今天，我在“清晨朗读会”练习到这篇文章《You Don’t Need to Clear the Decks to Focus on Important Work》，感到对自己目前的正在练习处理情绪有很大的帮助，于是下决心要将全文都翻译出来，以加深印象。
这个决定是上午十一点做的，真正开始翻译是下午两点，这中间经历了吃午饭、睡午觉、吃零食和用手机处理一些其他事情。我用拖延来对抗这个决定给我带来的压力。还好我完成了。
我非常喜欢这位作者的一系列文章，他将心理层面的问题通过简洁的描述帮助读者认知，然后提供行之有效的解决办法，供读者参考。
文章中有一个词“tum”，我查过词典后决定用“空”这个字来翻译来保持文章的流畅，从意思上，我认为这里的“空”指的就是“无为”。通常我们在情绪压力之下总是要做些什么，通过这样释放情绪，比如吃零食、聊天、哭、闹、生闷气或者只是内心无比的郁闷，但是完成这些行为带给我们的只是情绪的叠加，这不仅没有处理掉原有的情绪，还给它们加上一层外衣，因为我们无时无刻不在编织着情绪的网。作者提出的tum toward （我认为的：以“空”对之），什么都不做，只是感知原来的那个情绪。这是为情绪做减法，至少不要再附加其他情绪进去。
同时，作者的字里行间都提到了“practice”，可想而知，从知道到做到中间只差一步：练习。
这篇文章就为我的日常练习提供很好参考范例，希望这篇译文帮助你我更好的认识自己。
（译文水平有限，欢迎你的批评指正！）
You Don’t Need to Clear the Decks to Focus on Important Work
你无需清理掉所有不重要的事再关注重要工作
By Leo Babauta
We’ve all done it: we have an important task to do, and yet we have to do a thousand other things before we can start:
我们都经历过：在开始做一件必须要做到重要任务之前，还有上千件其他的事情要做。
Process email and reply to messages处理邮件和回复信息
Make sure we’re up-to-date with the latest news确认更新了新闻
Pay bills and check on our bank accounts支付账单并查询银行账户
Make sure the kitchen is clean确认厨房是清洁的
Check social media one more time再刷新一次朋友圈
Look up that obscure fact we’re suddenly curious about关心一下突然间很感兴趣的无名事件
We’re looking for perfect conditions before we can start to find any focus, before we can launch into that important, meaningful task that we’re committed to doing.
我们很想在投入一件我们承诺完成的重要的、意义重大的任务之前，寻找一个可以开始全情投入的完美起点。
When we’re done with all of that, we decide it’s time to get going with that important task … but first, there’s that one other thing we realized we need to do. Every little task takes importance over this important task.
当完成了所有这些事，决定是要开始重要任务的时候，但首先我们意识到又有其他的事要做。每一个小任务的价值取代了这个重要的任务。
Try this experiment: commit yourself to doing the one big important task you know you’ve been wanting to do (it’s usually one you can identify easily, because you’ve been putting it off) … and commit to doing it right after you’re done reading this post.
尝试这个试验：确认你想要做的一件重要任务（通常是很容易确认的，因为你已经推迟去做了），并且在读完这个邮件之后立即去做。
See if you find little things you need to do first, before you can get started. If you have no problem, commit yourself to doing the next most important task (or continuing this one, if it needs several sessions) first thing tomorrow morning. I mean first thing, before you start checking messages or getting ready or taking care of the little things you normally do in the morning.
看看你是否在开始之前发现有很多小事情要先完成。如果没有问题，确认自己的下一个最重要的的任务（或继续当先的任务，如果它需要几个会期的话）是明天早上的第一件事。
And then try it every day this week. If you’re like most people, you’ll find a bunch of things you need to do to clear the decks before you can get started.
然后在这周的每天早晨都做这样的试验。如果你像大多数人一样，你会发现在开始之前，有一大堆不重要的事你需要先清理掉。
But here’s what I’ve been reminding myself: you don’t need to clear the decks to get started. You can just launch into the important task.
但是，这就是我要提醒自己的：你不必清理完这些不重要的事再开始。你可以直接投入重要的任务。
The feeling that you need to take care of everything else first comes from a handful of sources:
你需要关注这些感觉一切都来自于一个棘手的源头：
Feeling overwhelmed by everything. You have a thousand tasks on your plate, and you want to clear as many of them out because you’re feeling overwhelmed. I get this, I feel the same way. But putting off the important things to get a feeling of control over your huge pile of tasks is rarely the answer (sometimes it is, if the pile is causing problems). This just leads to the important tasks never getting done, because we get into the habit of prioritizing the pile. Instead, it’s usually better to deal with the feeling of overwhelm by feeling it. Meditating on the feeling, accepting it, letting it be there as we dive into the important task.
感到被一切压垮。你有一千个任务在你的盘子里，你想清理掉所有这些，因为你感到被它们压垮了。我感同身受。但是，通过延迟重要的事情而完成一堆事去获得掌控的感觉，这很难是答案。（有时是，如果一堆事导致问题发生）。这只会导致永远完成不了重要的事，因为我们养成了优先处理一大堆事的习惯。反而，通常更好的处理为压垮的情绪的方法是感受这种情绪。在冥想中感受，接受它，让它在那里，然后我们投入到重要的任务当中。
Feeling overwhelmed by the important task. We put off the task because it’s big, scary, difficult, overwhelming. Something about the important task makes us shut down — it’s like our brains have a fuse box that gets overloaded and shuts down to keep us safe. This is completely understandable! Something in our past made us feel that we can’t handle these kinds of overwhelming feelings. But it’s usually not true — we can handle the overwhelming feeling. We can turn towards it, feel it, be with it. Practicing like this, we teach ourselves that feeling stressed by this is no problem, that we can handle it.
被重要的任务压倒。我们延迟任务，因为它真的有难度，提心吊胆，困难，被压倒。重要的任务导致我们停工——就像我们的大脑有一个保险丝盒，超负荷了就会停工以维护我们的安全。这是完全可以理解的！以往我们感到，那些让我们感到不能处理的被压倒的负面情绪，通常都不是真实的，我们可以以“空”对之，感受它，和它在一起。像这样练习，我们教会自己感受“这是没有问题的”，然后我们就能处理这些情绪了。
Knowing that you actually need to do the other tasks. There is some truth to needing to take care of all the other tasks. They actually need to get done. So it’s not a bad idea to take a look at your list and ask what you actually need to get done right now. Do you need to take care of a few smaller administrative tasks before you launch into the important tasks? Or can they wait an hour? Usually they can wait, if we’re honest with ourselves. Sometimes (probably less than 10% of the time), we need to take care of a couple of smaller tasks now.
认识到你实际上需要做其他的任务。事实是其他的事情确实需要关注，并处理好。所以关注清单任务不是一个坏主意，同时还要问问自己真正想要做什么。在投入重要工作之前你需要去关注一些小的行政事务吗？或者可以过1个小时再处理？通常都是可以等的，没有那么紧急，如果我们诚实的面对自己的话。有时（可能小于10%的时间）我们需要同时关注两件小任务。
Old habits die hard. In truth, much of the time it’s a combination of all of the above, and then just the way we’ve always done things. For example, maybe you’ve always started your day with a cup of coffee and reading your favorite news sites and social media. Then you do email and admin tasks. Only after doing all of that do you start the important work. Starting with the important work before all of that would feel wrong! But there is nothing written in stone here — we can start earlier, and in fact, if we get into this new habit, we’ll find that we’re getting the important work done more often, and having the impact on the world we’d like to have.
积习很难改变。事实是，大部分时间我们都处在综合以上的情绪状态，然后正是在这个状态下我们一直在处理事情。举个例子，也许你一直以来一杯咖啡和阅读感兴趣的新闻网站及社交媒体作为一天的开始。然后你处理邮件和行政事物。只有在做完那些之后才开始重要工作。完成所有那些再开始重要工作会感觉到不对！但是，没有任何座右铭告诉我们：早一点开始！事实是，如果我们建立起新的习惯，会发现我们更多时候能完成重要工作，而且我们会从外界获得好的反馈。
Here’s what I’ve been practicing around this:这里是我关于这些正在实践的：
Notice when I’m feeling like taking care of everything else. Bringing awareness to the problem, I can turn toward the feelings of overwhelm instead of trying to fix the feelings by doing little tasks or running away from the important task. Be fully with the feeling of overwhelm, stress, fear. Let myself open up to the feeling, and see that it’s actually OK that the feelings are there with me. I can still do the task with them there.提醒自己，当我们感到想要关注一切事情时。将注意力关注到情绪本身，我可以以“空”对待被压垮的感觉，而不是尝试去做那些小的杂事或逃离重要任务，以强化这种被压垮的感觉。全然的去感受被压垮、压力，恐惧的感觉。让自己面对情绪，看到自己可以和情绪待在一起。和情绪在一起的时候，我仍然可以保持工作。
Turn toward the task with an open heart. Now that I’ve allowed myself to feel the overwhelm, I can turn toward the task and see that actually, I have committed to doing this out of love for myself and others. This task is actually an act of love. 用开放的心态，以“空”对待任务。现在，我允许自己去感受压力，我可以以“空”对待任务，然后看到实际上，我可以在没有爱的情况下为了自己和其他人去做这些。这个任务实际上是对爱的感知，这对于克服我的不适感和打开我自己去直面非常的重要。
It is important enough to overcome my discomfort and open myself up to it.用开放的心态，以“空”对待任务。现在，我允许自己去感受压力，我可以以“空”对待任务，然后看到实际上，我可以在没有爱的情况下为了自己和其他人去做这些。这个任务实际上是对爱的感知，这对于克服我的不适感和打开我自己去直面非常的重要
Do the smallest step. If it’s hard, scary and overwhelming, can I focus on just a small piece of it that’s actually doable? Do I need to worry about the whole mountain, or just the next step that I can actually do? I pick a small step (maybe writing just one sentence), and let that be the thing I focus on.从微处着手。面对害怕和被压垮的感受，如果感到很难，我可以只是关注其中一个小的部分去实践？我要担心整座大山，还是只是我要走的下一步?我选择一个小的进步（也许只是写一个句子），让这个进步成为我关注的焦点。
Be fully there with that small step, as if it’s the whole world. With that small step in front of me, I let everything else fade away. I’ve already done my thinking and decided that this is what I need to focus on. So I don’t need to think about it anymore — I can just pour myself completely into it. It’s the whole universe. Nothing else matters right now (unless a loved one asks for my attention, then they are all that matters), so I let everything go and devote myself to this completely, as if it deserves my full attention, my full heart, my absolute commitment and devotion.
将每一个小的进步，视为自己全然的胜利。这些小的进步带领着我，其他一切在我面前都会消失。我已经完成了思考，并且决定这就是我要关注的。所以我不再需要担心，我可以注入自己的所有，这就是整个世界，没有什么担心的（除非我最亲密的人需要我去关注，那我就会全情投入），所以我让一切事物运转并且赞同自己这样的投入，犹如我甘愿付出所有注意力，我所有的心意，我全部的认同。
In addition, I’ll keep a note where I can write down the small things that I think of doing, and know that I can get to those later in the day. There’s a place for those things, but it’s not right now.
除此之外，我会持续记录下来我想要完成这些小的进步，并且认识到之后的某天，我会达到我的目标。目标终将会达到，但不是现在。
What is worthy of your full heart, attention and devotion right now?
现在，什么是值得你付出所有心意、注意力和赞同的呢？
