背景介绍：
拖延症是指自我调节失败，在能够预料后果有害的情况下，仍然把计划要做的事情往后推迟的一种行为。拖延是一种普遍存在的现象，一项调查显示大约75%的大学生认为自己有时拖延，50%认为自己一直拖延。严重的拖延症会对个体的身心健康带来消极影响，如出现强烈的自责情绪、负罪感，不断的自我否定、贬低，并伴有焦虑症、抑郁症等心理疾病，一旦出现这种状态，需要引起重视。虽然人人都说自己有拖延症，但你真的是拖延症患者吗？How to get things done—eventually
如何最终把事情做完
Dealing with your inner dawdler克服内心的懒惰
“If you want to change the world, start
off by making your bed,” Admiral William McRaven told the graduating class of
2014 at the University of Texas, Austin. What the US Navy counts as “making
your bed”—square corners, centred pillow, blanket neatly folded at the foot of
the rack—is idiosyncratic. 海军上将威廉·麦克雷文对德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校2014届毕业生说：“如果你想改变世界，就从整理床铺开始吧。”
美国海军“整理床铺”的标准独具特色——四角方正，枕头居中，毯子整齐地叠在床架的底部。
Yet the admiral’s broader point is universal: whether you are a sailor, a salesperson or a CEO, “if you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day.” His commencement speech went viral.但这位海军上将更广泛的观点是普遍适用的：无论你是水手、销售人员还是首席执行官，“如果你每天早上都整理好了床铺，你就完成了一天之中的第一项任务。” 他的毕业演讲随即火遍全网。
Everyone must battle the temptation totemporise every now and again; millions of beds go unmade each morning even on
a looser definition than the navy’s. That is also true of people who, like your
columnist, a guest Bartleby, more often suffer from the inverse
affliction—having trouble putting things off even if they probably ought to be. 每个人时不时都要抵抗拖延的诱惑；即使采用比海军更宽松的整理床铺的标准，每天早上也有无数张床没有整理好。像本刊专栏作家巴托比这样的人也不能幸免，虽然她更常遭受的是一种相反的折磨——没办法把事情放一放再做，即使可能真的应该放一放。
Still, as someone with a perennial itch for completion, she has some tips for self-professed dawdlers who wish to make their lives more naval.不过，作为一个总是把事情做完的人，她对那些自称咸鱼、希望自己的生活更有条理的人有一些建议。
Start off by not calling yourself a
procrastinator. Indeed, if you do, you are probably already the opposite. In
“Out of Sheer Rage” (1998), Geoff Dyer elevates dilly-dallying to an art form.
The book chronicles how the author was wasting his time instead of writing a
study on D.H. Lawrence. 首先，不要称自己为拖延症患者。事实上，如果不这样自称，你很可能就已经不是一个喜欢拖延的人了。在1998年出版的《纯粹出于愤怒》一书中，杰夫·戴尔将磨磨蹭蹭提升为一种艺术形式。这本书按时间顺序记录了他是如何把时间浪费，而没有写出一部关于D.H.劳伦斯的研究。
“All over the world people are taking notes as a way of postponing, putting off and standing in for,” Mr Dyer writes, including supposedly about himself. If only he could make a start, he laments. Given that he managed not just to start but also complete, publish and market a brilliant book—even if the subject matter was less lofty than intended—the lamentations were in fact cogs of productivity.戴尔写道：“全世界的人都在通过做笔记的方式拖延、磨蹭，不去做正事。”据说其中也包括他自己。他哀叹道，如果他能迈出第一步就好了。考虑到他不仅起头写了这本精彩的书（即使主题没有预期的那么崇高），还成功地写完、出版和销售，这些哀叹实际上转换为动力的一部分。
The easiest way to get things finished is
to get going in the first place. The reason busy people never stop moving is
because their constant movement generates further momentum. This is, obviously,
easier said than done—especially if you find a task unpleasant. 把事情做完最简单的办法就是先行动起来。忙碌的人之所以忙个不停就是因为他们持续的行动产生了进一步的动力。显然，这说起来容易做起来难——尤其是当做某件事让你感到不快时。
The more objectionable something seems, the more time you spend thinking about just how awful it is. That in turn makes you even less likely to broach it—and so on. Being aware of this vicious circle does not guarantee you will break out of it. But it is, well, a start.一件事越是让你感到讨厌，你就越是会花时间思考它有多讨厌，如此反复。意识到这个恶性循环并不能保证你能打破它。但这是一个开始。
Putting something off doesn’t make it go
away. That trivial truth is worth repeating. Just ask the central bankers who kept
delaying interest-rate rises even as economists warned of rising inflation. Now
they must ratchet rates up further and faster, at the risk of provoking a
recession. 拖延并不能解决问题。这个微不足道的真理值得反复提及。不信问问各地央行官员就知道了，即使经济学家不断提醒通胀上升，他们仍在拖延加息。现在，他们必须冒着引发经济衰退的风险，更多更快地提高利率。
Most workplace decisions are not nearly as consequential but firms can still suffer material losses if employees put off tasks and decisions. So if that email arrives first thing in the morning, read it and reply—even if that means leaving your bed unmade.工作场所的大多数决策远没有这么事关重大，但如果员工迟迟不能完成任务或做出决策，公司仍然会蒙受重大损失。所以，如果早上上班后的第一件事就是收到了一封邮件，那就打开来看并做出回复吧——即使这意味着你将无暇顾及你的床铺。
(红色标注词为重难点词汇)
重难点词汇：
dawdler [dɔdlə] n. 懒人; 游手好闲的人
idiosyncratic [ˌɪdiəsɪŋˈkrætɪk] adj. 特殊的；独特的
temporise [tempəraiz] vi. 顺应时势；迎合潮流；妥协；拖延
objectionable [əbˈdʒɛkʃ(ə)nəb(ə)l] adj. 引起不快的；令人反感的
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