前言

五年前，OpenAI的首席执行官Sam Altman写了一篇题为《如何提高工作效率》的文章。这篇文章十分接地气，为读者提供了许多实用的建议。我相信这些建议对很多人来说都会很有帮助。为了让更多的朋友能够受益，我特地为大家准备了这篇中英文对照的版本，希望你们喜欢。

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Productivity | 生产力

I think I am at least somewhat more productive than average, and people sometimes ask me for productivity tips. So I decided to just write them all down in one place.
我认为我至少比平均水平更有生产力，有时人们会向我询问生产力建议。所以我决定在一个地方将它们全部写下来。

Compound growth gets discussed as a financial concept, but it works in careers as well, and it is magic. A small productivity gain, compounded over 50 years, is worth a lot. So it’s worth figuring out how to optimize productivity. If you get 10% more done and 1% better every day compared to someone else, the compounded difference is massive.
复合增长作为一个财务概念被讨论，但它也适用于职业，并且它是魔法。 50年内复合的小幅生产力增长非常有价值。所以值得找出如何优化生产力。如果与他人相比，您每天完成的工作多10%，而且每天提高1%，那么复合差异是巨大的。

What you work on | 你从事的工作

It doesn’t matter how fast you move if it’s in a worthless direction. Picking the right thing to work on is the most important element of productivity and usually almost ignored. So think about it more! Independent thought is hard but it’s something you can get better at with practice.
如果方向是无价值的，移动得多快都无关紧要。选择正确的工作内容是生产力最重要的元素，但通常几乎被忽视。所以多想想！独立思考是困难的，但通过实践你可以做得更好。

The most impressive people I know have strong beliefs about the world, which is rare in the general population. If you find yourself always agreeing with whomever you last spoke with, that’s bad. You will of course be wrong sometimes, but develop the confidence to stick with your convictions. It will let you be courageous when you’re right about something important that most people don’t see.
我认识的最令人印象深刻的人对世界有强烈的信仰，这在一般人群中很少见。如果你发现自己总是同意你最后一个交谈的人，那是不好的。你当然有时会错，但要培养坚持自己信念的信心。当你对大多数人看不到的重要事情是正确的时候，它会让你有勇气。

I make sure to leave enough time in my schedule to think about what to work on. The best ways for me to do this are reading books, hanging out with interesting people, and spending time in nature.
我确保在我的日程中留出足够的时间来考虑要做什么工作。对我来说，最好的方式是阅读书籍、与有趣的人交往和在大自然中度过时光。

I’ve learned that I can’t be very productive working on things I don’t care about or don’t like. So I just try not to put myself in a position where I have to do them (by delegating, avoiding, or something else). Stuff that you don’t like is a painful drag on morale and momentum.
我已经了解到，对我不关心或不喜欢的事情，我不能非常有生产力。所以我只是尽量不让自己处于必须做这些事情的位置（通过委派、避免或其他方式）。你不喜欢的东西会对士气和动力产生痛苦的拖累。

By the way, here is an important lesson about delegation: remember that everyone else is also most productive when they’re doing what they like, and do what you’d want other people to do for you—try to figure out who likes (and is good at) doing what, and delegate that way.
顺便说一下，关于委派的重要教训是：记住，其他人在做他们喜欢的事情时也是最有生产力的，做你想让其他人为你做的事情 - 尝试找出谁喜欢（并且擅长）做什么，然后按那种方式委派。

If you find yourself not liking what you’re doing for a long period of time, seriously consider a major job change. Short-term burnout happens, but if it isn’t resolved with some time off, maybe it’s time to do something you’re more interested in.
如果你发现自己长时间不喜欢正在做的事情，严重考虑进行重大的工作变动。短期疲劳确实会发生，但如果没有得到一些休息时间来解决，也许是时候做一些你更感兴趣的事情了。

I’ve been very fortunate to find work I like so much I’d do it for free, which makes it easy to be really productive.
我很幸运找到了我非常喜欢的工作，我愿意免费做，这使得我真的很有生产力。

It’s important to learn that you can learn anything you want, and that you can get better quickly. This feels like an unlikely miracle the first few times it happens, but eventually you learn to trust that you can do it.
学习你可以学习任何你想要的东西，你可以快速变得更好是很重要的。这在最初的几次感觉像是一个不太可能的奇迹，但最终你学会了信任你可以做到。

Doing great work usually requires colleagues of some sort. Try to be around smart, productive, happy, and positive people that don’t belittle your ambitions. I love being around people who push me and inspire me to be better. To the degree you able to, avoid the opposite kind of people—the cost of letting them take up your mental cycles is horrific.
做出伟大的工作通常需要一些同事。尝试与那些不轻视你的野心、聪明、有生产力、快乐和积极的人在一起。我喜欢与那些推动我、激励我变得更好的人在一起。在你能做到的程度上，避免与相反的人在一起——让他们占据你的心智周期的代价是可怕的。

You have to both pick the right problem and do the work. There aren’t many shortcuts. If you’re going to do something really important, you are very likely going to work both smart and hard. The biggest prizes are heavily competed for. This isn’t true in every field (there are great mathematicians who never spend that many hours a week working) but it is in most.
你必须选择正确的问题并去做工作。并没有很多捷径。如果你打算做一些真正重要的事情，你很可能既要努力工作又要聪明工作。最大的奖励是激烈的竞争。这并不是在每个领域都是真的（有些伟大的数学家每周从不工作那么多小时），但在大多数领域都是。

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Prioritization| 优先次序

My system has three key pillars: “Make sure to get the important shit done”, “Don’t waste time on stupid shit”, and “make a lot of lists”.
我的系统有三个关键支柱：“确保完成重要的事情”，“不要浪费时间做愚蠢的事情”和“制作很多列表”。

I highly recommend using lists. I make lists of what I want to accomplish each year, each month, and each day. Lists are very focusing, and they help me with multitasking because I don’t have to keep as much in my head. If I’m not in the mood for some particular task, I can always find something else I’m excited to do.
我强烈推荐使用列表。我制定了每年、每月和每天想要完成的事情的列表。列表非常集中，它们帮助我进行多任务处理，因为我不必在脑海中记住那么多事情。如果我不想做某个特定的任务，我总是可以找到其他我兴奋的事情来做。

I prefer lists written down on paper. It’s easy to add and remove tasks. I can access them during meetings without feeling rude. I re-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on the list and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items.
我更喜欢写在纸上的列表。添加和删除任务很容易。我在会议期间可以访问它们，而不会感到失礼。我经常重新记录列表，这迫使我思考列表上的所有事情，并给我增加和删除项目的机会。

I don’t bother with categorization or trying to size tasks or anything like that (the most I do is put a star next to really important items).
我不烦恼于分类或尝试估算任务的大小或类似的事情（我所做的最多就是在真正重要的项目旁边加个星号）。

I try to prioritize in a way that generates momentum. The more I get done, the better I feel, and then the more I get done. I like to start and end each day with something I can really make progress on.
我尝试以一种能产生势头的方式确定优先级。我完成的越多，我感觉越好，然后我完成的越多。我喜欢每天开始和结束都做一些我真正可以取得进展的事情。

I am relentless about getting my most important projects done—I’ve found that if I really want something to happen and I push hard enough, it usually happens.
我对完成我的最重要的项目毫不妥协——我发现如果我真的想要发生某事，而且我努力推进，它通常会发生。

I try to be ruthless about saying no to stuff, and doing non-critical things in the quickest way possible. I probably take this too far—for example, I am almost sure I am terse to the point of rudeness when replying to emails.
我尽量对拒绝事情毫不留情，并以尽可能快的方式做非关键的事情。我可能做得过头了——例如，我几乎可以确定当回复电子邮件时，我简短到了失礼的程度。

I generally try to avoid meetings and conferences as I find the time cost to be huge—I get the most value out of time in my office. However, it is critical that you keep enough space in your schedule to allow for chance encounters and exposure to new people and ideas. Having an open network is valuable; though probably 90% of the random meetings I take are a waste of time, the other 10% really make up for it.
我通常尽量避免参加会议和研讨会，因为我发现时间成本非常高——我在办公室的时间中获得了最大的价值。然而，关键是你要在日程中留出足够的空间，以便偶然的遇见和接触新的人和思想。拥有一个开放的网络是有价值的；虽然我参加的随机会议中大约90%都是浪费时间，但其余10%真的弥补了这一切。

I find most meetings are best scheduled for 15-20 minutes, or 2 hours. The default of 1 hour is usually wrong, and leads to a lot of wasted time.
我发现大多数会议最好安排在15-20分钟或2小时。默认的1小时通常是错误的，导致大量时间浪费。

I have different times of day I try to use for different kinds of work. The first few hours of the morning are definitely my most productive time of the day, so I don’t let anyone schedule anything then. I try to do meetings in the afternoon. I take a break, or switch tasks, whenever I feel my attention starting to fade.
我有不同的时间尝试用于不同类型的工作。早上的前几个小时绝对是我一天中最有生产力的时间，所以我不让任何人在那时安排任何事情。我尝试在下午开会。每当我感到注意力开始减弱时，我都会休息一下或切换任务。

I don’t think most people value their time enough—I am surprised by the number of people I know who make $100 an hour and yet will spend a couple of hours doing something they don’t want to do to save $20.
我认为大多数人不够重视他们的时间——我对我认识的人中有多少人每小时赚100美元，但为了节省20美元而花几个小时做他们不想做的事情感到惊讶。

Also, don’t fall into the trap of productivity porn—chasing productivity for its own sake isn’t helpful. Many people spend too much time thinking about how to perfectly optimize their system, and not nearly enough asking if they’re working on the right problems. It doesn’t matter what system you use or if you squeeze out every second if you’re working on the wrong thing.

Prioritization|优先次序

My system has three key pillars: “Make sure to get the important shit done”, “Don’t waste time on stupid shit”, and “make a lot of lists”.
我的系统有三个关键支柱：“确保完成重要的事情”，“不要浪费时间做愚蠢的事情”和“制作很多列表”。

I highly recommend using lists. I make lists of what I want to accomplish each year, each month, and each day. Lists are very focusing, and they help me with multitasking because I don’t have to keep as much in my head. If I’m not in the mood for some particular task, I can always find something else I’m excited to do.
我强烈推荐使用列表。我制定了每年、每月和每天想要完成的事情的列表。列表非常集中，它们帮助我进行多任务处理，因为我不必在脑海中记住那么多事情。如果我不想做某个特定的任务，我总是可以找到其他我兴奋的事情来做。

I prefer lists written down on paper. It’s easy to add and remove tasks. I can access them during meetings without feeling rude. I re-transcribe lists frequently, which forces me to think about everything on the list and gives me an opportunity to add and remove items.
我更喜欢写在纸上的列表。添加和删除任务很容易。我在会议期间可以访问它们，而不会感到失礼。我经常重新记录列表，这迫使我思考列表上的所有事情，并给我增加和删除项目的机会。

I don’t bother with categorization or trying to size tasks or anything like that (the most I do is put a star next to really important items).
我不烦恼于分类或尝试估算任务的大小或类似的事情（我所做的最多就是在真正重要的项目旁边加个星号）。

I try to prioritize in a way that generates momentum. The more I get done, the better I feel, and then the more I get done. I like to start and end each day with something I can really make progress on.
我尝试以一种能产生势头的方式确定优先级。我完成的越多，我感觉越好，然后我完成的越多。我喜欢每天开始和结束都做一些我真正可以取得进展的事情。

I am relentless about getting my most important projects done—I’ve found that if I really want something to happen and I push hard enough, it usually happens.
我对完成我的最重要的项目毫不妥协——我发现如果我真的想要发生某事，而且我努力推进，它通常会发生。

I try to be ruthless about saying no to stuff, and doing non-critical things in the quickest way possible. I probably take this too far—for example, I am almost sure I am terse to the point of rudeness when replying to emails.
我尽量对拒绝事情毫不留情，并以尽可能快的方式做非关键的事情。我可能做得过头了——例如，我几乎可以确定当回复电子邮件时，我简短到了失礼的程度。

I generally try to avoid meetings and conferences as I find the time cost to be huge—I get the most value out of time in my office. However, it is critical that you keep enough space in your schedule to allow for chance encounters and exposure to new people and ideas. Having an open network is valuable; though probably 90% of the random meetings I take are a waste of time, the other 10% really make up for it.
我通常尽量避免参加会议和研讨会，因为我发现时间成本非常高——我在办公室的时间中获得了最大的价值。然而，关键是你要在日程中留出足够的空间，以便偶然的遇见和接触新的人和思想。拥有一个开放的网络是有价值的；虽然我参加的随机会议中大约90%都是浪费时间，但其余10%真的弥补了这一切。

I find most meetings are best scheduled for 15-20 minutes, or 2 hours. The default of 1 hour is usually wrong, and leads to a lot of wasted time.
我发现大多数会议最好安排在15-20分钟或2小时。默认的1小时通常是错误的，导致大量时间浪费。

I have different times of day I try to use for different kinds of work. The first few hours of the morning are definitely my most productive time of the day, so I don’t let anyone schedule anything then. I try to do meetings in the afternoon. I take a break, or switch tasks, whenever I feel my attention starting to fade.
我有不同的时间尝试用于不同类型的工作。早上的前几个小时绝对是我一天中最有生产力的时间，所以我不让任何人在那时安排任何事情。我尝试在下午开会。每当我感到注意力开始减弱时，我都会休息一下或切换任务。

I don’t think most people value their time enough—I am surprised by the number of people I know who make $100 an hour and yet will spend a couple of hours doing something they don’t want to do to save $20.
我认为大多数人不够重视他们的时间——我对我认识的人中有多少人每小时赚100美元，但为了节省20美元而花几个小时做他们不想做的事情感到惊讶。

Also, don’t fall into the trap of productivity porn—chasing productivity for its own sake isn’t helpful. Many people spend too much time thinking about how to perfectly optimize their system, and not nearly enough asking if they’re working on the right problems. It doesn’t matter what system you use or if you squeeze out every second if you’re working on the wrong thing.

也是，不要陷入生产力陷阱——为了提高生产力而追求生产力本身是没有帮助的。许多人花费太多时间思考如何完美地优化他们的系统，而几乎没有问他们是否正在处理正确的问题。如果你正在做错误的事情，你使用的系统是什么，或者你是否压榨出每一秒都不重要。

The right goal is to allocate your year optimally, not your day.
正确的目标是最佳地分配你的一年，而不是你的一天。

Physical factors| 物理因素

Very likely what is optimal for me won’t be optimal for you.
很可能对我来说是最佳的对你来说并不是最佳的。你需要通过实验来找出什么是最适合你的。这绝对值得一试——它会在生活的各个方面都有所帮助，而且你会感觉好得多，更加快乐。

It probably took a little bit of my time every week for a few years to arrive at what works best for me, but my sense is if I do a good job at all the below I’m at least 1.5x more productive than if not.
我可能每周花费一点时间，持续几年来找出最适合我的方法，但我的感觉是，如果我在下面所有事情上都做得很好，那么我至少比不这样做要高效1.5倍。

Sleep seems to be the most important physical factor in productivity for me. Some sort of sleep tracker to figure out how to sleep best is helpful. I’ve found the only thing I’m consistent with are in the set-it-and-forget-it category, and I really like the Emfit QS+Active.
睡眠 对我来说似乎是生产力中最重要的身体因素。某种睡眠追踪器可以帮助找出最佳的睡眠方式。我发现我唯一一贯的事情是在设定它然后忘记它的类别中，而我真的很喜欢Emfit QS+Active。

I like a cold, dark, quiet room, and a great mattress (I resisted spending a bunch of money on a great mattress for years, which was stupid—it makes a huge difference to my sleep quality. I love this one). Not eating a lot in the few hours before sleep helps. Not drinking alcohol helps a lot, though I’m not willing to do that all the time.
我喜欢冷、黑、安静的房间和一张好床垫（我多年来一直抵制花大钱买一张好床垫，这真是愚蠢——它对我的睡眠质量有很大的影响。我喜欢这个）。睡前几小时不吃太多东西有助于睡眠。不喝酒也很有帮助，尽管我不愿意一直这样做。

I use a Chili Pad to be cold while I sleep if I can’t get the room cold enough, which is great but loud (I set it up to have the cooler unit outside my room).
如果我不能让房间冷却下来，我会使用Chili Pad在睡觉时冷却身体，这很好但很吵（我把它设置在房间外面）。

When traveling, I use an eye mask and ear plugs.
旅行时，我使用眼罩和耳塞。

This is likely to be controversial, but I take a low dose of sleeping pills (like a third of a normal dose) or a very low dose of cannabis whenever I can’t sleep. I am a bad sleeper in general, and a particularly bad sleeper when I travel. It likely has tradeoffs, but so does not sleeping well. If you can already sleep well, I wouldn’t recommend this.
这可能会引起争议，但每当我不能睡觉时，我都会服用低剂量的安眠药（如正常剂量的三分之一）或非常低剂量的大ma。我通常都睡得不好，尤其是在旅行时。这很可能有权衡之处，但不睡好也是如此。如果你已经可以睡得很好，我不建议这样做。

I use a full spectrum LED light most mornings for about 10-15 minutes while I catch up on email. It’s great—if you try nothing else in here, this is the thing I’d try. It’s a ridiculous gain for me. I like this one, and it’s easy to travel with.
我在大多数早晨使用全频LED灯大约10-15分钟，同时查看电子邮件。这很棒——如果你在这里什么都不试，这是我会尝试的东西。对我来说这是一个巨大的收获。我喜欢这个，而且携带方便。

Exercise is probably the second most important physical factor. I tried a number of different exercise programs for a few months each and the one that seemed best was lifting heavy weights 3x a week for an hour, and high intensity interval training occasionally. In addition to productivity gains, this is also the exercise program that makes me feel the best overall.
锻炼 可能是第二重要的身体因素。我尝试了几种不同的锻炼计划，每种都进行了几个月，最好的似乎是每周三次，每次一个小时的举重，偶尔进行高强度间歇训练。除了生产力增加外，这也是让我整体感觉最好的锻炼计划。

The third area is nutrition. I very rarely eat breakfast, so I get about 15 hours of fasting most days (except an espresso when I wake up). I know this is contrary to most advice, and I suspect it’s not optimal for most people, but it definitely works well for me.
第三个领域是营养。我很少吃早餐，所以我大多数时候都会禁食约15小时（除了我醒来时的浓缩咖啡）。我知道这与大多数建议相反，我怀疑这对大多数人来说并不是最佳的，但它确实对我很有效。

Eating lots of sugar is the thing that makes me feel the worst and that I try hardest to avoid. I also try to avoid foods that aggravate my digestion or spike up inflammation (for example, very spicy foods). I don’t have much willpower when it comes to sweet things, so I mostly just try to keep junk food out of the house.
吃大量的糖是让我感觉最差的事情，我尽量避免。我也尽量避免那些刺激我的消化或引起炎症的食物（例如，非常辣的食物）。当涉及到甜食时，我没有太多的意志力，所以我主要只是尽量不让垃圾食品进入家中。

I have one big shot of espresso immediately when I wake up and one after lunch. I assume this is about 200mg total of caffeine per day. I tried a few other configurations; this was the one that worked by far the best. I otherwise aggressively avoid stimulants, but I will have more coffee if I’m super tired and really need to get something done.
我一醒来就喝一大杯浓缩咖啡，午餐后再喝一杯。我估计每天总共摄入大约200mg的咖啡因。我尝试了其他几种配置；这是迄今为止最有效的。除此之外，我积极地避免刺激物，但如果我非常疲惫并且真的需要完成某些事情，我会喝更多的咖啡。

I’m vegetarian and have been since I was a kid, and I supplement methyl B-12, Omega-3, Iron, and Vitamin D-3. I got to this list with a year or so of quarterly blood tests; it’s worked for me ever since (I re-test maybe every year and a half or so). There are many doctors who will happily work with you on a super comprehensive blood test (and services like WellnessFX). I also go out of my way to drink a lot of protein shakes, which I hate and I wouldn’t do if I weren’t vegetarian.
我是素食者，从小就是。我补充甲基B-12、欧米茄-3、铁和维生素D-3。经过大约一年的每季度血液测试，我得到了这个清单；从此它一直对我有效（我大约每一年半重新测试一次）。有很多医生愿意和你一起进行非常全面的血液检测（和像WellnessFX这样的服务）。我也特地喝很多蛋白质奶昔，虽然我不喜欢，但如果我不是素食者，我是不会这么做的。

其他事项

Here’s what I like in a workspace: natural light, quiet, knowing that I won’t be interrupted if I don’t want to be, long blocks of time, and being comfortable and relaxed (I’ve got a beautiful desk with a couple of 4k monitors on it in my office, but I spend almost all my time on my couch with my laptop).
关于工作空间，我喜欢的是：自然光、安静、知道如果我不想被打扰就不会被打扰、长时间的工作时间、舒适和放松（我的办公室里有一个漂亮的桌子上放着几个4k显示器，但我几乎所有的时间都是在沙发上用我的笔记本电脑）。

I wrote custom software for the annoying things I have to do frequently, which is great. I also made an effort to learn to type really fast and the keyboard shortcuts that help with my workflow.
我为经常要做的烦人的事情编写了定制软件，这很棒。我还努力学会快速打字和帮助我的工作流的键盘快捷键。

Like most people, I sometimes go through periods of a week or two where I just have no motivation to do anything (I suspect it may have something to do with nutrition). This sucks and always seems to happen at inconvenient times. I have not figured out what to do about it besides wait for the fog to lift, and to trust that eventually it always does. And I generally try to avoid people and situations that put me in bad moods, which is good advice whether you care about productivity or not.
和大多数人一样，我有时会经历一周或两周的时间，我完全没有动力做任何事情（我怀疑这可能与营养有关）。这很糟糕，总是似乎在不方便的时候发生。除了等待这种迷茫消散，我还没有找到解决的方法，并相信最终它总会过去。我通常尽量避免那些让我心情不好的人和情境，无论你是否关心生产力，这都是个好建议。

In general, I think it’s good to overcommit a little bit. I find that I generally get done what I take on, and if I have a little bit too much to do it makes me more efficient at everything, which is a way to train to avoid distractions (a great habit to build!). However, overcommitting a lot is disastrous.
总的来说，我认为稍微承诺过多是好的。我发现我通常会完成我所承担的任务，如果我有太多的事情要做，它会使我在所有事情上都更加高效，这是一种避免分心的训练方式（建立一个好习惯！）。但是，过多的承诺是灾难性的。

Don’t neglect your family and friends for the sake of productivity—that’s a very stupid tradeoff (and very likely a net productivity loss, because you’ll be less happy). Don’t neglect doing things you love or that clear your head either.
不要为了生产力而忽视你的家人和朋友——这是一个非常愚蠢的权衡（而且很可能是生产力的净损失，因为你会不那么快乐）。也不要忽视你喜欢的事情或那些能够让你放松的事情。

Finally, to repeat one more time: productivity in the wrong direction isn’t worth anything at all. Think more about what to work on.
最后，再重复一次：错误方向的生产力根本不值得。多考虑一下应该做什么。

感想：不得不指出，Sam Altman在提高效率上的许多经验都很受用，但涉及到效率大于健康的事情上，比如安眠y，早上空腹喝咖啡，这些就不敢苟同了。