It's really hard to write a 80,000-word novel, but it's very simple to write down 500 words every morning if it's so embedded into your routine that you don't even have to think about it (and at that rate your novel will be complete in just over five months). You can build similar routines for reading, exercise, meditation, candle-making, or whatever you like. And these routines won't complicate your life because they barely require any effort once they've become automatic.

写一部8万字的小说真的很难，但是每天早上写下500字还是非常简单的，如果把它放到你固定的日程当中，那么你甚至都不用去想它（按照这个速度，只要5个多月你的小说就能写完了）。一样的，像读书、锻炼、冥想、制作蜡烛或者其它任何你想做的事情，都可以这样安排，而这些固定的日程不会让你的生活变得复杂，因为一旦它们变得自动之后，几乎毫不费力。

One time there was a huge report that I was dreading completing because it required a ton of work and it was unclear whether anybody would ever want to read it or not. I procrastinated so long that I missed the deadline by three months. Guess what: Nobody even knew it was gone (our group's interests had moved on to other topics), and had I actually spent 50 hours writing it, the effort would have been totally wasted. Pausing to consider whether work is truly important or not can yield a lot of time savings. This doesn't work for everything (obviously most of your job responsibilities are necessary/required) but can periodically be a valuable tactic. This will also teach you to think more critically about time pressure, and learn when to discount it (and therefore be less anxious day-to-day).

有一次我很害怕完成一个大型报告，因为它需要大量的工作，而且还不清楚是否有人真的愿意读它。我耽搁了很长时间，都超过了最后期限三个月。可结果呢？甚至都没有人知道这件事（我们团队的兴趣早已经转移到了其它方面），假如我要真花了50个小时来写它的话，完全是白费工夫。停下来想一想当前的工作是不是真的重要，这可以节省大量的时间。虽然这并不适用于一切（很明显你的工作职责多数是必需的或者是要求完成的），但是定期这样做还是一个很有用的方法。这也会让你更认真地去思考时间的压力，并学会何时消除它（这样每一天焦虑就少一些）。

After you've checked SMS, WhatsApp, voicemail, e-mail, your second e-mail account, Facebook messages, LinkedIn messages, Twitter mentions, Twitter DMs, Quora messages, snail mail, and Slack for the third time in a given day, you've lost the opportunity to actually, ya know, get anything done. Narrow down the number of communications media you use, and batch process the messages that arrive, to reclaim your day.

在一天里面，当你看完短信、WhatsApp、语音邮件、电子邮件、第二个电子邮箱里的邮件、Facebook、LinkedIn、Twitter被提及的消息、Twitter的私信、Quora、现实中的信件、第三次读Slack上的消息之后，实际上你已经没法完成任何事情了。减少你使用的通信媒体的数量，隔段时间批处理收到的消息，找回你丢失的时间。

At least 99% of the time, our opinion of a certain topic is totally meaningless and has no impact on the real world, yet we spend countless hours hang-wringing over crap that is totally out of our control. Newsflash: Your rooting interest in a football game has no influence on the outcome of the match. Newsflash: Your opinion on gay marriage will not change how the Supreme Court rules on the topic. We would all save a lot of time and aggravation if we confined our opinions to domains over which we actually have control. (Which isn't to say that there's no value in being an informed citizen, but man we sure do spend a lot more time advocating for our own opinions than working to change the outcomes.)

至少在99％的情况下我们对某个话题的看法是完全没有意义的，而且对现实世界没有任何影响，但我们却花了无数的时间在自己无法控制的事情上慷慨激昂地废话。比如：你在足球比赛中支持哪一方并不会对比赛的结果产生任何影响。比如：你对同性婚姻的看法也不会改变美国最高法院对它的判决。如果我们的看法只限于我们能够控制的东西，我们将节省大量的时间，减少许多烦心事。 （这并不是说做一个事事关心的公民没有价值，而是说我们确实花了太多的时间去表达我们的看法而不是去努力地去改变结果。）

Most of our daily frustrations and triumphs will amount to nothing in the end. So: Don't spend your whole life doing things that make you feel crappy. Very soon we'll all be dead and none of this will matter. There's nothing simpler than that.

我们在日常生活中经历的挫折和成功到最终什么都算不上。因此，不要花费你一生的时间去做让你感到不开心的事情。很快我们都会死去，这些都无关紧要。没有什么道理比这更简单了。