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Imagine for a moment the perfect organizational system.
想象一下完美的组织系统。
A system that told you exactly where to put every piece of information in your life – every document, file, note, agenda, outline, and bit of research – and exactly where to find it when you needed it.
这个系统可以准确地告诉你把生活中的每一条信息放在哪里——每一份文件、文件、笔记、议程、大纲和一些研究——以及在你需要的时候在哪里找到它。
Such a system would need to be incredibly easy to set up, and even easier to maintain. After all, only the simplest, most effortless habits endure long term.
这样的系统需要非常容易设置，甚至更容易维护。毕竟，只有最简单、最轻松的习惯才能长期存在。
It would need to be both flexible, adapting to your needs in different seasons of your life, but also comprehensive, so you can use it in every one of the many places where you store information, such as your computer’s file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app.
它既要灵活，适应您生命中不同季节的需求，又要全面，因此您可以在存储信息的许多地方使用它，例如计算机的文件系统、云存储平台（例如，Dropbox 或 Google Drive）或数字笔记应用程序。
But most of all, the ideal organizational system would be one that leads directly to tangible benefits in your career and life. It would dramatically accelerate you toward completing the projects and achieving the goals that are most important to you.
但最重要的是，理想的组织系统应该是一个直接为你的职业和生活带来切实利益的组织系统。它将大大加速您完成项目并实现对您最重要的目标。
In other words, the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable.
换句话说，组织生活的终极系统是可操作的。
Instead of putting more obstacles in your way, postponing the actions that will make a difference, it would pull those actions closer and make them easier to start and finish.
它不会在你的路上设置更多的障碍，推迟那些会有所作为的行动，而是拉近这些行动，使它们更容易开始和完成。
After more than a decade of personal experimentation, teaching thousands of students, and coaching world-class professionals, I’ve developed such a system.
经过十多年的个人实验，教授数千名学生，并指导世界一流的专业人士，我开发了这样一个系统。
It’s called PARA – a simple, comprehensive, yet extremely flexible system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform. 它被称为 PARA——一个简单、全面但极其灵活的系统，用于在任何平台上组织任何类型的数字信息。
I promise you that it will not only bring order to your life, but equip you with a set of tools for skillfully mastering the flow of information to achieve anything you set your mind to.
我向你保证，它不仅会给你的生活带来秩序，而且会为你配备一套工具，让你熟练地掌握信息流，以实现你下定决心的任何事情。
A system that told you exactly where to put every piece of information in your life – every document, file, note, agenda, outline, and bit of research – and exactly where to find it when you needed it.
这个系统可以准确地告诉你把生活中的每一条信息放在哪里——每一份文件、文件、笔记、议程、大纲和一些研究——以及在你需要的时候在哪里找到它。
Such a system would need to be incredibly easy to set up, and even easier to maintain. After all, only the simplest, most effortless habits endure long term.
这样的系统需要非常容易设置，甚至更容易维护。毕竟，只有最简单、最轻松的习惯才能长期存在。
It would need to be both flexible, adapting to your needs in different seasons of your life, but also comprehensive, so you can use it in every one of the many places where you store information, such as your computer’s file system, a cloud storage platform (e.g., Dropbox or Google Drive), or a digital notetaking app.
它既要灵活，适应您生命中不同季节的需求，又要全面，因此您可以在存储信息的许多地方使用它，例如计算机的文件系统、云存储平台（例如，Dropbox 或 Google Drive）或数字笔记应用程序。
But most of all, the ideal organizational system would be one that leads directly to tangible benefits in your career and life. It would dramatically accelerate you toward completing the projects and achieving the goals that are most important to you.
但最重要的是，理想的组织系统应该是一个直接为你的职业和生活带来切实利益的组织系统。它将大大加速您完成项目并实现对您最重要的目标。
In other words, the ultimate system for organizing your life is one that is actionable.
换句话说，组织生活的终极系统是可操作的。
Instead of putting more obstacles in your way, postponing the actions that will make a difference, it would pull those actions closer and make them easier to start and finish.
它不会在你的路上设置更多的障碍，推迟那些会有所作为的行动，而是拉近这些行动，使它们更容易开始和完成。
After more than a decade of personal experimentation, teaching thousands of students, and coaching world-class professionals, I’ve developed such a system.
经过十多年的个人实验，教授数千名学生，并指导世界一流的专业人士，我开发了这样一个系统。
It’s called PARA – a simple, comprehensive, yet extremely flexible system for organizing any type of digital information across any platform. 它被称为 PARA——一个简单、全面但极其灵活的系统，用于在任何平台上组织任何类型的数字信息。
I promise you that it will not only bring order to your life, but equip you with a set of tools for skillfully mastering the flow of information to achieve anything you set your mind to.
我向你保证，它不仅会给你的生活带来秩序，而且会为你配备一套工具，让你熟练地掌握信息流，以实现你下定决心的任何事情。
4 Categories to Encompass Your Entire Life
涵盖您一生的 4 个类别
PARA is based on a simple observation: that there are only four categories that encompass all the information in your life.
PARA基于一个简单的观察：只有四个类别涵盖了你生活中的所有信息。
You have projects you’re actively working on – short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind. For example:
你有你正在积极从事的项目——短期的努力（在你的工作或个人生活中），你带着某个目标去做。例如：
PARA is based on a simple observation: that there are only four categories that encompass all the information in your life.
PARA基于一个简单的观察：只有四个类别涵盖了你生活中的所有信息。
You have projects you’re actively working on – short-term efforts (in your work or personal life) that you take on with a certain goal in mind. For example:
你有你正在积极从事的项目——短期的努力（在你的工作或个人生活中），你带着某个目标去做。例如：
Resources that you’re no longer interested in
您不再感兴趣的资源
And that’s it! Four top-level folders – Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives – each containing a small number of subfolders dedicated to each active project, area of responsibility, resource, and archive in your life.
就是这样！四个顶级文件夹 - 项目、区域、资源和档案 - 每个文件夹都包含少量子文件夹，专门用于您生活中的每个活动项目、责任区域、资源和存档。
It may be difficult to believe that a complex, modern human life like yours can be reduced to just four categories. It may feel like you have far more to deal with than can fit into such a simple system.
可能很难相信像你这样复杂的现代人类生活可以归结为四类。你可能会觉得你要处理的事情远远多于这样一个简单的系统所能容纳的。
But that is exactly the point: if your organizational system is as complex as your life, then the demands of maintaining it will end up robbing you of the time and energy you need to live that life.
但这正是重点：如果你的组织系统和你的生活一样复杂，那么维护它的需求最终会剥夺你过这种生活所需的时间和精力。
The system you use to organize information has to be so simple that it frees up your attention, instead of taking more of it. Your system has to give you time, not take time.
你用来组织信息的系统必须非常简单，这样可以释放你的注意力，而不是占用更多的注意力。你的系统必须给你时间，而不是花时间。
And that’s it! Four top-level folders – Projects, Areas, Resources, and Archives – each containing a small number of subfolders dedicated to each active project, area of responsibility, resource, and archive in your life.
就是这样！四个顶级文件夹 - 项目、区域、资源和档案 - 每个文件夹都包含少量子文件夹，专门用于您生活中的每个活动项目、责任区域、资源和存档。
It may be difficult to believe that a complex, modern human life like yours can be reduced to just four categories. It may feel like you have far more to deal with than can fit into such a simple system.
可能很难相信像你这样复杂的现代人类生活可以归结为四类。你可能会觉得你要处理的事情远远多于这样一个简单的系统所能容纳的。
But that is exactly the point: if your organizational system is as complex as your life, then the demands of maintaining it will end up robbing you of the time and energy you need to live that life.
但这正是重点：如果你的组织系统和你的生活一样复杂，那么维护它的需求最终会剥夺你过这种生活所需的时间和精力。
The system you use to organize information has to be so simple that it frees up your attention, instead of taking more of it. Your system has to give you time, not take time.
你用来组织信息的系统必须非常简单，这样可以释放你的注意力，而不是占用更多的注意力。你的系统必须给你时间，而不是花时间。
The Key Principle – Organizing Information By Your Projects And Goals
关键原则 – 按您的项目和目标组织信息
Most of us first learned how to organize information in school. We were taught to categorize our class notes, handouts, and study material by academic subject, such as Math, History, or Chemistry.
我们大多数人首先在学校学会了如何组织信息。我们被教导按学术科目（如数学、历史或化学）对课堂笔记、讲义和学习材料进行分类。
But then without realizing it, we took that same approach into adulthood. We continued to categorize our documents and files according to incredibly broad subjects like “Marketing,” “Psychology,” “Business,” or “Ideas.”
但后来在不知不觉中，我们采取了同样的方法进入成年期。我们继续根据“营销”、“心理学”、“商业”或“想法”等非常广泛的主题对我们的文档和文件进行分类。
This makes zero sense in your post-academic career. In the workplace, there are no classes, no tests, no grades, and no diplomas. No teacher is going to tell you what to write down for the final exam, because there isn’t one.
这在你的学术生涯中毫无意义。在职场上，没有课程，没有考试，没有成绩，也没有文凭。没有老师会告诉你期末考试要写什么，因为没有。
What you do have, both at work and in life, are outcomes you are trying to achieve. You are trying to launch a new product, plan a family vacation, come to a crucial decision, find daycare in your neighborhood, publish a new piece of writing, or reach a quarterly sales number.
你所拥有的，无论是在工作上还是在生活中，都是你正在努力实现的结果。您正在尝试推出新产品、计划家庭度假、做出关键决定、在附近寻找日托、发表新文章或达到季度销售数字。
In the midst of your busy day, as you are trying to make these things happen, you absolutely do not have time to go rummaging through a vast category like “Psychology” to find the one piece of information you need.
在你忙碌的一天中，当你试图让这些事情发生时，你绝对没有时间去翻找像“心理学”这样的庞大类别来找到你需要的一条信息。
Instead of organizing information according to broad subjects like in school, I advise you to organize it according to the projects and goals you are committed to right now. This is what it means to “organize by actionability,” a mantra I will return to again and again throughout this book.
我建议你不要像在学校那样根据广泛的主题来组织信息，而是根据你现在致力于的项目和目标来组织信息。这就是“按可操作性组织”的意思，这是我将在本书中反复提及的口头禅。
When you sit down to work on a graphic design project, for example, you will need all the notes, documents, assets, and other material related to that project all in one place and ready to go.
例如，当您坐下来处理平面设计项目时，您将需要将与该项目相关的所有笔记、文档、资产和其他材料都集中在一个地方并随时可用。
That might seem obvious, yet it is exactly the opposite of what most people do. Most people tend to spread out all the relevant material in a dozen different places that would take them half an hour just to locate.
这似乎是显而易见的，但与大多数人的做法恰恰相反。大多数人倾向于将所有相关材料分散在十几个不同的地方，仅找到就需要半个小时。
How do you make sure that all the material related to each project or goal is all in one place? You organize it that way in the first place. That way you’ll know exactly where to put everything, and exactly where to find it.
您如何确保与每个项目或目标相关的所有材料都集中在一个地方？你首先要以这种方式组织它。这样，您就可以确切地知道将所有东西放在哪里，以及确切地在哪里找到它。
Most of us first learned how to organize information in school. We were taught to categorize our class notes, handouts, and study material by academic subject, such as Math, History, or Chemistry.
我们大多数人首先在学校学会了如何组织信息。我们被教导按学术科目（如数学、历史或化学）对课堂笔记、讲义和学习材料进行分类。
But then without realizing it, we took that same approach into adulthood. We continued to categorize our documents and files according to incredibly broad subjects like “Marketing,” “Psychology,” “Business,” or “Ideas.”
但后来在不知不觉中，我们采取了同样的方法进入成年期。我们继续根据“营销”、“心理学”、“商业”或“想法”等非常广泛的主题对我们的文档和文件进行分类。
This makes zero sense in your post-academic career. In the workplace, there are no classes, no tests, no grades, and no diplomas. No teacher is going to tell you what to write down for the final exam, because there isn’t one.
这在你的学术生涯中毫无意义。在职场上，没有课程，没有考试，没有成绩，也没有文凭。没有老师会告诉你期末考试要写什么，因为没有。
What you do have, both at work and in life, are outcomes you are trying to achieve. You are trying to launch a new product, plan a family vacation, come to a crucial decision, find daycare in your neighborhood, publish a new piece of writing, or reach a quarterly sales number.
你所拥有的，无论是在工作上还是在生活中，都是你正在努力实现的结果。您正在尝试推出新产品、计划家庭度假、做出关键决定、在附近寻找日托、发表新文章或达到季度销售数字。
In the midst of your busy day, as you are trying to make these things happen, you absolutely do not have time to go rummaging through a vast category like “Psychology” to find the one piece of information you need.
在你忙碌的一天中，当你试图让这些事情发生时，你绝对没有时间去翻找像“心理学”这样的庞大类别来找到你需要的一条信息。
Instead of organizing information according to broad subjects like in school, I advise you to organize it according to the projects and goals you are committed to right now. This is what it means to “organize by actionability,” a mantra I will return to again and again throughout this book.
我建议你不要像在学校那样根据广泛的主题来组织信息，而是根据你现在致力于的项目和目标来组织信息。这就是“按可操作性组织”的意思，这是我将在本书中反复提及的口头禅。
When you sit down to work on a graphic design project, for example, you will need all the notes, documents, assets, and other material related to that project all in one place and ready to go.
例如，当您坐下来处理平面设计项目时，您将需要将与该项目相关的所有笔记、文档、资产和其他材料都集中在一个地方并随时可用。
That might seem obvious, yet it is exactly the opposite of what most people do. Most people tend to spread out all the relevant material in a dozen different places that would take them half an hour just to locate.
这似乎是显而易见的，但与大多数人的做法恰恰相反。大多数人倾向于将所有相关材料分散在十几个不同的地方，仅找到就需要半个小时。
How do you make sure that all the material related to each project or goal is all in one place? You organize it that way in the first place. That way you’ll know exactly where to put everything, and exactly where to find it.
您如何确保与每个项目或目标相关的所有材料都集中在一个地方？你首先要以这种方式组织它。这样，您就可以确切地知道将所有东西放在哪里，以及确切地在哪里找到它。
Get the cheat sheet to implementing the PARA Method
获取实现 PARA 方法的备忘单
To help you put what you learn into practice, I've created a handy printable cheat sheet with the main principle and rules for PARA success.
为了帮助您将所学知识付诸实践，我创建了一个方便的可打印备忘单，其中包含 PARA 成功的主要原则和规则。
Send me the PARA Cheat Sheet
向我发送 PARA 备忘单
Look out for an email from hello@fortelabs.com
留意来自 hello@fortelabs.com 的电子邮件
To help you put what you learn into practice, I've created a handy printable cheat sheet with the main principle and rules for PARA success.
为了帮助您将所学知识付诸实践，我创建了一个方便的可打印备忘单，其中包含 PARA 成功的主要原则和规则。
Send me the PARA Cheat Sheet
向我发送 PARA 备忘单
Look out for an email from hello@fortelabs.com
留意来自 hello@fortelabs.com 的电子邮件
The Power of Organizing By Project
按项目组织的力量
For several years, I worked as a productivity coach in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the peak of the tech boom, and high-powered professionals from some of the world’s most influential companies were looking for any edge in their performance. I was happy to oblige.
几年来，我在旧金山湾区担任生产力教练。当时正值科技繁荣的顶峰，来自世界上一些最有影响力的公司的高能专业人士正在寻找他们业绩的任何优势。我很乐意答应。
I coached several executives at a well-known biotech firm in South San Francisco, on a beautiful campus overlooking the bay. I remember one beautiful spring day I was waiting for my next client, a Senior Director in charge of developing several new life-saving pharmaceuticals.
我在南旧金山一家著名的生物技术公司指导了几位高管，在一个俯瞰海湾的美丽校园里。我记得一个美丽的春日，我正在等待我的下一个客户，一位负责开发几种新的救命药物的高级总监。
Once he arrived, our coaching session started like every other, with a simple question of mine: “Do you have a project list?”
他一到，我们的辅导课就像往常一样开始了，我问了一个简单的问题：“你有项目清单吗？
When working with a client as a productivity coach, one of the first things I will always ask them is to show me their project list. I need it to get a sense of what kind of work they do, their current workload, and what priorities and outcomes they are trying to move forward.
当作为生产力教练与客户合作时，我总是会问他们的第一件事就是向我展示他们的项目清单。我需要它来了解他们所做的工作、他们目前的工作量以及他们试图推进的优先事项和成果。
He said “Sure!” and, after jotting down a quick list from memory (the first warning sign), handed me a list like this:
他说“当然！”，然后从记忆中记下了一个快速的清单（第一个警告信号），递给我一个这样的清单：
Do you see the problem? Look again closely.
你看到问题了吗？再仔细看一遍。
Not a single item on this list is a project, according to our earlier definition. Does “strategic planning” ever end for good? Is there ever a time when you can permanently cross off “vacations” from your list? Hopefully not!
根据我们之前的定义，此列表中没有一个项目是项目。“战略规划”会永远结束吗？有没有时间你可以从你的清单上永久划掉“假期”？希望不是！
Every item on this list is, in fact, an area of responsibility. This might seem like semantics, but it’s anything but. I’ve learned that no matter how smart or driven you are, there are two critical things you cannot do until you break down your areas of responsibility into specific projects.
事实上，这份清单上的每一个项目都是一个责任领域。这似乎是语义上的，但事实并非如此。我了解到，无论你多么聪明或有动力，在你把你的职责领域分解成具体的项目之前，有两件关键的事情是你无法做到的。
For several years, I worked as a productivity coach in the San Francisco Bay Area. It was the peak of the tech boom, and high-powered professionals from some of the world’s most influential companies were looking for any edge in their performance. I was happy to oblige.
几年来，我在旧金山湾区担任生产力教练。当时正值科技繁荣的顶峰，来自世界上一些最有影响力的公司的高能专业人士正在寻找他们业绩的任何优势。我很乐意答应。
I coached several executives at a well-known biotech firm in South San Francisco, on a beautiful campus overlooking the bay. I remember one beautiful spring day I was waiting for my next client, a Senior Director in charge of developing several new life-saving pharmaceuticals.
我在南旧金山一家著名的生物技术公司指导了几位高管，在一个俯瞰海湾的美丽校园里。我记得一个美丽的春日，我正在等待我的下一个客户，一位负责开发几种新的救命药物的高级总监。
Once he arrived, our coaching session started like every other, with a simple question of mine: “Do you have a project list?”
他一到，我们的辅导课就像往常一样开始了，我问了一个简单的问题：“你有项目清单吗？
When working with a client as a productivity coach, one of the first things I will always ask them is to show me their project list. I need it to get a sense of what kind of work they do, their current workload, and what priorities and outcomes they are trying to move forward.
当作为生产力教练与客户合作时，我总是会问他们的第一件事就是向我展示他们的项目清单。我需要它来了解他们所做的工作、他们目前的工作量以及他们试图推进的优先事项和成果。
He said “Sure!” and, after jotting down a quick list from memory (the first warning sign), handed me a list like this:
他说“当然！”，然后从记忆中记下了一个快速的清单（第一个警告信号），递给我一个这样的清单：
Do you see the problem? Look again closely.
你看到问题了吗？再仔细看一遍。
Not a single item on this list is a project, according to our earlier definition. Does “strategic planning” ever end for good? Is there ever a time when you can permanently cross off “vacations” from your list? Hopefully not!
根据我们之前的定义，此列表中没有一个项目是项目。“战略规划”会永远结束吗？有没有时间你可以从你的清单上永久划掉“假期”？希望不是！
Every item on this list is, in fact, an area of responsibility. This might seem like semantics, but it’s anything but. I’ve learned that no matter how smart or driven you are, there are two critical things you cannot do until you break down your areas of responsibility into specific projects.
事实上，这份清单上的每一个项目都是一个责任领域。这似乎是语义上的，但事实并非如此。我了解到，无论你多么聪明或有动力，在你把你的职责领域分解成具体的项目之前，有两件关键的事情是你无法做到的。
1. YOU CAN’T TRULY KNOW THE EXTENT OF YOUR COMMITMENTS
你无法真正知道你的承诺的程度
One of the most common complaints I hear from people is that they “have no bandwidth.” And I sympathize – how much of the time does it feel like you have way too much on your plate?
我从人们那里听到的最常见的抱怨之一是他们“没有带宽”。我很同情——有多少时间感觉你有太多的事情要做？
But as long as you view your work through the lens of areas, you’ll never quite know just how much is on your plate. Looking at the list above, how much of a workload does “Hiring” represent? It could be anything from a part-time hire every 6 months to filling 50 positions this quarter.
但是，只要你通过区域的镜头来看待你的工作，你永远不会知道你的盘子里有多少。看看上面的列表，“招聘”代表多少工作量？它可以是每 6 个月招聘一次兼职到本季度填补 50 个职位的任何事情。
There’s simply no way to know at a glance, and that uncertainty will manifest itself as every area feeling more burdensome than it really is.
根本没有办法一目了然地知道，这种不确定性将表现为每个领域都比实际情况更繁重。
Imagine if you identified each of the projects within Hiring, and kept that list in front of you every day. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to tell how much there is left to do, and what you should do next? For example:
想象一下，如果你在招聘中确定了每个项目，并每天将该列表放在你面前。说出还有多少事情要做，以及下一步应该做什么，不是更容易吗？例如：
我从人们那里听到的最常见的抱怨之一是他们“没有带宽”。我很同情——有多少时间感觉你有太多的事情要做？
But as long as you view your work through the lens of areas, you’ll never quite know just how much is on your plate. Looking at the list above, how much of a workload does “Hiring” represent? It could be anything from a part-time hire every 6 months to filling 50 positions this quarter.
但是，只要你通过区域的镜头来看待你的工作，你永远不会知道你的盘子里有多少。看看上面的列表，“招聘”代表多少工作量？它可以是每 6 个月招聘一次兼职到本季度填补 50 个职位的任何事情。
There’s simply no way to know at a glance, and that uncertainty will manifest itself as every area feeling more burdensome than it really is.
根本没有办法一目了然地知道，这种不确定性将表现为每个领域都比实际情况更繁重。
Imagine if you identified each of the projects within Hiring, and kept that list in front of you every day. Wouldn’t it be so much easier to tell how much there is left to do, and what you should do next? For example:
想象一下，如果你在招聘中确定了每个项目，并每天将该列表放在你面前。说出还有多少事情要做，以及下一步应该做什么，不是更容易吗？例如：
2. YOU CAN’T CONNECT YOUR CURRENT EFFORTS TO YOUR LONG-TERM GOALS
你无法将你目前的努力与你的长期目标联系起来
One of the most challenging (but also rewarding) aspects of knowledge work is that it requires our creativity. And creativity can’t really be sustained without a sense of motivation. You can’t keep doing your best thinking and contributing your best ideas if you’re burned out and demoralized.
知识工作最具挑战性（但也是最有价值的）方面之一是它需要我们的创造力。没有动力，创造力就无法真正维持。如果你筋疲力尽，士气低落，你就无法继续做你最好的想法，贡献你最好的想法。
What does our motivation depend on? Mostly, on making consistent progress. We can endure quite a bit of stress and frustration in the short term if we know it’s leading somewhere.
我们的动机取决于什么？大多数情况下，在取得持续进展方面。如果我们知道它正在走向某个地方，我们可以在短期内忍受相当大的压力和挫败感。
Which brings us to our second problem: without a list of individual projects, you can’t connect your current efforts to your long-term goals.
这就引出了第二个问题：如果没有单个项目的列表，你就无法将当前的努力与长期目标联系起来。
Look at the list above again. None of the items on it will end or change – that’s the definition of an area of responsibility, that it continues indefinitely. Now imagine the psychological effect of waking up week after week, month after month, and even year after year to the exact same list of never-ending responsibilities. No matter how hard you work, the endless horizon never seems to get any closer.
再看上面的列表。它上面的任何项目都不会结束或改变——这就是责任领域的定义，它无限期地持续下去。现在想象一下，一周又一周，一个月又一个月，甚至一年又一年地醒来，看到完全相同的永无止境的责任清单，会产生怎样的心理影响。无论你多么努力，无尽的地平线似乎永远不会靠近。
Honestly, I couldn’t design a better way to kill your motivation if I tried.
老实说，如果我尝试过，我无法设计出更好的方法来扼杀你的动机。
When you break down your responsibilities into bite-sized projects, you ensure that your project list is constantly turning over. This turnover creates a cadence of regular victories that you get to celebrate every time you successfully complete a project. Imagine how motivated and accomplished you’d feel by breaking out the broad area of “Events” into each individual event you’re running:
当你把你的职责分解成一口大小的项目时，你确保你的项目清单不断翻转。这种营业额创造了一种定期胜利的节奏，每次成功完成一个项目时，你都会庆祝。想象一下，如果将“事件”的广泛区域分解到您正在运行的每个单独的事件中，您会感到多么有动力和成就感：
No matter how wide-ranging your responsibilities are, you can always break them down into smaller projects. And you must, if you want to know whether you’re actually making progress toward your goals.
无论您的职责范围有多广，您都可以将它们分解为更小的项目。如果你想知道你是否真的在朝着你的目标前进，你必须这样做。
知识工作最具挑战性（但也是最有价值的）方面之一是它需要我们的创造力。没有动力，创造力就无法真正维持。如果你筋疲力尽，士气低落，你就无法继续做你最好的想法，贡献你最好的想法。
What does our motivation depend on? Mostly, on making consistent progress. We can endure quite a bit of stress and frustration in the short term if we know it’s leading somewhere.
我们的动机取决于什么？大多数情况下，在取得持续进展方面。如果我们知道它正在走向某个地方，我们可以在短期内忍受相当大的压力和挫败感。
Which brings us to our second problem: without a list of individual projects, you can’t connect your current efforts to your long-term goals.
这就引出了第二个问题：如果没有单个项目的列表，你就无法将当前的努力与长期目标联系起来。
Look at the list above again. None of the items on it will end or change – that’s the definition of an area of responsibility, that it continues indefinitely. Now imagine the psychological effect of waking up week after week, month after month, and even year after year to the exact same list of never-ending responsibilities. No matter how hard you work, the endless horizon never seems to get any closer.
再看上面的列表。它上面的任何项目都不会结束或改变——这就是责任领域的定义，它无限期地持续下去。现在想象一下，一周又一周，一个月又一个月，甚至一年又一年地醒来，看到完全相同的永无止境的责任清单，会产生怎样的心理影响。无论你多么努力，无尽的地平线似乎永远不会靠近。
Honestly, I couldn’t design a better way to kill your motivation if I tried.
老实说，如果我尝试过，我无法设计出更好的方法来扼杀你的动机。
When you break down your responsibilities into bite-sized projects, you ensure that your project list is constantly turning over. This turnover creates a cadence of regular victories that you get to celebrate every time you successfully complete a project. Imagine how motivated and accomplished you’d feel by breaking out the broad area of “Events” into each individual event you’re running:
当你把你的职责分解成一口大小的项目时，你确保你的项目清单不断翻转。这种营业额创造了一种定期胜利的节奏，每次成功完成一个项目时，你都会庆祝。想象一下，如果将“事件”的广泛区域分解到您正在运行的每个单独的事件中，您会感到多么有动力和成就感：
No matter how wide-ranging your responsibilities are, you can always break them down into smaller projects. And you must, if you want to know whether you’re actually making progress toward your goals.
无论您的职责范围有多广，您都可以将它们分解为更小的项目。如果你想知道你是否真的在朝着你的目标前进，你必须这样做。