小而无当

不知道从什么时候起，我开始注意做一些看上去没用但让我有一种满足感的小事情。比如，每次Review完一篇文章，我就规规矩矩的把Review打印出来，跟原文别在一起，放到一个固定的文件堆上去。我知道很少会再去看它们 -- 但是打印出来拿在手里的那两片纸给了我一个享受一下完成一件事情的小小乐趣。我像坚持宗教仪式一般坚持我自己的小小仪式（哈哈,宗教仪式好像也没有直接的用处）。

还有就是如果我制定了一个To Do List，我也特别享受把一件完成的事情从
纸上划掉的感觉。因为比较喜欢这样的感觉，我有时候把一些小的不起眼的
事情也偷偷地加上去充数，因为大脑这时候只会愚蠢的数数。把大脑哄高兴了，
它也就少罢工了。

最近波士顿室友买房了，奥斯汀的妹妹要生小孩了，身边的朋友有的恋爱了，
有的要走人，有的要毕业了，还有担心走不了的。真是一个变更的季节。

ZZ: Overcoming Procrastination by Pavlina LLC.

i cannot help forward this article.

Overcoming Procrastination

source: Pavlina LLC.


Procrastination, the habit of putting tasks off to the last possible minute, can be a major problem in both your career and your personal life. Missed opportunities, frenzied work hours, stress, overwhelm, resentment, and guilt are just some of the symptoms. This article will explore the root causes of procrastination and give you several practical tools to overcome it.

Replace "Have To" With "Want To"

First, thinking that you absolutely have to do something is a major reason for procrastination. When you tell yourself that you have to do something, you're implying that you're being forced to do it, so you'll automatically feel a sense of resentment and rebellion. Procrastination kicks in as a defense mechanism to keep you away from this pain. If the task you are putting off has a real deadline, then when the deadline gets very close, the sense of pain associated with the task becomes overridden by the much greater sense of pain if you don't get started immediately.

The solution to this first mental block is to realize and accept that you don't have to do anything you don't want to do. Even though there may be serious consequences, you are always free to choose. No one is forcing you to run your business the way you do. All the decisions you've made along the way have brought you to where you are today. If you don't like where you've ended up, you're free to start making different decisions, and new results will follow. Also be aware that you don't procrastinate in every area of your life. Even the worst procrastinators have areas where they never procrastinate. Perhaps you never miss your favorite TV show, or you always manage to check your favorite online forums each day. In each situation the freedom of choice is yours. So if you're putting off starting that new project you feel you "have to" do this year, realize that you're choosing to do it of your own free will. Procrastination becomes less likely on tasks that you openly and freely choose to undertake.

Replace "Finish It" With "Begin It"

Secondly, thinking of a task as one big whole that you have to complete will virtually ensure that you put it off. When you focus on the idea of finishing a task where you can't even clearly envision all the steps that will lead to completion, you create a feeling of overwhelm. You then associate this painful feeling to the task and delay as long as possible. If you say to yourself, "I've got to do my taxes today," or "I must complete this report," you're very likely to feel overwhelmed and put the task off.

The solution is to think of starting one small piece of the task instead of mentally feeling that you must finish the whole thing. Replace, "How am I going to finish this?" with "What small step can I start on right now?" If you simply start a task enough times, you will eventually finish it. If one of the projects you want to complete is to clean out your garage, thinking that you have to finish this big project in one fell swoop can make you feel overwhelmed, and you'll put it off. Ask yourself how you can get started on just one small part of the project. For example, go to your garage with a notepad, and simply write down a few ideas for quick 10-minute tasks you could do to make a dent in the piles of junk. Maybe move one or two obvious pieces of junk to the trash can while you're there. Don't worry about finishing anything significant. Just focus on what you can do right now. If you do this enough times, you'll eventually be starting on the final piece of the task, and that will lead to finishing.

Replace Perfectionism With Permission To Be Human

A third type of erroneous thinking that leads to procrastination is perfectionism. Thinking that you must do the job perfectly the first try will likely prevent you from ever getting started. Believing that you must do something perfectly is a recipe for stress, and you'll associate that stress with the task and thus condition yourself to avoid it. You then end up putting the task off to the last possible minute, so that you finally have a way out of this trap. Now there isn't enough time to do the job perfectly, so you're off the hook because you can tell yourself that you could have been perfect if you only had more time. But if you have no specific deadline for a task, perfectionism can cause you to delay indefinitely. If you've never even started that project you always wanted to do really well, could perfectionism be holding you back?

The solution to perfectionism is to give yourself permission to be human. Have you ever used a piece of software that you consider to be perfect in every way? I doubt it. Realize that an imperfect job completed today is always superior to the perfect job delayed indefinitely. Perfectionism is also closely connected to thinking of the task as one big whole. Replace that one big perfectly completed task in your mind with one small imperfect first step. Your first draft can be very, very rough. You are always free to revise it again and again. For example, if you want to write a 5000-word article, feel free to let your first draft be only 100 words if it helps you get started. That's less than the length of this paragraph.

Replace Deprivation With Guaranteed Fun

A fourth mental block is associating deprivation with a task. This means you believe that undertaking a project will offset much of the pleasure in your life. In order to complete this project, will you have to put the rest of your life on hold? Do you tell yourself that you will have to go into seclusion, work long hours, never see your family, and have no time for fun? That's not likely to be very motivating, yet this is what many people do when trying to push themselves into action. Picturing an extended period of working long hours in solitude with no time for fun is a great way to guarantee procrastination.

The solution to the deprivation mindset is to do the exact opposite. Guarantee the fun parts of your life first, and then schedule your work around them. This may sound counterproductive, but this reverse psychology works extremely well. Decide in advance what times you will allocate each week to family time, entertainment, exercise, social activities, and personal hobbies. Guarantee an abundance of all your favorite leisure activities. Then limit the amount of working hours each week to whatever is left. The peak performers in any field tend to take more vacation time and work shorter hours than the workaholics. By treating your working time as a scarce resource rather than an uncontrollable monster that can gobble up every other area of your life, you'll begin to feel much more balanced, and you'll be far more focused and effective in using your working time. It's been shown that the optimal work week for most people is 40-45 hours. Working longer hours than this actually has such an adverse effect on productivity and motivation that less real work is done in the long run. What would happen if you only allowed yourself a certain number of hours a week to work? What if I came to you and said, "You are only allowed to work 10 hours this week?" Your feeling of deprivation would be reversed, wouldn't it? Instead of feeling that work was depriving you of leisure time, you'd feel you were being deprived of work. You'd replace, "I want to play" with "I want to work," your motivation for work would skyrocket, and all traces of procrastination would vanish.

I also strongly recommend that you take at least one full day off each week with no work whatsoever. This will really recharge you and make you eager to start the coming week. Having a guaranteed work-free day will increase your motivation for work and make you less likely to procrastinate. If you know that the next day is your day off, you'll be less likely to put off tasks, since you won't allow yourself the luxury of allowing them to spill over into your day off. When you think that every day is a work day, however, work seems never-ending, and you always tell yourself, "I should be working." Thus, your brain will use procrastination as a way to guarantee that you get some form of pleasure in your life.

Use Timeboxing

For tasks you've been putting off for a while, I recommend using the timeboxing method to get started. Here's how it works: First, select a small piece of the task you can work on for just 30 minutes. Then choose a reward you will give yourself immediately afterwards. The reward is guaranteed if you simply put in the time; it doesn't depend on any meaningful accomplishment. Examples include watching your favorite TV show, seeing a movie, enjoying a meal or snack, going out with friends, going for a walk, or doing anything you find pleasurable. Because the amount of time you'll be working on the task is so short, your focus will shift to the impending pleasure of the reward instead of the difficulty of the task. No matter how unpleasant the task, there's virtually nothing you can't endure for just 30 minutes if you have a big enough reward waiting for you.

When you timebox your tasks, you may discover that something very interesting happens. You will probably find that you continue working much longer than 30 minutes. You will often get so involved in a task, even a difficult one, that you actually want to keep working on it. Before you know it, you've put in an hour or even several hours. The certainty of your reward is still there, so you know you can enjoy it whenever you're ready to stop. Once you begin taking action, your focus shifts away from worrying about the difficulty of the task and towards finishing the current piece of the task which now has your full attention.

When you do decide to stop working, claim your reward, and enjoy it. Then schedule another 30-minute period to work on the task with another reward. This will help you associate more and more pleasure to the task, knowing that you will always be immediately rewarded for your efforts. Working towards distant and uncertain long-term rewards is not nearly as motivating as immediate short-term rewards. By rewarding yourself for simply putting in the time, instead of for any specific achievements, you'll be eager to return to work on your task again and again, and you'll ultimately finish it. You may also want to read my blog entry on timeboxing.

The writing of this article serves as a good example of applying the above techniques. I could have said to myself, "I have to finish this 2000-word article, and it has to be perfect." So first I remember that I don't have to write anything; I freely choose to write articles. Then I realize that I have plenty of time to do a good job, and that I don't need to be perfect because if I start early enough, I have plenty of time to make revisions. I also tell myself that if I just keep starting, I will eventually be done. Before I started this article, I didn't have a topic selected, so I used the timeboxing method to get that done. Having dinner was my reward. I knew that at the end of 30 minutes of working on the task, I could eat, and I was hungry at the time, so that was good motivation for me. It took me a few minutes to pick the topic of overcoming procrastination, and I spent the rest of the time writing down some ideas and making a very rough outline. When the time was up, I stopped working and had dinner, and it really felt like I'd earned that meal.

The next morning I used the same 30-minute timeboxing method, making breakfast my reward. However, I got so involved in the task that I'm still writing 90 minutes later. I know I'm free to stop at any time and that my reward is waiting for me, but having overcome the inertia of getting started, the natural tendency is to continue working. In essence I've reversed the problem of procrastination by staying with the task and delaying gratification. The net result is that I finish my article early and have a rewarding breakfast.

I hope this article has helped you gain a greater insight into the causes of procrastination and how you can overcome it. Realize that procrastination is caused by associating some form of pain or unpleasantness to the task you are contemplating. The way to overcome procrastination is simply to reduce the pain and increase the pleasure you associate with beginning a task, thus allowing you to overcome inertia and build positive forward momentum. And if you begin any task again and again, you will ultimately finish it.

the Madness of Crowds

对于最近的美国经济危机的思考，我觉得从下面这篇纽约时报文章中找到共鸣。

I have a friend who regularly reminds me that if you jump off the top of an 80-story building, for 79 stories you can actually think you’re flying. It’s the sudden stop at the end that always gets you.

When I think of the financial-services boom, bubble and bust that America has just gone through, I often think about that image. We thought we were flying. Well, we just met the sudden stop at the end. The laws of gravity, it turns out, still apply. You cannot tell tens of thousands of people that they can have the American dream — a home, for no money down and nothing to pay for two years — without that eventually catching up to you. The Puritan ethic of hard work and saving still matters. I just hate the idea that such an ethic is more alive today in China than in America.

“Parts of Wall Street got disconnected from investing in human endeavor — helping business to scale and take up new ideas.” Instead, they started to just engineer money from money.

Charles Mackay wrote a classic history of financial crises called “Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds,” first published in London in 1841. “Money ... has often been a cause of the delusion of multitudes. Sober nations have all at once become desperate gamblers, and risked almost their existence upon the turn of a piece of paper. To trace the history of the most prominent of these delusions is the object of the present pages. Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, and one by one.”

我对于金融一直抱有一种狐疑的态度（也是我为什么不喜欢学金融/搞金融）。但问题是，哪怕是我的狐疑是正确的，它被Law of gravity证实的时候也仅限于这样的百年不遇的一刹那间。在其余的时间我都要为坚持狐疑付出代价。比放说，相信着房市不落的神话的大众会投资房市猛赚一笔，而像我一样狐疑的人就被视为缩手缩脚很少有机会分一杯羹。那么损失的是狐疑的人，至少是相当长的时间里面。于是哪怕开始狐疑的人都开始对自己理解的基本法则产生怀疑，甚至背弃它, 跟大家一起做梦。

在理论世界里面，大家关心的都是均衡点（即落地之后）。而在真实的世界往往是处于均衡点之间。肥皂泡存在的时间是如此之长，以至于我们基本上可以假设它一直存在下去了。于是就有了一个推论，审时度势的聪明人应该跟大家一起吹皂泡，分享当中的红利，但同时悄悄做好肥皂泡破裂的准备。而独善其身远离这个肥皂泡的人则只好承受寂寞。

最近一位友人职场上的意外也让我感到，一个人再怎么成功，基本的东西还是不应忽视的。

分享一下先前打球的Video

我仔细看了一下，还是有不少收获的。比如说，我很少能把球打到左前和左后两个角。前场调高球也不够高不够后。后场接高远球好像步伐很踉跄。恩，这些是平时打球体会不到的。不过对自己的发挥还是很满意的！

三鹿奶粉：谁之过？

三鹿奶粉这样的事件真是让人胆寒。其实生活在中国的老百姓早对这样类似的事情何尝不知？我记得我回家老爸给我解释了为什么只有羊肉可以吃，老爸说羊肉最多注了水，而其他的肉从不知道含了多少激素和药物。老妈也从来不让我生吃任何的蔬菜--说上面的农药太多了。中国的老百姓不是不知道，而是知道了也没办法。想不受毒害？那么就出高价钱买真正卫生的食品。没钱？对不起，知道这些东西有毒也得吃。这些从身边生长出来的东西尚且如此，更不用说那些大家从来没见过怎么制造出来的工业品了。

可能大家的第一反应是企业的良知哪里去了？企业决策者的良知哪里去了。谴责这些人是容易的，特别是捅出漏子的这些。但是这不是祸之源头，事情的根源还远着呢。这种社会道德的缺失是果而不是因。企业在博弈当中谁把良知当回事儿谁就是“傻子”，就会被众多的竞争对手挤垮。这样便形成了一个恶性循环：没有一个企业想做好人。这样大的市场环境对于人的作用也显而易见。企业为了存活只有重用那些为牟利不择手段的人。开始的时候只是从学校走向社会时会感受到这种良知被强奸的阵痛，渐渐地，社会上为牟利不择手段的价值观也会逆流而上污染整个教育系统。

奶粉行业内大家都是你知我知，但大家都缄默不言，为什么呢？也许是（1）这个行业还没有完善的法规（特别大家还没有预料到资本家已经如此的铤而走险）；（2）有了法规但监管系统无力。我们的法律和法制系统还没有积累足够的力量和经验与资本家斗。（3）监管系统已经被悄悄地搞定了。监管人也爱钱，如果他们不被有效监管，他们也很容易在寻租的过程中跟被监管者勾结牺牲了老百姓的利益。很多基层的官商勾结都是这样的。如果说前两个假以时日还可慢慢解决的，最后一个就已经是一个政治体制问题了。

八卦聚会

很久没有跟八友聚会了，昨天偶然的机会居然凑齐了5位单身优秀青年。最后到的是E.Y.，也是我们的组要八卦对象。他老人家从落座之时起就被我们轮番审问，纽约之行有什么收获呢？对那个女孩子印象怎么样呢？什么时候再去？让她过来吧，你们在一起都谈什么，她喜欢什么，你的标准是什么。E.Y.试图把焦点引向我，可惜除了work-out buddy以外其余的人对我的个人生活都是clueless，而且也确实不好抖出来。人多了就是好玩儿，如果我跟E.Y.一对一，我打过去的球就会泥牛入海，而人多了我们则可以“群起而攻之”，至少可以秀一下彼此的招式，E.Y.还来不及接招另外一个人已经出招了。G.X.同学和A.S.同学都很就没有见过了。G.X.说她最理想的生活就是生活在一个只有单身青年的城市，大家有的是玩伴，也不用整天看别人出双入对。单身玩伴的最主要挑战是不稳定，要不过一阵子换地方了，要不就是结婚生子了。G.X.认为结婚的朋友倒还好，生子就绝对玩不来了。这也是L.X.的策略中不可持续的地方，她的已婚朋友们迟早要生子的。

大家意犹未尽，居然决定吃完之后继续去迎新。到了Cats Den发现迎新活动已经快到了尾声。几位找了座位下来对新生们评头论足了一番，最后居然占了两个乒乓球桌，还玩乐了一番。E.Y.同学找到了他昔日对阵的高手过招，好像E.Y.水平下降了啊。我们几个低手在另外一桌上你来我往倒也有不少乐趣。大概九点多才心满意足地送大家回家。好久没这么潇洒地玩一番了。

备战Louisville

我又报名参加了跟Louisville的羽毛球对抗赛。考虑到我的水平有限，我就报三项皆可，服从组织安排。今天怯怯的问小肥，我能有机会上场吗？小肥爽快的说，只要报名了就有机会上场。我就高兴的跟孩子一样。更有戏剧性的是一位女士已经先把我报成了混双，巨汗！我刚开始只是听到了传言，后来她的好友向我证实了此事。忐忑不安，居然中彩了。

所以呢这几天要加紧把其它的事情做好，以便能放心的去跟大家打球。上次我们主场可是把他们打得落花流水，这次他们主场多半琢磨着要修理我们。那次去芝加哥参加区域性比赛，别人问我你们比的怎么样？我就说我们获团体第五。再问几支队伍，我就只好说六支队伍。然后我就会不好意思交代是并列第五，第五和第六之间没有比。当然我们女队那次是冠军，货真价实。虽然只有两支女子队伍参赛，比赛还是很精彩的。

能够打上球，尤其是打得比较过瘾的时候，真是一件爽事，让生活多了些小小的企盼。我之所以报名，是因为我算了一笔账，不管输赢，我都能为这件事情高高兴兴的去准备，然后跟大伙一起去跋涉一趟，中间会有不少故事。到头来自己技术长进了，更重要的是又多了一次值得回忆的人生经历。

嘿嘿，YMK也混进了我们的队伍。她最近可是水平暴长，又对羽球事业衷心不二。鼓励鼓励。

开幕式上的假唱到面子工程

我从纽约时报上得知奥运会上唱《歌唱祖国》的女孩另有其声。面孔是叫林妙可。声音来自于一个七岁的小孩叫杨沛宜。为什么西方媒体对这点“小破事”大做文章？不就是为了效果而取其精华弃其糟粕吗？这样的事情还多的很，中国人是素来要面子的。比如面子工程，还有最近的所谓亚洲最大火车站，形象工程，以及“家丑不可外扬”的传统理念。都是做做样子给别人看的，内里有多尴尬自己清楚。

之所以这样做，就是因为能够骗过一些人，比如“呆傻”的老外。要不然，如果什么人都骗不了，那就是做样子的人掩耳盗铃了-- 什么人都唬不过还费什么劲装样子？ 去做样子也折射出了人的自卑心理，因为尴尬才不想以真实面目示人嘛。这样的自卑心理是不大好的，特别是这样的自卑如果成了文化而被大家都接受的话。因为这样大家倒头来就会疲于以面子示人，真正坐下来回顾自己又觉得自己不争气，整个一个跟自己过不去。

老外提倡的做法到比较直爽一些，他们比较主张解放思想，强调自豪感。所以看到这样的事情就会说，你们太压抑人性了，让小孩产生自卑的心里，把丑就是可悲的逻辑强加给幼稚的心灵。我觉得后一种思路是比较人性化的。我觉得虽然说人有俊丑之分，声音有好坏之分，但我们不能够用作假的方式来达到一种效果，至少不能让看的人完全不知情。如果知情则又是另外一说，比如大家虽然知道恐怖电影是虚假的，但也还是愿意让自己的感官被”哄骗“一把，这叫娱乐。但假唱则不同，因为这已经迈出了娱乐的范畴，属于公然行骗了，怪不得被玩弄感情的大家要感到愤怒。

在缺乏诚信的中国，还是提倡不要行骗的好，不要骗别人，也别骗自己。该怎么着怎么着，如果属于先天的缺点，那么就不要以为耻。如果不是先天的，那么就知耻而后勇（改）吧。

至于大加批评的媒体，我觉得也大可不必blow things out of proportions。应该说这是中国的现状，而且可能也是很长时间内的现状；但将来事情还是会有可能向更人性化的方向发展。动辄就说三道四抓住小辫子不放，倒有点让人觉得有点小家子气了。

铁打的营盘流水的兵

我跟师弟通电话，他正在PACK东西准备去加拿大。他说打扫公寓花了一个晚上终于累得不行了，第二天就叫了maid service。还说打扫卫生的时候找出以前的东西，拿一样在手里就回想它以前的历史。师弟说我以前留给他的两个沙滩椅他还运到了加拿大，但我留给他的一个网球框可能就用处不大，准备送人了。我说你是不是还有点伤感啊,他说是啊。我离开AUSTIN的时候15+人送行，到了现师弟离开恐怕总共也就六七个人吧。想起我们曾经辉煌一时的CENTER现在变得冷冷清清，我也觉得感怀不已--在我心里那里多多少少象个大家庭，在的时候想着怎么跟家长做斗争，离开也就觉得这一切还蛮让人怀念。