, leverage involves using resources to gain an “advantage”, such as achieving your goals more efficiently.
换句话说，杠杆包括利用资源来获得“优势”，比如更有效地实现你的目标。
Time is arguably the scarcest resource. Understanding that time is finite and that you are in control of how you use your time are fundamental principles of using time leverage to optimize your life.
时间可以说是最稀缺的资源。明白时间是有限的，你可以控制自己如何使用时间，这是利用时间优化生活的基本原则。
Time leverage involves achieving the most significant result with the least possible effort.
Time leverage does not mean working 12 plus hours a day, 7 days a week, and risking your physical and mental health to achieve your goals.
Rather, learning how to leverage time allows you to still achieve those same goals as if you were working all day and night, except you don’t have to feel constantly overworked, stressed, and overwhelmed.
相反，学习如何利用时间，让你仍然能够实现那些相同的目标，就像你整天整夜地工作一样，除了你不必经常感到过度劳累、压力重重和不堪重负。
This is because time leverage involves using other people’s time to delegate tasks they can do for you and/or using technology and the power of automation to work smarter, not harder.
这是因为时间杠杆包括利用其他人的时间来委派他们可以为你做的任务，或者利用技术和自动化的力量来更聪明地工作，而不是更努力地工作。
There’s only so much time you have on any given day; therefore, there’s only so much you can achieve all on your own per day. However, by using others’ time and taking advantage of technology to automate your life, you’ll be able to achieve your goals more efficiently, without needing to compromise your health and well-being.
每天你只有这么多的时间，因此，每天只有这么多的时间你可以完成所有的事情。然而，通过利用别人的时间和利用技术来自动化你的生活，你将能够更有效地实现你的目标，而不需要牺牲你的健康和幸福。
Time leverage boosts your productivity by being able to delegate lower-level tasks (i.e. responding to emails, cleaning your home, even walking your dog) to other people who are also able to do those same tasks for you at a given rate.
时间杠杆可以提高你的工作效率，因为你可以把低级别的任务(比如回复邮件，打扫房间，甚至遛狗)委托给其他人，这些人也能以给定的速度为你做同样的事情。
Do You Feel Like You Don’t Have Enough Time?
你觉得你没有足够的时间吗？
Nearly 50% of Americans report feeling they “don’t have enough time these days.” Yet despite constantly feeling like there’s not enough time in the day, many continue to work long hours, sacrificing valuable time with friends and family in the hopes of finally catching up on their busy schedules…
将近50% 的美国人报告说他们觉得“最近没有足够的时间”然而，尽管经常感觉一天中没有足够的时间，许多人还是继续长时间工作，牺牲宝贵的时间与朋友和家人在一起，希望最终赶上他们繁忙的日程表..。
The truth is you have only 4,000 weeks in life, and have probably spent half of it already!
Read this FREE book summary and learn how to stop wasting more time and even regain time!
事实上，你一生只有4000个星期，而且可能已经度过了一半！阅读这个免费的书摘要，学习如何停止浪费更多的时间，甚至恢复时间！
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While delegating these lower-level tasks does come at a cost, the amount of time you gain back will allow you to devote more undivided attention to higher-level tasks and even personal commitments/opportunities that can significantly improve your personal life and professional career (i.e. developing a business strategy, better managing your staff, presenting at a conference, spending quality time with loved ones).
虽然委派这些低级别的任务是有代价的，但是你获得的时间将会让你把更多的注意力放在更高级别的任务上，甚至是个人承诺/机会上，这些可以显著改善你的个人生活和职业生涯(比如制定一个商业战略，更好地管理你的员工，在会议上发言，和你爱的人共度美好时光)。
Some of the most successful people of our generation, Mark Zuckerberg[2] and Elon Musk,[3] even use the power of time leverage to successfully run and scale their companies by intentionally delegating tasks to the right people to effectively grow their businesses.
我们这一代最成功的一些人，马克 · 扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)和埃隆 · 马斯克(Elon Musk) ，甚至利用时间杠杆的力量，通过有意识地将任务委派给正确的人，成功地运营和扩大公司规模，以有效地发展自己的业务。
While you may not be running a multi-billion dollar company, if you are an entrepreneur and can offload some tasks to the right people, this can not only help you achieve your goals more efficiently, but ensure you don’t burn out or have to compromise quality time with friends and family to accomplish your goals.
虽然你可能不是在经营一家价值数十亿美元的公司，但如果你是一名企业家，并且可以把一些任务交给合适的人，这不仅可以帮助你更有效率地实现目标，还可以确保你不会筋疲力尽，或者不得不牺牲与朋友和家人在一起的宝贵时间来实现你的目标。
How to Leverage Time to Boost Productivity
如何利用时间提高生产力
If you are curious about how to leverage time to achieve goals more efficiently in your life, consider:
如果你对如何利用时间更有效地完成生活中的目标感到好奇，考虑一下:
- leveraging your own time
- 利用你自己的时间
- leveraging other people’s time.
- 利用别人的时间。
Being self-aware of where you are in terms of how you can successfully leverage your time is important. If you are just starting your business, you may not have as much money and resources to leverage other people’s time to grow your business quite yet. However, you can still leverage your own time to effectively grow your business.
在如何成功地利用你的时间方面，自我意识到你所处的位置是很重要的。如果你刚刚开始创业，你可能还没有足够的资金和资源来充分利用别人的时间来发展你的事业。然而，你仍然可以利用自己的时间来有效地发展你的业务。
Likewise, you can only grow your business so much all on your own, even with time leverage, until you reach a point where leveraging others’ time can be extremely beneficial.
同样地，你只能靠自己的力量增长你的事业，即使有时间杠杆，直到你达到一个点，利用别人的时间可以是非常有益的。
Learn how to increase your productivity and results by leveraging both your own time and the time of others:
学习如何利用自己的时间和他人的时间来提高工作效率和效果:
Leverage Your Own Time
While we all have limited time, that doesn’t mean there aren’t effective ways to leverage your own time to achieve your goals efficiently. Use these three tips to help leverage your own time more effectively.
1. Setting SMARTer Goals
One of the most important ways to leverage your own time is defining what your goals are and devising a concrete plan as to how you are going to achieve those specific goals.
You’ve probably heard of SMART goals, but what about SMARTer goals?
Many people fail to achieve their goals because they may not truly understand why they want to achieve certain goals. Understanding why you want to achieve certain goals can help you make the distinction between what you want (your perceived goal) vs the purpose behind the goal you are setting. This way you can make adjustments to your goals to ensure they actually align with the purpose behind the goal. This is also what makes a SMARTer goal.
Sometimes it can be tricky to understand your truest desires and intentions behind a particular goal. If this is the case, consider using the 5 Whys Framework to gain a better understanding as to why you may have your goal in the first place.
有时候，要理解某个特定目标背后的真实愿望和意图是很棘手的。如果是这种情况，考虑使用5个为什么框架，以获得更好的理解，为什么你可能有你的目标摆在首位。
Once you understand your “why” behind your goals, it’s time to work towards setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-Bound) goals that align with your purpose, while also giving you a sense of accountability to successfully accomplish these goals.
一旦你明白了你的目标背后的“原因”，是时候设定与你的目标相一致的 SMART (具体的、可衡量的、可实现的、相关的、有时间限制的)目标了，同时也给你一种责任感，让你成功地完成这些目标。
Setting specific goals is just one of the five factors that make up the SMART goal system. One prime example of why setting clear goals is important is Edwin Locke’s goal-setting theory.[4] The goal-setting theory refers to the power of setting goals in improving overall performance in that those who set specific, more difficult goals are more likely to achieve those goals compared to individuals who set more general, easier goals.
设定具体目标只是构成 SMART 目标体系的五个因素之一。为什么设定明确的目标如此重要，一个最好的例子就是埃德温•洛克(Edwin Locke)的目标设定理论。[4]目标设定理论是指设定目标在提高整体绩效方面的力量，因为与设定更一般、更容易的目标的人相比，设定具体、更困难的目标的人更有可能实现这些目标。
Want to learn more about how to set smarter goals and accomplish them? Read “Achieving Goals: The Ultimate Guide to Goal Achieving & Goal Setting”.
想了解更多关于如何设定更明智的目标并实现它们的知识吗？阅读“实现目标: 目标实现和目标设定的终极指南”。
2. Prioritize
2、分清轻重缓急
Prioritizing your time is another way to leverage your own time. Prioritizing involves focusing more of your time and energy on meaningful, important tasks, and spending less time on small, less meaningful tasks.
优先安排你的时间是另一种利用你自己的时间的方式。优先考虑包括把更多的时间和精力集中在有意义的、重要的任务上，把更少的时间花在小的、没有意义的任务上。
Therefore, it’s essential to understand the distinction between tasks that are important vs not as important. Rather than completing all your tasks at random, be sure to grade the value of each task first. This way you can then start and intentionally dedicate the most time to these more valuable tasks first, and work your way down.
因此，理解重要任务和不重要任务之间的区别是非常重要的。不要随意完成所有任务，一定要首先对每个任务的价值进行评分。这样，你就可以开始并且有意识地把大部分时间花在这些更有价值的任务上，然后一步步往下走。
To learn more about all things prioritization, read “The Ultimate Guide to Prioritizing Your Work and Life”.
要了解更多关于优先排序的知识，请阅读“工作和生活优先排序的终极指南”。
3. Use Technology and Automation
3. 使用技术和自动化
In today’s digital age, there are countless ways to use technology to leverage your time and automate your routines that would otherwise take up valuable time out of your day.
在今天的数字时代，有无数种方法可以利用技术来充分利用你的时间，并使你的日常工作自动化，否则这些工作会占用你一天中宝贵的时间。
You’d be surprised to learn all the different processes and routines you consistently do that can easily be automated to do more in less time.
您会惊讶地发现，您一直在执行的所有不同的流程和例程都可以轻松地自动化，以便在更短的时间内完成更多的工作。
A variety of automation software today provides the ability to uniquely customize, automate, and then execute rather mundane tasks that don’t need much human assistance or guidance.
今天，各种各样的自动化软件提供了独特的自定义、自动化和执行相当普通的任务的能力，这些任务不需要太多的人工帮助或指导。
Top automation tools that can be used to more efficiently complete day-to-day tasks include:
可用于更有效地完成日常任务的顶级自动化工具包括:
You can find more time management tools in 18 Best Time Management Apps and Tools.
你可以在18个最佳时间管理应用程序和工具中找到更多的时间管理工具。
Leverage Others’ Time
利用别人的时间
There comes a point where you can only do so much to leverage your own time before needing to hire out help. While leveraging others’ time can be an excellent way to achieve your goals faster, it can also be disastrous if you don’t take the time to find the right people to delegate your tasks to.
在需要雇佣帮手之前，你只能利用自己的时间做这么多事情。尽管利用别人的时间可以是一个很好的方式来更快地实现你的目标，但是如果你没有花时间去找到合适的人来分配你的任务，这也可能是灾难性的。
Here are some helpful tips on how to leverage others’ time to accomplish your goals more efficiently by working with the right people.
这里有一些有用的建议，告诉你如何利用别人的时间，通过与正确的人合作，更有效地完成你的目标。
1. Develop Clear Guidelines and Plans
1. 制定明确的指导方针和计划
Setting a simple yet comprehensive guideline for your team upfront can save you time and plenty of headaches down the road. It’s essential you lay out to the individuals you are off-loading your tasks to 1) what they need to do, 2) when they need to do it, and 3) how they can go about achieving these tasks to meet your standards.
事先为你的团队设定一个简单而全面的指导方针，可以节省你的时间，并且在以后的路上可以省去很多麻烦。你必须把你的任务分配给每个人，1)他们需要做什么，2)他们什么时候需要做，3)他们如何完成这些任务以达到你的标准。
While some tasks such as sending out emails can be as simple as constructing an email template for your new hires to follow, other tasks such as analyzing data for your business or creating content to grow your business may not be as straightforward.
尽管发送电子邮件等一些任务可以简单到为新员工构建电子邮件模板，但分析业务数据或创建内容以促进业务增长等其他任务可能不那么简单。
This is where creating a comprehensive guide for your team to follow is of utmost importance. Not only will this save you time in the long run so your team won’t constantly have to ask you questions to understand how to do the task effectively, but this will ensure the work your team does meets your expectations.
在这里，为您的团队创建一个全面的指南是至关重要的。从长远来看，这不仅可以节省你的时间，这样你的团队就不必不断地问你问题来理解如何有效地完成任务，而且还可以确保你的团队所做的工作符合你的期望。
Therefore, setting clear guidelines and plans for your team to follow upfront helps your entire team work efficiently. This way your team has all the right resources and tools at their disposal to effectively solve problems and create quality work, without having to rely on you.
因此，为您的团队制定明确的指导方针和计划以便事先跟进，可以帮助您的整个团队有效地工作。这样，您的团队就拥有了所有可以支配的资源和工具，可以有效地解决问题并创建高质量的工作，而不必依赖您。
For more complex tasks that may confuse your team, consider creating training videos that run through the process from start to finish you’d like your team to complete. This way the individual can rewatch the video time and time again, and if they are still confused, reach out to you for guidance.
对于可能让团队感到困惑的更复杂的任务，可以考虑创建训练视频，让它贯穿整个过程，从开始到结束，您希望您的团队完成这些任务。这样，个人可以重新看视频一次又一次，如果他们仍然感到困惑，向你寻求指导。
2. Delegate
2. 授权
While delegating tasks may sound scary, it is essential to effectively boost your productivity and achieve your goals. However, you must be building the right team to delegate your tasks to. Failure to find the right individual(s) to delegate your tasks to can be detrimental and negatively impact your progress toward achieving your personal and professional goals.
虽然委派任务听起来可能有点吓人，但是有效地提高你的工作效率和实现你的目标是非常重要的。但是，您必须构建要将任务委派给的正确团队。没有找到合适的人来分配你的任务可能会对你实现个人和职业目标的进程产生不利和消极的影响。
Some important delegation rules to remember include:
需要记住的一些重要的授权规则包括:
- Identifying the right person(s) to complete certain tasks. For example, if one person is exceptional at creating and organizing data within Excel, delegate such data-related tasks to that individual.
- 确定完成某些任务的合适人选。例如，如果一个人在 Excel 中非常擅长创建和组织数据，那么就将这些与数据相关的任务委托给该人。
- Be specific and clear about expectations on how to complete the task effectively. However, resist the urge to micromanage as this will hurt your employees’ performance and productivity.
- 明确如何有效完成任务的期望。然而，要抵制微观管理的冲动，因为这会损害员工的表现和生产力。
- Provide support when needed to ensure your employee has all the resources and information necessary to complete their tasks.
- 在需要时提供支持，以确保员工拥有完成任务所需的所有资源和信息。
Read my article “How to Start Delegating Tasks Effectively (Step-by-Step Guide)” to learn more about how to delegate your tasks the right way.
阅读我的文章“如何有效地开始委派任务(分步指南)”，了解更多关于如何以正确的方式委派你的任务。
3. Bring in Experts and Consultants
3. 聘请专家和顾问
Some things are best left to the experts. Introducing experts and consultants can be a great way to fill knowledge, skills, and experience gaps in your current team that may be hurting your business’s ability to do its best work as efficiently as possible.
有些事情最好留给专家去做。引进专家和顾问是填补当前团队知识、技能和经验空白的好方法，这些空白可能会损害企业尽可能高效地完成最佳工作的能力。
Experts can not only maximize your business’s performance, but bring in new ideas, perspectives, and backgrounds to excel your business.
专家不仅可以最大限度地提高你的业务表现，而且可以带来新的想法、观点和背景来超越你的业务。
Bottom Line
底线
Time is limited; however, time leverage can significantly improve the quality of your outcomes, help you achieve your goals more efficiently, without constantly feeling burnt out and overwhelmed.
时间是有限的; 然而，时间杠杆可以显著提高你的成果质量，帮助你更有效地实现目标，而不是经常感到精疲力尽和不堪重负。
Learning how to leverage time in leveraging your own time and leveraging other people’s time is important to reach your goals more efficiently, without having to compromise your health or the quality of your work.
学会如何利用自己的时间和他人的时间来更有效地达到你的目标是很重要的，而不必牺牲你的健康或工作质量。
If you’ve been looking for ways to either take your business to the next level or are simply looking to find more balance in your day to build both your professional and personal life, try to leverage your time.
如果你一直在寻找让你的事业更上一层楼的方法，或者只是想在日常生活中找到更多的平衡来建立你的职业生活和个人生活，试着利用你的时间。
By being intentional with how you use your time and following the above ways to leverage your time, you can more effectively reach your goals without feeling stressed, exhausted, and pressured to sacrifice quality time with loved ones in the process.
通过有意识地使用你的时间，并遵循上述方法来利用你的时间，你可以更有效地达到你的目标，而不会感到压力，疲惫，并在这个过程中牺牲与所爱的人的高质量时间的压力。
Featured photo credit: Ken Lawrence via unsplash.com
图片来源: Ken Lawrence via unsplash.com
