If Time Is Money, We’re Broke: How We Waste Hours on End
如果时间就是金钱,那我们便彻底破产:我们竟然在不断浪费时间。
The first of my many, many time-wasting activities takes place each morning with repeated manipulations of the snooze button on my alarm clock, followed by a dilly-dallying shower and an untoward amount of time spent perusing the offerings of my closet. The snooze button alone gains me (according to my rudimentary math skills) roughly 106 more hours of sleep per year, which is great. But I’m also usually late for work and wearing an outfit that, despite the fifteen minutes I spent ruminating about it, is not really all that cute.
在众多浪费时间的活动中,每天早上我重复做的第一件事就是按下那该死的闹钟然后继续赖床。起床后,照常洗个早,然后便漫无目的地看着衣橱里的衣服。每天赖床的时间加起来(用我退化得差不多的计算水平算了下),一年大概多睡了106个小时,多得有点难以想象了 。但可笑的是,我依然迟到,而且尽管我出门前总会花15分钟左右去思索该穿怎样的套装,但最后出来的效果却不尽人意。
And that’s just the morning. If I add up all the time I spend doing one semi-useless thing or another, I’m sure I would be horrified that I have blithely let slip away precious hour upon precious hour of my one and only earthly life. Seize the day, indeed. I’m sure if I had spent that time more constructively, I would have cured cancer, written the great American novel, negotiated peace in the Middle East, and finally gotten caught up on reading my New Yorkers—or at least figured out how Lost will end. Alas, life is simply too full of tantalizing time-sucks.
那仅仅是个开始呢。如果将我花在那些诸如半无用的东西上的时间加起来,我肯定会被这个事实吓一大跳:在我仅有一次的人生中,自己竟然让那无比宝贵的一个个小时在漫不经心中溜走。事实上,我们得把握每一天。我相信,如果我当初能把时间花在更有建设性的事情上的话,我能治愈癌症,能写本出色的美国小说,能在中东进行和平谈判,最后,通过对我们这些纽约人的理解,改变自己的看法----或者至少找出结束战争的方法。哎!生活的可悲仅在于太多的时间被浪费了。