作者简介：
Rasmus Hougaard是 Potential Project 的创始人兼董事总经理，Potential Project是一家全球领导力与组织发展公司，服务于微软、埃森哲、思科和其他数百个组织。
Jacqueline Carter是 Potential Project 的合伙人兼北美项目主管。
In today’s always-on, information-overloaded world, it can be hard to stay focused throughout the day. How often do you find yourself distracted by inner chatter during meetings? Or how often do you find that emails are pulling you away from more important work?
置身高速运转、信息超载的当今社会，“全神贯注”这件事儿有点难。在开会的时候，你会不会因为内心繁杂的思绪分神？或者因为邮件，耽搁了更重要的工作？
We’ve surveyed and assessed more than 35,000 leaders from thousands of companies across more than 100 countries, and found that 73% of leaders feel distracted from their current task either “some” or “most” of the time.
在调查了来自100多个国家几千家公司的超过35000位领导者之后，我们发现73%的领导人都有曾对当前任务感到心烦意乱的情况。
We also found that 67% of leaders describe their minds as cluttered, which means they have a lot of thoughts and a lack of clear priorities. As a result, 65% of respondents fail to complete their tasks. The biggest sources of distraction are: demands of other people (26%); competing priorities (25%); general distractions (13%); and too big of a workload (12%). Not surprisingly, 96% of leaders we surveyed said that “enhanced focus” would be valuable or extremely valuable.
同时，67%的领导人声称思绪凌乱，想法太多，且缺乏条理。在这种情况下，65%的受访者不能完成任务。扰乱工作的主要来源有：来自他人的要求（26%）；待办事项的优先级（25％）；一般令人分心的事物（13%）；超负荷的工作量（12%）。96%的受访领导人觉得有必要甚至极其有必要增强注意力。
While those numbers are alarming, they also represent a massive potential for improved performance and effectiveness. If there is one secret to effectiveness, said leadership pioneer Peter Drucker, it’s concentration. In our age of information overload, this is truer now than ever before.
数字让人警醒，但我们也看到了提升效率的巨大潜力。领导力先驱彼得·德鲁克曾言，专注力是提高效率的唯一秘诀。这句话在这个信息过载的时代尤其适用。
The ability to apply a calm, clear focus to the right tasks — at the right time, in the right way — is the key to exceptional results. Even one second of misplaced focus can mean wasted time or worse missing a key opportunity like a facial cue from a client during a tough negotiation.
保持清醒头脑，因时有方地专注于正确事项的能力是取得卓越成果的关键。一秒的分神就意味着时间被浪费，甚至有可能让你错失一个关键的机会，例如错失在艰难谈判时客户的一个一闪而过的表情。
One of the CEOs we interviewed, Jean-Francois van Boxmeer of Heineken, put it this way: “My role does not allow for a lack of focus. I can’t afford to be distracted. I must be on point. I have trained my focus while at work for 15 years, moment-to-moment. I feel the brain is like a muscle, and I exercise it all the time.”
喜力首席执行官范伯克斯梅尔受访时表示：“我的角色定位不允许我分心。我可不能走神。专注是必需的。我已经持续训练工作时的专注力15年了。大脑就像肌肉，要一直练着。”
In fact, in our ten years of experience, we have observed a direct correlation between a person’s focus level and their career advancement. Of the thousands of leaders with whom we’ve worked, the vast majority possess an above average ability to focus. This is not to say that exceptional focus is a sure way to the top. But certainly, without focus, career success will be much more difficult to attain. For aspiring leaders, focus should be a daily mantra.
在我们十年的研究中，我们发现人们的专注程度与其事业发展有直接联系。几千位受访领导人中大多数人的专注力都超过了平均水平。这并不是说出众的专注力可保证你的成功。但显而易见，缺失专注力，会让你在走向事业辉煌的道路上艰难许多。专注力应成为胸怀抱负的领导者们日常奉行的准则。
Much has been written about how you can better maintain your focus, and mindfulness practice is obviously the foundation of enhancing focus. But in our research, we looked at some new areas that enable you to manage your focus. Here’s how to do it.
关于如何保持专注力已有很多讨论。意志训练无疑是其中的基础。但我们的研究探索了一些管理专注力的新领域。以下是具体指引：
01
Understand Your Daily Focus Pattern
理解你的日常专注模式
We looked at how well leaders are able to focus during the day, and found a very clear pattern.
在研究了领导者们一天内的专注力状况之后，我们发现了一个非常清晰的模式：
专注力一日变化
来源：拉斯马斯·霍高&杰奎琳·卡特对1000位领导人的调查研究
The pattern varies slightly from person to person, and understanding this pattern is very useful in understanding how you should plan your day. With this pattern in mind, consider which activities you do at various times of the day. Make sure your most important activities and meetings are planned around the times when your focus is strongest. And that you plan to do more practical and active tasks during the hours where your focus is weaker.
这个模式因人有细微不同。理解这个模式对于你的每日规划将会非常有帮助。记住它，再考虑每天不同的时间你该干什么。确保注意力最强的时段被用于最重要的活动及会议。专注力较弱的时段则可安排实操性的较灵活的任务。
02
Know What Influences Your Focus
了解是什么影响了你的专注力
Your focus is very dependent on many physical and mental factors too. Some are good for your focus, others are not.
专注力与许多生理及精神因素关系密切。这其中有积极因素，也有消极因素。
The most obvious is sleep; if you don’t sleep sufficient your focus and judgment suffers. Also, exercise and the types of food we eat, significantly impacts your ability to stay focused.
表现最显著的一个因素是睡眠。若睡眠不足，你的专注力及判断力就会很糟糕。同时，运动和吃的食物的类型，都关系到你是否能集中精力。
More surprisingly, coffee, contrary to what many of us believe, is not useful for your focus. The caffeine suppresses your drowsiness, but scatters your focus. Needless to say, alcohol is bad for your focus, too.
惊人的是，咖啡并不像我们想的那样对增强注意力有益。咖啡因压抑睡意，却分散注意力。不用说，酒精也同样会起负作用。
Our mental states also impact on our focus. Negative emotions generally decrease it. Paul Ekman, a groundbreaking researcher in emotions from the University of California, San Francisco, described how difficult emotions create a refractory period that narrows your focus on the object of your emotion. In other words, if you get angry, it is hard to focus on anything else than what made you angry. The same goes for desires. Positive emotions generally have the opposite effect, enhancing and opening your focus to see the bigger picture.
我们的精神状态也影响注意力。负面情绪会抑制它。保罗·埃克曼是加利福尼亚大学的一位创新型研究者，主研情绪。他表示负面情绪会产生一个不应期，导致你的情绪专注对象范围收窄。也就是说，比如你生气了，你就很难去关注除了让你生气的事物之外的事情。同样的道理也适用于欲望。积极情绪的作用则相反。它们可以帮你增强注意力，让你看到更大的图景。
Focus is not a zero-sum game. Focus can be trained and planned. And with a bit of effort, your focus can be sustained throughout the day.
专注力不是零和游戏。专注力是可以被训练及计划的。付出一点努力，你就可以心无二致度一日。
本文由戈壁创投编译
原文链接：https://hbr.org/2017/12/are-you-having-trouble-focusing-these-simple-strategies-will-help
