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There was a time, not so long ago, when I was busy, busy, busy. At least I thought I was.
就在不久前，有一段时间我很忙很忙。至少我自己觉得很忙。
I told people I worked 60 hours a week. I claimed to sleep six hours a night. As I lamented to anyone stuck next to me at parties, I was basically too busy to breathe. Me time? Ha!
Getty Images我跟人说我每周工作60小时。我声称自己每晚只睡六个小时。在派对上，我对每个在我旁边无法脱身的人都大吐苦水，基本上忙得没时间喘气。自己独处的时间？想都别想！
Now I work 45 hours a week and sleep close to eight hours a night. But I'm not getting any less done.
现在，我每周工作45小时，每天睡近八小时。但该做的事一件都没少。
My secret? I started keeping track of how I spent my time, logging how many hours and minutes I devoted to different activities such as work, sleep and chores.
我的秘密在于：我开始记录自己是如何花掉时间的，记下工作、睡觉和家务等不同活动分别投入多少时间。
I soon realized I'd been lying to myself about where the time was going. What I thought was a 60-hour workweek wasn't even close. I would have guessed I spent hours doing dishes when in fact I spent minutes. I spent long stretches of time lost on the Internet or puttering around the house, unsure exactly what I was doing.
很快我就意识到，对于时间是怎么花掉的，我一直在自欺欺人。我以为自己每周工作60小时，其实根本没有。我会认为自己洗碗花了好几个小时，而实际上只有几分钟。我把大把时间浪费在了网上或在房间里闲荡，不知道自己到底在做什么。
I'm not alone in this time fog. If you believe results from the American Time Use Survey, done by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and other studies, plenty of Americans have faulty impressions of how they spend time in our 'too-rushed-to-breathe' world.
陷入这种时间迷雾的并不只有我一个。如果你相信劳工统计局（Bureau of Labor Statistics）所做的“美国人时间使用调查”（American Time Use Survey）及其他研究的结果，那么事实上，对于自己的时间是如何在这个“忙到喘不过气”的世界花掉的，很多美国人都有着错误的印象。
We all have the same 168 hours per week -- a number few people contemplate even as they talk about '24-7' with abandon -- but since time passes whether we acknowledge it or not, we seldom think through exactly how we're spending our hours.
我们每周都有同样的168小时，即便人们已经对“7*24”小时的说法习以为常，也很少有人仔细思考这个数字，但由于无论我们承认与否，时间都在流逝，所以我们很少会仔细思考自己的时间到底是怎么花掉的。
We also live in a competitive society, and so by lamenting our overwork and sleep deprivation -- even if that requires workweek inflation and claiming our worst nights are typical -- we show that we are dedicated to our jobs and our families. Being 'busy' and 'starved for time' is a way to show we matter. Put another way, it makes us feel important.
我们也生活在一个竞争激烈的社会，因此我们对加班和睡眠不足的抱怨恰恰显示出我们对工作的尽职和对家庭的尽责，即便这要求每周工作时间增加、糟糕的夜晚成为常态。“忙”和“没时间”的状态是表明自己重要的一种方式。换言之，它让我们觉得自己很重要。
But if you think about it, complaining about a lengthy to-do list is not only boring, it's a sad hook for one's self-esteem. Owning up to how we spend our hours gives us more control of our time, and ultimately, of our lives.
但如果仔细想想，因为一份长长的任务清单而不停抱怨不光很没劲，也是对一个人自尊的可悲牵绊。坦承自己的时间是如何花掉的，能让我们更好地掌控自己的时间，最终更好地掌控自己的生活。
Here's how to do it:
具体方法如下:
Keep a time log. If you've ever tried to lose weight, you may have tried keeping a food journal. Sure, you're eating grilled chicken for dinner, but the eight M and Ms you grab from the receptionist's candy jar add up, too.
记时间日志。如果你尝试过减肥，那么可能尝试过记饮食日志。没错，你晚餐吃的是烤鸡，但你从前台糖果罐里拿走的八颗M and M豆也得算上。
Like tracking meals, tracking time keeps us from spending it mindlessly or lying to ourselves about what we do with it. Write down what you're doing as often as you remember for at least a week. Add up the totals. Checking Facebook five times a day at six minutes a pop adds up to two-and-a-half hours in a workweek -- curiously, the exact amount of time the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends we exercise.
和记录饮食一样，记录时间能防止我们不知不觉地花掉时间或对如何花掉时间自欺欺人。经常记录自己正在做什么，持续至少一周。最后算总数。工作日每天查Facebook五次，每次六分钟，每周加起来就是两个半小时。说来奇怪，这正好是美国疾病控制与预防中心（Centers for Disease Control and Prevention）推荐的锻炼时长。
Be honest. While Americans claim to sleep six to seven hours per night, time logs show we sleep more than eight. One study tracking people's estimated and actual workweeks found that those claiming to work 70, 80, or more hours were logging less than 60.
要诚实。虽然美国人声称每天只睡六至七小时，但时间日志却显示我们的睡眠时间超过了八小时。一项跟踪人们每周推测工作时间和实际工作时间的研究发现，声称工作70、80小时或更长时间的人实际上工作了不到60小时。
Ask yourself what you'd like to do with your time. Claiming to be busy relieves us of the burden of choice. But if you're working 50 hours a week, and sleeping eight hours a night (56 per week) that leaves 62 hours for other things. That's plenty of hours for a family life and a personal life -- exercising, volunteering, sitting on the porch with the paper, plus watching TV if you like. Set goals -- maybe three hours of exercise and swapping out two hours of TV for reading -- and see where in your 168 hours you could make that happen.
问问自己希望如何安排自己的时间。声称太忙让我们不用费心去做选择。但如果你每周工作50小时，每天睡八小时，也就是每周56小时，那么还剩下62小时用来干其他事情。这些时间足够用于家庭活动和个人活动了，比如锻炼身体、志愿者活动、坐在阳台看报纸，想看电视也可以。制定目标，比如锻炼三小时以及把两小时看电视的时间用来阅读，然后看看你能不能在168小时中抽出时间来实现目标。
Change your language. Instead of saying 'I don't have time' try saying 'it's not a priority,' and see how that feels. Often, that's a perfectly adequate explanation. I have time to iron my sheets, I just don't want to. But other things are harder. Try it: 'I'm not going to edit your résumé, sweetie, because it's not a priority.' 'I don't go to the doctor because my health is not a priority.' If these phrases don't sit well, that's the point. Changing our language reminds us that time is a choice. If we don't like how we're spending an hour, we can choose differently.
改变你的语言。不要说“我没时间”，试着说“这不是优先事项”，看看感觉如何。通常情况下，这都是一个完全充分的解释。我有时间熨床单，只是不想去做而已。但有的事情比较难。不信你试试看，说“亲爱的，我不会修改你的简历，因为这不是优先事项。”或者“我不去看医生，因为我的健康不是优先事项。”如果你不太能接受这些说法，那么这就是问题所在了。改变语言提醒我们，时间是一种选择。如果不喜欢自己花掉时间的方式，那么我们可以做出不同的选择。
LAURA VANDERKAM
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