意图性：掌控时间、注意力与精力，提升生产力
在浩瀚的生产力建议海洋中，很多内容只是理论上听起来不错，实践中却难以奏效。为了找到真正有价值的建议，Chris Bailey（加拿大生产力专家，著有《意图性》（Intentional）和《超专注》（Hyperfocus））结合了学术研究和个人实验，他甚至挑战过每周工作90小时、观看300场TED演讲、冥想35小时等极限。他的研究和实验最终指向同一个答案：提高生产力的秘诀在于对我们如何使用时间、注意力和精力这“三要素”变得更有意图性（Intentionality: 有意识地选择和引导行为，使其与目标一致）。在意图性这方面，它的重要性甚至超越其他所有因素，决定了我们能否实现既定目标。正如韦恩·格雷茨基（Wayne Gretzky）所言，“不射门，百分之百不进球。”虽然“通往地狱的道路，铺满了善意”，但每一次当我们真正达成目标时，背后都必然存在一份清晰的意图。
Original English Source
My name is Chris Bailey and I'm the author of Intentional: How to Finish What You Start and Hyperfocus. Chapter one, intentionality and how it shapes our goals. There's a lot of productivity advice out there, but for every minute you spend reading about it or listening to somebody talking about it or watching some video uh about somebody talking about it, uh you have to make that time back and then some. And not all productivity advice falls into that category. A lot of it's just fluff. A lot of it's kind of, you know, stuff that sounds good in theory but doesn't really hold water in practice. And what I found is that the best advice, it tends to come rather predictably from a few places. The first is the research. It's the academic literature about human performance, especially in the workplace. But there's also the experimental aspect. So, I love using myself as almost a a human guinea pig so that I can push on the limits of what I'm able to accomplish mentally and physically each and every day. So, these experiments have spanned the gamut from working 90-hour weeks to watching 300 TED talks in a week to meditating for 35 hours over the course of a week. All to to push on these boundaries and get to the bottom of what is the secret to being productive. And since I can remember, I've always had the same answer, which is that being more productive is a process of becoming more intentional about how we spend our time, our attention, and our energy, which I see as the three ingredients of productivity. When it comes to the goals that we attain, intention matters more than any other factor in determining whether we'll attain our goals. You know, there's that quote from Wayne Gretzky where we miss 100% of the shots we don't take, even though there's a 1 to 5% probability of us scoring. And intention is the same way, right? There's the saying that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. But yet, but yet whenever we do find ourselves having achieved something that we set out to do, there was always an intention behind it. This is pictured beautifully I think in the intention stack.构建“意图堆栈”：价值观驱动的多层级目标体系
意图性并非单一维度，而是通过一个意图堆栈（Intention Stack: 将不同层级的意图进行结构化分层）来展现。这个堆栈的顶层是价值观（Values: 驱动我们行为的深层广泛动机），它们是我们在生活中追求的终极意图。价值观之下是优先级（Priorities: 具体且重要的人生发展方向，如“变得更健康”、“赚更多钱”），这些是价值观的具体体现。再往下是目标（Goals: 我们为实现愿景而设定的变革性叙事），它们是我们生活中推动变革的宏大叙事。紧随其后的是计划（Plans: 将目标变为现实的具体路径），它们是使目标成为现实的详细步骤。最底层则是当下意图（Present Intentions: 每天的具体行动选择），即日常生活中我们采取的行动。例如，跑马拉松的目标可能源于变得更健康的优先级和成就感这一价值观，进而分解为本周跑多少公里、今天午饭后去跑步等具体计划和当下意图。我们需要意图性的所有这些不同层面。仅仅设定一个目标是不够的，还需要价值观的指引和日常行动的支撑。目标应成为连接我们日常行动与“我们是谁”的桥梁。意图性是一项可以不断精进的技能，我们可以逐渐提升塑造、深化意图的能力，使其与核心价值观对齐，克服行动中的厌恶感，并战胜拖延症。通过这种方式，我们的意图会随着时间推移，与我们的价值观和自我认知更加契合。
Original English Source
The different layers of intention that are in our life are almost stacked on top of one another. At the top here you'll see our values, right? Which are these broader deeper motivations that we have in our life. Values sit at the top of the intention stack for a big big reason. They're the ultimate intentions that we're after in our life. Underneath that are the priorities that we have, right? Becoming healthier, um make more money, whatever the priorities might look like. Then we have our goals, our traditional goals, which are these broader stories, narratives of change that we're driving forward in our life. Beneath our goals, you'll see our plans, right? The the the plans that make our goals a reality. And then finally at the bottom we have our present intentions. So for example maybe you have a goal of running a marathon but that might lead to certain plans that you have further down the intention stack which might be run this number of miles or kilometers this week and then that might flow into the present intentions the daily intentions that you have to go for a run after lunch today. But when you look up the intention stack, you'll see that the goal that you have to run a marathon, it can fit with your priorities and your values as well. So it might fit with the priority of becoming healthier, for example. It might fit with your broader value of accomplishment. And so this completes the full stack of what this goal means to you. It's not just about the goal. It's about what the plans are that the goal leads to and the daily actions that it will lead to as well. It's about the priorities that it fits with, the broader values that are in your life that it fits with too. And so we need all of these different layers of intentionality. A goal is not enough. We need our values. We need our daily actions as well. And in this way, a goal becomes the the route that our daily actions can take to connect with who we are. So we don't always achieve our intentions. But when we do achieve something, there was intention behind it. And that's why intentionality is so critical to shape, right? It's a skill that we can get better at. We can incrementally improve our ability to shape our intentions to deepen our intentions, to align them with the values that we have, to overcome the aversion that we have to doing them, to beat the procrastination that leads us to put them off. And best yet, over time, we can make them more aligned with our values and who we are.区分默认意图与刻意选择：掌控人生方向的关键
意图从根本上说，是我们“将要做某事”的计划。有两种意图类型：默认意图（Default Intentions: 无意识、习惯性地做出选择的倾向）和刻意意图（Deliberate Intentions: 有意识、深思熟虑后做出的选择）。默认意图深植于我们的习惯中，例如，早晨被手机唤醒后，我们可能会无意识地在各种应用之间切换。然而，生活中总会出现“觉醒时刻”，促使我们摆脱这种“自动驾驶”模式。例如，当你厌倦了无休止地刷手机，会突然思考：“现在我想做什么？我真正想从这一天中获得什么？”那一刻，你从默认意图切换到刻意意图，并选择前进的方向。因此，我们能问自己的最有意义的问题之一是：“此刻，我能做的最有意义的事情是什么？”我们总是在追求生活中的不同“货币”：在工作中追求成就（Accomplishment）和生产力（Productivity）；在家中追求意义（Meaning）。刻意意图要求我们在决定前进方向之前，先退后一步反思。这种反思能帮助我们审慎决定，如何让下一次体验更有意义，无论是与久未联系的朋友通电话，还是仅仅拥抱伴侣。当有机会掌控方向时，我们应该深思熟虑，选择那些能提升生产力或从体验中提取更多意义的行动。
Original English Source
One of the things that surprised me about the nature of intentionality going deep into the research on it is that there's two types of intentions. So an intention at a fundamental level is just a plan that we will do something. When you think about it, we set plans both deliberately, thoughtfully, but we also set them just out of default on autopilot mode as well. So the default intentions that we have are embedded within us. They're our habits. In other words, so you know, we're laying down in bed and our phone wakes us up and so we bounce around between a stable of apps. There is a certain part of us that sets a plan to do the next thing even though it's just a a response to what happened before to a certain set of conditions that came before. So the two types of intentions default and deliberate. The more deliberate intentions that we set, the more we choose where to go. And we often also have these these moments of awakening that uh happen in our day. So take the scenario where you're laying down in bed, you're swiping around between apps on your phone on default uh intention driven forward by that habit energy. Eventually, there will come a point where it's like, "Okay, time to put the phone down. What do I want to do now? What do I actually want to get out of this day? Do I want to make myself an omelette and then read a book? Do I want to, you know, get a coffee and then go to work? Do I want to, you know, say hi to the kids? Do whatever it might be." We set an intention when we snap out of that default mode and enter into that deliberate mode and we choose where to go forward. This is why one of the most meaningful questions you can ask yourself is what is the most meaningful thing I could be doing right now in this moment? You know, we have all these different currencies that we try to optimize for in our lives without even realizing it. So we're at work and we're optimizing for accomplishment and productivity. We get home and we optimize for meaning. You know, extracting more meaning out of the experiences that we have. And so intention is such that we often need to take one step back before we decide where we wish to move forward. And I think that's the key to keep in mind. If you're wanting to make more meaningful memories at home, take that step back and really consider what is the most meaningful thing that I could be doing next after I'm done with this current thing? Should I pick up the phone and call a friend that I haven't connected with in a while? Should I just give my wife or husband a hug? You know, whatever it might look like. There are a thousand potential futures that we could have at work, at home. Sometimes we have to just work within the autonomy that we do have which is constrained often. But when we do have that ability to actually take charge and choose where we go, that is the time to root ourselves down and really decide thoughtfully what do I want that will make me more productive or allow me to extract more meaning out of my next experience.意图的四个维度：来源、持续时间、强度与深度
每个意图都具有不同的来源（Source: 意图的根本出处）、持续时间（Duration: 意图从短暂到长远的生命周期）、强度（Strength: 完成意图的渴望程度减去阻力）和深度（Depth: 意图与个人核心价值观的连接程度）。
- 来源： 意图可能源于多种途径。
- 生物本能： 例如，旅途中寻找洗手间的需求会立即促使我们产生“寻找休息站”的意图。
- 社会环境： 我们所处的社会环境也会塑造意图。如果新公司同事不常在下班后聚会，我们在这方面的意图就会减少。
- 经验教训： 过往的经历也会教会我们如何行动，例如儿时从超市偷拿苹果的经历会成为成年后不再重复的意图来源。
- 自我反思： 这是更深层次的意图来源，通过反思来形成有意识的意图。
- 持续时间： 意图可以非常短暂，例如出门跑步前系鞋带的意图。它也可以是更宏大意图的一部分，比如完成一场马拉松的长期目标，这又可能是“变得更健康”这一广泛优先级的一部分，最终归结于“拥有身体上的安全感”这种更深层次的价值观。
- 强度： 意图的强度是渴望（Desire: 完成某事的强烈愿望）减去厌恶（Aversion: 对某事产生的排斥感）的函数。当渴望远大于厌恶时，我们就会充满动力。然而，这种强度会随着目标实现过程而波动，因此在克服拖延症时，我们必须考虑到厌恶感。
- 深度： 每个意图与我们最珍视的价值观之间都有着不同程度的连接。Chris Bailey 认为他的两个最大价值观是自主导向（Self-direction: 掌控自己的道路和思想）和愉悦（Pleasure: 对感官享受和积极体验的追求）。任何与此对齐的意图都会让他感到深刻而有动力。例如，把健身房想象成水疗中心，或找到一种愉悦且可持续的饮食方式，都能带来巨大动力。但有些意图，如“心脏手术后提高心血管健康”，则需要更多动机能量，因为其厌恶感更强，更难与深层价值观对齐，尽管通过调整仍有可能实现。因此，每个意图都具有不同的深度。
Original English Source
So every intention has a different source, duration, strength and depth. So first of all we have the source. The beautiful thing about intentionality is our intentions come from a whole host of places. Some of them this deep rooted conditioning that we have and others more deliberate. We have these default intentions that are embedded within us because of our biology, for example. So, if you're on a road trip and you need to stop at a rest room, you you set an intention to make a pit stop the next chance you get. Um the the social environments we're a part of, we catch the the the social conditioning that other people have. If we join a new company and people there, you know, don't love going to the the the bar after work like they did at the previous company, that will inform the intentions that we have. We'll set fewer intentions in that direction, maybe become a bit healthier as a result. Um, so we get intentions from our biology, the social environments we occupy. We also get intentions from all the lessons we've learned. And so maybe we interact with the world in a certain way and that teaches us a lesson for how we should behave. And then we learn to do things differently the next time to not, you know, pick up and eat apples off of the grocery store shelf as a child. I now know that as an adult. Um, but we get this conditioning from our biology, from lessons we've learned, from the conditioning in our past. But there's also the deeper sources of intentionality that we can have as well. like our self-reflective capacity. So, every intention has a different duration. So we can have a tiny intention to tie our shoelaces before we go for a run which could be a part of an even greater intention that takes place over a longer period of time to uh to run a marathon in a certain amount of time which could be a a part of a broader priority in our life to become healthier which could be a a part of a value that could be even broader than that like feeling secure. cure in our body. Personal security is a fundamental human value. So we have the source, we have the duration, but we also need the strength of an intention as well, which is a function of how much we desire doing the intention minus the aversion that we have to doing the intention. So sometimes our desire will far uh uh outnumber our aversion and so we'll be motivated. We'll be fired up to do it. But of course that changes over the timeline of goal attainment. And so we need to account for aversion in overcoming procrastination. And the final attribute of our intentions is their depth. Every intention that we have is connected to a different extent to the values that we hold most dear. So my two biggest values happen to be self-direction and pleasure. I love going my own way. I love sense pleasure, delicious meals, baths, you name it. And so anything that is aligned with that feels deep and motivating to me. You know, making the gym like a spa is very motivating to me. As is finding an enjoyable, sustainable way of eating, very enjoyable to me. But other intentions like, you know, increase cardiovascular fitness after surgery I had a few years ago. I'm okay, don't worry. Um, that that's that requires more motivational energy. there's more aversion embedded within that because it's tougher for me to align that with the deeper goals that I have though it is possible to edit them closer in that direction. So every single intention that you have will have a different depth as well.“三法则”与意图的层层递进：将目标融入日常
要更刻意地设定意图，一个有效方法是三法则（Rule of Three: 每天或每周确定三项最重要的任务或目标）。在每天开始时，思考今天结束前希望完成哪三件事。如果觉得这个方法有效，可以进一步扩展到每周。每周日反思本周希望完成哪三件主要事情，然后将这些每周意图与日常意图结合起来，思考它们如何相互关联，每日的努力如何有助于实现人生中的更大变革。在设定每周意图时，回顾你的目标清单（Goal Inventory: 个人所有目标和计划的集合），看看它们如何与你中期、长期希望实现的目标相符。每周设定意图时，可以从这些大目标中“咬下”一小部分，将其落地到日常层面。当你审视目标清单时，也可以审视自己的价值观（Values），从而围绕自己的本性塑造目标，利用内心深处那种被称为价值观的自然驱动力。通过这种方式，我们的生活中的不同层级的意图，就能在日常的实践和策略中相互融合、层层递进。
Original English Source
If somebody took just one idea from intentional it it's to really become more deliberate about the intentions you set across multiple layers of that intention stack. And so one of my favorite ways of doing this is called the rule of three. Where essentially we think at the start of the day, what three things will I want to have accomplished by the time the day is done. That's it. You only have to choose three. And if you love the rule every day, you might want to do it every week, too. So every week, every Sunday, perhaps you think, what are the three main things I'll want to have accomplished by the time the week is done? So then you can look to your daily intentions when you set them and you can look to your weekly ones and think, how are these going to flow into one another? How can what I bite off every day contribute to this broader change that I'm trying to make to my life? And when you set those weekly intentions, you can look to your goal inventory, all the goals that you want to achieve over a medium, a long time span, and you can see how they align with the goals. Every time you set the weekly ones, you can bite off a bit of that goal that you can bring down to earth on that daily level. And then when you have the review of the inventory, you can look to your values so you can shape them around the kind of person that you are and take advantage of that natural motivating force inside of you called your values. And so it's in this way that on a practical tactical basis each and every day our different levels of intentionality in our life can flow into one another.价值观：达成目标的核心驱动力
为什么价值观对目标实现至关重要？通常，我们无法坚持目标，是因为该目标与我们的价值观（Values: 驱动我们行为的深层广泛动机）不符。虽然“价值观”一词常被滥用，例如企业中那些流于形式的“价值观练习”，但科学研究表明，人类存在12种基本人类价值观（Fundamental Human Values: 指导我们生活选择和行为的普遍心理准则）。Shalom Schwarz教授（知名心理学家，于1992年提出了基本人类价值观理论）在1992年开创性地提出了基本人类价值观理论，指出我们每个人都共享这些价值观，只是程度不同。价值观是我们的动机核心（Motivational Core: 行为和意愿的深层驱动力），它决定了我们想做什么和不想做什么。 从最基本的层面来看，我们的动机存在两个极性：
- 利他（Enrich Others）或利己（Enrich Ourselves）。
- 维持现状（Conserve Things as They Are）或寻求改变/改进（Improve or Change Things as They Are）。 我们在这两个极性之间的倾向，共同塑造了我们的价值观。这12种价值观（自我导向、刺激、愉悦、成就、权力、面子、安全、传统、遵从、谦逊、普世主义、仁慈）在不同人身上体现的强度各异。了解自己最强的价值观，是实现目标最关键的因素之一。
Original English Source
Chapter two. Why values are essential to goal attainment. So often when we don't follow through with a goal, it's because the goal is misaligned with something called our values. And I know what you're thinking. Whenever I hear the term values myself, um, whenever I have heard it, my eyes have kind of glazed over a little bit because there's a lot of advice out there about values, how we should connect with our values, embrace our values that isn't rooted in science. Uh what comes to mind for me is these cheesy corporate exercises where you know somebody will come in and they'll give you a list of a hundred different values and you're supposed to circle the one that you find most in I I just want to circle the whole page. Yep. Everything on there I like. I love humor. I love grace. I love this. I love that. But the research shows there are 12 fundamental human values that we all share. Every single one of us has these but in different amounts and full credit where credit is due with these values to professor Shalam Schwarz who pioneered the theory of fundamental human values in 1992. So the thing to know about our values is our values are our motivational core. They are at the core of everything that we want to do and everything we don't want to do. On a very very basic level, we're either compelled to enrich other people or ourselves. That's the first kind of polarity that we have. And the second polarity that we have is we either want to conserve things as they are or we want to improve or change things as they are. So we have that basic polarity at the heart of us. We all point in a slightly different direction between those and that creates our values. So our 12 values that we all share in different amounts, they blossom out of this fundamental orientation that we have. The first value is self-direction, which is going our own way. It's thinking our own thoughts. stimulation, which is novelty. It's excitement. Then we have pleasure. Could be everything from eating a delicious burrito to taking a relaxing bath. Achievement, right? Accomplishing things that you're proud of. Next up is power, which is having dominance over resources and also other people. And curiously, out of all the different values, this one is the lowest both cross-culturally as well as generally. And there is a certain need for it though too. You know, every congregation has a priest for an example. Every city has a mayor. So there is this intrinsic structural need for it. Face is the next value which is avoiding humiliation while preserving how you come across to other people. Next up is security and this includes both personal security but also societal security. Tradition, this is loving the norms and customs of the groups that were a member of conformity. That's abiding by the expectations that other people have of us. Humility. It is recognizing your own significance or some might say insignificance in the grand systems that were a part of. Universalism, which is protecting the welfare of people and of nature. And finally, benevolence, which is kindness. It's serving others. We all have some of these values in spades and others in very very low amounts. And knowing which ones are strongest for you uniquely is one of the most helpful, if not the most helpful thing that you can know in goal attainment.让目标与价值观同频共振：重塑目标以激发内在动力
我们的价值观（Values）会无意识地塑造我们设定的默认意图（Default Intentions）。例如，如果你珍惜仁慈，就可能在空闲时倾向于帮助他人；如果你重视自主导向，则可能会选择阅读。了解自己最强的价值观，并围绕它们来制定目标，是至关重要的。当一个目标与你的核心价值观相悖时，你会产生强烈的厌恶感（Aversion），甚至下意识地抗拒它。例如，如果你的价值观是自主导向，但目标列表上有一项任务让你感觉是在迎合别人的期望（与遵从（Conformity: 遵守他人的期望和规则）这一价值观相符），你很可能会抵触这个目标。然而，我们可以通过重塑目标（Reframing Goals: 改变对目标的看法和表述，使其与个人价值观更契合）来解决这个问题。例如，将“编写下一年度员工手册”这一听起来像不得不遵从的任务，重塑为“通过更新手册来指导新员工并欢迎他们”，这便将目标与仁慈（Benevolence: 关爱他人、乐于助人）的价值观联系起来。尽管完成这些目标所需的行动可能相同，但对你而言，其内在感受将截然不同——一个是被迫，一个则源于内心驱动。当目标能够与我们的内心产生深刻连接时，它才能真正被我们坚持下去。因此，如果一个目标迟迟未能实现，这可能是一个信号，表明我们需要调整或重新审视这个目标，使其与我们的本性和所珍视的价值观更契合。
Original English Source
So when you look at this list of values, you'll probably find that some of them jump out to you. It's like, oh, that that is me. That describes me to a tea. I am benevolent through and through or I am self-directed through and through or pleasure is what I am after in my life whatever it might look like. And then you probably have others that are you know uh uh you know I I don't want that in my I don't need you know for me I I have that reaction to conformity and to power. I don't want to have power over any other person ever. Um I find it awkward. Um, so you can probably identify the top two that you have at this point. You know, for me again it's self-direction and pleasure. Maybe it's benevolence and tradition for you. Whatever it might look like, try to base your goals around those values. Edit your goals so they fit with them. There is that next level that you can take. There are a lot of scientifically validated values test because there simply is so much research around this theory of fundamental human values. I partnered with Professor Schwarz to create one um and distribute it uh to to readers of my book. You don't have to take that. You don't need to pay a dime for this stuff because you probably have a lot of intuitive responses uh within you uh in that self-reflective capacity that you have that tell you which ones are strongest for you. So our values shape the intentions we set without even realizing it. So if you find that when you have a bit of downtime for example you find yourself gravitating to doing certain things to you know serving others through through your value of benevolence to reading a book because of your value of self-direction whatever it might look like you'll find that your default intentions are already shaped by your values right they work hand in hand with one another but when it comes to setting deliberate intentions. You'll find that what you gravitate to will be in line with the things you value. You'll want to double down on the values that you already have. And in my view, there are no good or bad or right or wrong values. There definitely are certain values that are more conducive to certain goals and to certain situations. And so when a goal is something that we have are struggling to achieve, it can often be because it's misaligned to the values that we have. So if you value self-direction, which is going your own way, but a goal on your list feels like you're conforming to somebody else's expectation, you're probably going to rebel against that goal. You're not going to want to do it. there's going to be some part of you that feels deep inside of you that's like, "No, get this goal out of my face." And it's because we have this visceral reaction when something isn't aligned with the things that we value. So, let's say you have a goal on your list like write employee handbook for the next calendar year. Um, that might actually be a goal that feels like something you have to conform to. it it fits with that value of conformity. You're not going to want to do that goal. But let's say you value benevolence, kindness, right? You can reframe that goal around benevolence. So instead of write employee handbook, it could say mentor new employees and welcome new employees through the handbook update. So it's a simple reframe. It might be the same set of actions that you take to accomplish both goals, right? They might look the same from the outside looking in, but to you they're completely different because one is aligned to what you actually care about. The other just feels like something you have to do. And so really, when a goal sticks, it's because we found a part of it that we can deeply and fundamentally connect with. And when a goal hasn't stuck, when it's just kind of something that we've been struggling to achieve for a while, that can be a sign that we need to edit the goal so that it's more in line with who we are. Maybe we need to see it from a different direction. Maybe we need to experiment with it a little bit to to approach it from a different way instead of trying to will ourselves into some change. You know, lose that body fat, Christopher. it it can be more how do I enjoy this process more for myself? How do I make it more pleasurable? And how can I be kinder uh to myself in this process too? They all look like the same thing. That's just embracing who you are and what you value.目标的本质：一项难以预测的“预测”
目标（Goals）本质上是我们试图为生活创造的变革故事，但它们的核心其实是预测（Prediction: 对未来结果的预估）。目标预测了我们当前和计划中的行动将把我们带向何方。然而，我们人类在预测未来方面表现非常糟糕。我们常常高估自己为目标所拥有的资源和时间，就像我们每年设定的新年决心，最终都被现实击碎。因此，目标这个预测常常演变为我们对生活将如何发展的期望（Expectation），而当未来无法预测时，这种期望便会导致失望（Disappointment），从而促使我们设定新的目标。 我们对目标有很多误解。长期以来流传的一些设定目标的启发式方法，如SMART目标（Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-bound: 目标具体、可衡量、可实现、相关性强、有时间限制），虽然广为人知，但研究表明它们实际上并不奏效。例如，在学习阶段，具体目标往往没有太大帮助，而且SMART目标的标准存在冗余。真正有效的方法是在生活的各个层面都变得更有意图性，从今天的行动到本周的计划，再到目标本身，以及这个目标是否与我们深层次的核心价值观（Values）相连接。 实现目标有四个步骤：塑造（Shape）、行动（Act）、编辑（Edit）和维持（Maintain）。
Original English Source
Chapter 3, how to follow through on goals. So if intentionality is the key to finishing what we start, goals are how we get there. A goal is a story of change that we're trying to make to our life. But what a goal is at its core is a prediction. A goal is a prediction of where we believe our current and our planned actions will take us. And I don't know if you've ever tried predicting the future before, but if you have, you've probably realized just how bad we are at predicting the future. We don't know what's around the corner in the world, or even in our own lives sometimes. Uh we overestimate how many resources we'll have for a goal, how much time we'll have for a goal, right? Think about all the New Year's resolutions that we set and then reality sinks in. So a goal is really a prediction which often turns into an expectation of what will end up happening in our life which turns into disappointment when it turns out that we can't predict the future which turns into yet another goal that we set. And so goals are really these stories of change that we're trying to create. But when we're not careful they can set us up to feel disappointment uh when we don't predict the future that we're planning for. We get so much wrong about goals. And I think a lot of the the huristics that we use to set goals are just these ideas that have circulated for a long time that we don't even know where they came from originally anymore. So smart goals come to mind for this where a smart goal there's a lot of advice out there about smart goals that we should set goals that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time bound. The words mean something different depending on who you ask actually. But the research shows that they don't work. They don't actually work. Specific goals often aren't more helpful when we're in the learning stage of a goal. And there's redundancy in this criteria as well. So aren't, you know, aren't measurable goals also realistic and kind of attainable, too? So there's redundancy in the criteria. There's criteria that doesn't actually matter. And the research shows that there's actually a a a big amount of quote unquote research waste that has been conducted around smart goals. What does work is becoming more intentional across every level of our life. from what we do today that allows us to act toward a goal that to what we plan this week that allows us to act toward a goal to the goal itself to whether that goal is connected with with what we value at our deep and fundamental level. So there are four steps to goal attainment. Shape a goal into something that you want to do. Then act on the goal. Then edit the goal. And then the final step is to maintain the goal.塑造目标：明确结果，细化过程
在塑造目标（Shape a Goal: 明确目标并设计实现它的过程）阶段，我们需要明确两件事：期望的结果（Outcome: 最终想要达成的状态）和达成结果的过程（Process: 实现结果所需的行动步骤）。例如，学习一首新的钢琴曲，结果是学会这首歌，但过程可能是本周每天练习20分钟。我们不能只设定宏大的目标，还需要思考如何在本周、今天乃至此刻为之努力。安妮·迪拉德（Annie Dillard）曾写道：“我们如何度过每一天，就是我们如何度过一生”，这同样适用于我们的目标。 许多目标听起来很美好，但实际执行起来却不尽如人意，例如“早起”。Chris Bailey 喜欢早起的想法，幻想着早上5点起床看报、冥想、处理邮件，但每次尝试后，他都会发现自己非常讨厌这个习惯，因为他天生是个夜猫子。这表明，目标的想法往往比它在日常生活中实际的样子更具吸引力。因此，我们需要区分结果目标（Outcome Goals: 关注最终达成的具体结果）和过程目标（Process Goals: 关注为达成结果而采取的行动和习惯），两者缺一不可。结果目标提供了变革的宏大叙事，而过程目标则指引我们如何到达那里。 我们可以为每个目标列出其期望的结果和具体的过程。由于目标只是一个预测，我们需要通过不断尝试过程目标来获取数据和反馈。有时一个过程目标行不通，就需要尝试其他方法，例如 Chris Bailey 学习钢琴时，发现仅仅依赖应用效果不佳，直到他聘请了钢琴老师，引入了问责制（Accountability: 对行动结果负责）。因此，我们需要不断尝试和调整过程目标，以找到最有效的方法，从而在实现结果的道路上取得更多进展。
Original English Source
So when it comes to shaping a goal, we need to get two big things right. We need to get the outcome that we're after and the process that will get us to that outcome. So for example, learning a new song on the piano, right? The outcome for that is to learn the new song on the piano. That's the goal. But the process that it takes us to get there is very different than that outcome. It might be do this new song for 20 minutes every day this week. So we need both when it comes to a goal, the process and the outcome. And we need to set intentions across multiple levels of our life. We can't just set these broad goals. We need to think, okay, how am I going to work toward them this week and today and this moment? There's a great quote that I love from Annie Dillard that kind of relates to this where she wrote that how we spend our days is of course how we spend our lives and the exact same thing is true with regard to our goals. We need to think about the dayto-day with the goals that we set. You know so many of our goals are sepiaoned fantasies that sound incredible on the surface. One that really comes to mind for me is waking up early. Now, I love the idea of waking up early, of being this this incredible early riser to, you know, wake up at 5 and read the paper and meditate and answer email, do all these things. But whenever I integrate this habit into my life, which I love the idea of, I realize just how much I absolutely hate this ritual. I have to go to bed when friends want to hang out. I I have to do all these things in the morning when I have no energy. I'm a night owl at heart. That's when I thrive personally. And it just goes to show that so often the idea of a goal is far more attractive than what the goal actually looks like in our life on a daily basis. And so mind if any of your goals are sepiaoned because how we spend our days is how we spend our lives. I remember when I was first starting with pro looking at process versus outcome goals and I was really really against the idea of setting outcome goals. I'm not that accomplishment driven in my life. You know, accomplishments um never really inspire me. I've never been inspired to do these big uh audacious things, but I've always loved the process of doing them. So, you know, writing a book, for example, I love the process of writing a book. I never think about what it might look like in in the world. Maybe for better or for worse. I'm not sure. I'll have to ask my publisher. But what what what I've realized though is outcome goals and process goals, if you're against them, they're both two sides of the same coin where we need that broader story of change, which is the outcome that we're trying to uh achieve in our life. But we also need the process that'll get us there. So there is a reflection that needs to happen um where if you make a list of goals, maybe under each of those goals have the outcome that you're trying to achieve and the process that will get you there. Because remember goals are just a prediction, right? They're a prediction of where you believe your current and your planned actions will take you. And sometimes your process goals will work, sometimes they won't. Sometimes something that you thought would work incredibly well um won't work at all. So, I remember when I was learning the piano, um, I downloaded all these apps because I'm kind of a tech nerd at at heart and I would download the apps and hook the a piano up into the iPad and, you know, it tell me which keys to to play and when. But, I found that kind that habit kind of fell by the wayside until I hired a piano teacher which added that layer of accountability into the goal. And so sometimes we need to try a lot of process goals out to find the one that actually sticks and allows us to make more progress to the outcomes that we have.战胜拖延：理解厌恶感并管理行动
在行动（Act on the Goal: 实际执行目标所涉及的行动）阶段，你会发现有些目标自然而然地吸引你，让你充满动力；而另一些则会让你产生强烈的厌恶感（Aversion），使你迟迟不愿开始。这种渴望与厌恶的平衡在目标周期内不断波动。例如，计划去西班牙而学习西班牙语，最初的兴奋感会随着时间减退，甚至产生厌恶，但在临近旅行时，动力又会重新燃起。 研究表明，任务的某些特征会使其变得“丑陋”或令人厌恶：
- 无聊（Boring）
- 令人沮丧（Frustrating）
- 不愉快（Unpleasant）
- 无结构（Unstructured）
- 遥远的未来（Far Away in the Future）：目标越遥远，我们越不愿采取行动。
- 无意义（Meaningless）：与我们深层次的价值观脱节。 当渴望减退时，这些厌恶的特征尤其会在目标初期显现。过度依赖渴望（Desire: 完成某事的强烈愿望）和意志力（Willpower: 克服障碍、坚持行动的内在力量）是不够的，因为它们都会消退。我们需要同时增加渴望（例如加入跑步俱乐部以实现跑步目标）和驯服厌恶感（Taming Aversion: 通过策略减少对任务的抵触情绪）。 拖延症（Procrastination: 无故推迟或延期原计划任务的行为）是人类的普遍现象，高达99%的人承认曾拖延，这是对不愿做的事情产生的本能反应。克服拖延的一个有效策略是缩小抵抗（Shrink Your Resistance: 将任务拆解为极小的部分，降低开始的心理门槛）。例如，如果你不想冥想45分钟，那就尝试10分钟。你会发现，抵抗感往往集中在任务开始阶段，一旦进入状态，我们很快就能适应。 我们可以通过识别和应对厌恶感的触发因素来破解拖延：
- 无聊？ 把它变成游戏。
- 沮丧？ 边喝咖啡边完成。
- 遥远？ 设定里程碑目标，寻找问责伙伴（Accountability Partner: 互相监督和鼓励以达成目标的同伴）。 厌恶感日志（Aversion Journaling: 记录对任务的厌恶感受和原因，以理解和化解拖延）是另一种有效方法：给自己一个选择——要么做你拖延的事情，要么就写下为什么你不想做它，以及它让你感到多“丑陋”。通过这种方式，我们能梳理出拖延背后的深层原因，从而更好地应对。
Original English Source
Next up, act on the goal. So something that you'll find when you take a a chance to capture all the goals that you're in the middle of is some of them will attract you. Some you'll you'll feel just compelled to work on naturally. you'll be inspired, motivated to do them. And then you'll have others where you're looking at it and you just have this this aversion to it. This aversive reaction where a goal just feels ugly. You know, the the things that you have to do even though they might prove worthwhile at the end of the day are not enjoyable in the slightest, right? it. So sometimes the process of doing something will induce aversion and every goal has a different balance of desire and aversion. The interesting thing about desire and aversion is they fluctuate incredibly over the span of a goal. Like maybe you want to learn Spanish cuz you're going to Spain and right after you book the tickets, even though it's 6 months away, you're you're fired up to go on this trip. And so you're learning, you're practicing for an hour every day, but then a few weeks go by. And that desire that you originally had, it begins to taper off a little bit and maybe even gets to that point where that goal is aversive to you. But then fast forward a few months and the trip is coming up. It's right around the corner. And so you're inspired. Okay, I'm got to learn Spanish again. It's just a few weeks away. Let me get going. Let's go. And so goals fluctuate over their timeline. And the interesting thing about aversion is there are certain characteristics a task or a goal can have that make it feel ugly to us. And those are whether a task is boring, whether it's frustrating, whether it is unpleasant, whether it is unstructured, whether it's far away in the future. So the further away a goal is, the less we feel compelled to do it. And the final one is when something's meaningless, when something doesn't feel connected with who we are on that deep fundamental human level, which is our values. And so these characteristics of aversion, they tend to rear their ugly head when desire tapers off, especially at the start of a goal. We too often rely too much on desire to achieve our goals because desire fades, right? Excitement fades with a goal. And so we need to when we set a goal, we can't just look at that excitement at the beginning. It's not enough. We can't just rely on the willpower of wanting to achieve it. That won't be enough because the time will come when we don't have that willpower. when we don't have the energy to expend and when we just don't want to do it anymore because the conditions of our life aren't right. We need to accommodate for both desire, right? Increasing it where we can, surrounding ourselves with um uh people who are conducive to achieving a goal, right? If we have a running goal, joining a running club for an example, but taming aversion is critical, too. So if you find yourself procrastinating on a goal, that's a sign that it's aversive. Right? Those six triggers of aversion, they lead us to procrastination. I remember talking to one procrastination researcher in writing this book and something that he said to me put me totally at ease. He said, "Everybody procrastinates. Procrastination is human. Studies show that 15 to 20% of adults chronically procrastinate and about a third of students admit to procrastinating chronically as well. Another study surveyed a huge population of people and found that 99% of them openly admitted to procrastinating on their goals. And in my opinion, that 1% is lying through their teeth. This is a human visceral reaction to something that we just don't want to do that trigger uh the six attributes of aversion and there's nothing wrong with you if you do it. But one tactic that can help immediately if this is something that you fall into is to shrink your resistance to something. So let's say you're putting off a meditation practice. So you might think, do I want to meditate for 45 minutes today? No. Okay. What about 30? Mm-m. Okay. What about 20? No. Still no. What about 15? No. What about 10? Yeah, I could do 10. And so you do it for 10. And what you find with resistance to doing things is the resistance that we have is almost always stacked at the beginning of the task, right? It it takes a little bit of time to jump into the cold pool, but once we're in there, we warm up very quickly. And our work, our tasks are the exact same way. And procrastination on a psychological level is when our intentions fall apart, right? We kick our intention down the street, too. We'll just deal with it another day. But we can untangle this phenomenon of procrastination by using why we procrastinate in the first place, which is those triggers of aversion. So, if something's boring, for example, can you make a game out of it? Right? Have some fun with it? If something's frustrating, can you do it over a a fancy latte or or or a beverage of choice? If something is far away in the future, can you set milestone goals? Can you bring in an accountability partner so you have that immediate accountability right in the moment tomorrow perhaps not 6 months down the line when you're going to have to run the marathon or actually speak Spanish because you're in Spain. So accounting for these triggers is entirely possible to do. One of my favorite ways to deal with as many triggers as you possibly can at one time is what I think of as aversion journaling. And so here here's how it works. You give yourself a choice to either do the thing that you want to put off or journal about it. That's it. You get the choice between door A or door B. And so you're going to want to journal at the start of wanting to put something off. You're going to write about how ugly it is, why you don't want to do it, and really untangle a lot of knots with regard to a task.持续迭代与维护目标：学习、调整与庆祝
仅仅设定目标是不够的，我们还需要学会如何在目标实现的过程中不断编辑（Edit the Goal: 根据新的信息和反馈调整目标）和改进它们。一个需要编辑目标的重要信号是你已经不再为此行动。最简单的判断标准是，如果你已经着手做了某事，它对你而言就是优先且有动力的。因此，如果目标清单上有某个目标你迟迟没有进展，那它很可能需要调整或修改，有时甚至完全放弃。 目标只是一种伪装下的预测（Prediction），我们必须随着获得更多数据而修正这些预测。通过实践不同的目标并获得反馈，我们能了解哪些方法有效，哪些无效，并相应地调整与宏大结果相关的过程目标。在目标初期，要拥抱学习模式（Embrace Learning Mode: 以开放的心态尝试和学习，而非苛求完美），不断尝试各种过程目标，找到真正有效的方法。 目标清单（Goal Inventory: 个人所有目标和计划的集合）是一个非常有用的工具，它列出了你正在努力实现的所有目标，通常按工作和生活等不同情境分类。每周定期（例如每周日）回顾这份清单，思考本周能为哪些目标投入时间、注意力和精力，并将其具体安排到日程中。 最后一步是维持目标（Maintain the Goal: 在目标达成后继续保持相关行动和习惯），这对于那些持续性的重要目标（如冥想）尤其关键。如果一个目标对你很重要，并且不是一次性项目，那么请为它设定一个维持目标（Maintenance Goal: 确保已达成目标或良好习惯能够持续下去的目标），并将其添加到你的目标清单中，定期回顾。你会发现，随着时间推移，这会让你更容易自动坚持下去。 我们还需要庆祝成就（Celebrate Achievements: 肯定并奖励自己所取得的进步和成功）。这可以很简单，比如点一顿晚餐，重要的是要像庆祝一样对待自己。同时，成就清单（Accomplishments List: 记录个人所有成就和里程碑的列表）也很有帮助。无论是在工作还是生活中，定期记录你所有的努力和成果，包括那些意想不到的成就，这会带来巨大的满足感和动力。
Original English Source
So setting a goal is not enough. We need to learn how to edit and improve and change them along that timeline of goal attainment. A big sign that you should be editing a goal is you're not doing it anymore. Right? So the easiest way to tell if something is a priority for you and motivating for you is you've done it already. And so if there's a goal on your list that you're not making progress on, it could probably benefit from an edit or a revision. Sometimes they're worth dropping entirely. And so this is the thing about a goal where a goal is really just a prediction in disguise. And so we need to revise our predictions as we get more data, right? So as we get feedback from trying out the different goals that are on our plate, we we can see what's working, what's not working, we can revise the process goals that are associated with a broader outcome that we're trying to achieve in our life. Often with the outcome goals that I have, like with losing body fat, like with working out more often, I've needed to try a lot of different process goals to find the one that ultimately worked out for me. Um, and you're probably going to be the same way. You're going to try out a lot of things and they're not going to work. Nothing's going to stick. You're going to be frustrated. But that's the process of learning what a goal is about. And so, at the start of a goal, you're going to be in that learning mode. And so, embrace the learning mode. Embrace the the the challenge of finding what will actually stick with making progress with the goal. And edit the goal continuously as you go forward. as you learn what will actually lead you to make more progress. So, one of my favorite ways for capturing all the goals on my plate is just to make a goal inventory. So, a goal inventory is just a list of every single goal that you're working towards. And it's remarkable how little we think about all the goals that we're in the middle of achieving, right? So, we'll be at home and we'll be reminded of the dozen goals that we have to do around the house. We'll get to work. We'll open up our email. you'll see reminders of all the different projects that we have on our plate. And what this does is it increases the cognitive overhead of having goals. And it makes us just it makes it so our environment is just chalk full of reminders of all the things we have yet to do, of all the goals that we have yet to achieve. And so this is why I love the goal inventory so much is it's a goal list that you review once a week every week. I review mine every single Sunday. And all it is is it lists out every single goal that you have across the different contexts of your life. So I have mine broken down by work is at the top because I have more workrelated goals and then home is at the bottom. And I review that once a week and every week I I think okay what do I want to bite off when it comes to these goals this week? What do I have time for? What do I have attention for? What do I have energy for with regard to these? And what can I actually slot in in the week ahead? If I have a fitness goal, can I schedule some workouts? If I have a goal to uh develop deeper friendships, can I arrange two coffee shop dates with friends this week? Whatever it might look like for you, it's a great way of bringing your goals down to that daily level. The final step is to maintain the goals that we have. So this can be a challenge and I I find this in my own life including with things like meditation. So sometimes a new habit like meditation or something. I've been meditating for years but I find that I go into phases in my life where meditation works so well that I stop doing it. And this is true for a lot of our goals. Sometimes they work so well that we stop doing them. We take them for granted. And so there's this critical maintenance phase when it comes to the goals that we have that we need to embrace more often. If a goal is really important for you and it isn't some project that's a once- off that you know it okay that's done the rena is finished on to the next thing. It's this thing that you want to actively maintain in your life like meditation. Set a maintenance goal and add it to your goal inventory so you can review it regularly. And you'll find over time that you'll keep up with it just automatically because that weekly reflection, it won't feel like, okay, I need to figure out what I'm going to bite off with every goal this week. It feels like a pat on the back because you've done such a good job of achieving the goal and now you're in that maintenance phase. Sometimes you do do need a little bit of a course correction when you do that goal review, but you'll probably find that when you've gotten to that point of goal attainment, when you're on to that maintenance phase of a goal, it'll feel more like a pat on the back than anything else. But also, and I have to be honest here, out of all the advice that I give, this is some of the toughest advice that I find to take myself. But something that I have basically forced myself to do after achieving a goal is to celebrate the fact that I achieved it. And it it could be something as simple as ordering dinner one evening or going going out for dinner. Food is my core competency, you know, at at heart. Um, it's not productivity. It's well, productivity plus food, let's say. But treat yourself in a way that feels like a celebration. Whatever it might look like for you, celebrate the fact that you achieved something incredible. Keep an accomplishments list. So, the definition is in the name there where an accomplishments list is a list of everything you accomplished. And you can do this across whatever timeline you like. So if if I'm dragging my feet one week and I'm uh struggling to muster the the motivation to do stuff, I'll just write an accomplishments list. What are all the results that my efforts are leading to at work, at home, what regardless of the context, but you can also have one overall for the year, right? what are the big things uh you're achieving that you have achieved that you didn't expect to achieve right so everybody knows that feeling of you know you achieve something during the day that you didn't plan on doing it was something unexpected and so you get to write it on your to-do list and then you get to cross it off you still get the satisfaction of having done it accomplishments list can be like that too where if you achieve something that you didn't expect to put it on the list you've earned分心时代的专注：算法、多任务与注意力残留
我们生活在一个极易分心的时代，由人工智能（Artificial Intelligence: 模拟人类智能的机器系统）驱动的算法不断学习我们的喜好，并通过新颖性来吸引我们的注意力。这种新颖性偏见（Novelty Bias: 大脑偏好新奇事物的倾向）会让我们不断追求多巴胺的刺激，例如刷社交媒体、看新闻。Gloria Mark（知名研究员，专注于数字时代的工作和注意力研究）的研究发现，面对电脑时，我们平均专注时长仅为40秒；手机在旁时，更是降至35秒。 我们所谓的多任务处理（Multitasking: 表面上同时做多件事，实则在任务间快速切换），实际上只是任务之间的快速切换，而非真正意义上的并行处理。这会导致注意力残留（Attention Residue: 从一项任务切换到另一项任务后，部分注意力仍停留在前一项任务上的现象），降低效率。虽然习惯性行为（如边走路边嚼口香糖）可以多任务处理，但需要有意识投入的任务，多任务处理只会让我们效率低下，耗时更长。 注意力是我们人生的“战场”。我们注意力的状态决定了我们生活的状态。如果注意力时刻被各种信息淹没，我们会感到普遍的焦虑；而如果注意力保持平静，我们就能活在当下，专注于所做之事和身边之人。生产力（Productivity: 有效利用时间、注意力、精力以达成目标的能力）意味着将我们全部的、刻意的时间（Time）、注意力（Attention）和精力（Energy）投入到某事中，并为之创造有利条件。 我们的注意力需求极高，并且经常被新的刺激源劫持。我们日常在这两种模式间切换：自动驾驶模式（Autopilot Mode: 无意识、习惯性地对环境做出反应）和刻意意图模式（Deliberate Intention Mode: 有意识地选择和引导行为）。自动驾驶模式可以是放松和休息的，例如辛苦一天后只想躺在沙发上看电视。但当我们想真正有所成就，或让生活朝着特定方向发展时，就需要意图性的介入。意图（Intention）和注意力（Attention）之间存在有趣的相互作用：我们设定意图去完成某事，然后需要注意力来将其贯彻到底。
Original English Source
Chapter 4. Focus in the age of distraction. We're living in a really distracted time right now. And not only this, but the algorithms that try to distract us are driven by artificial intelligence now. They they learn a lot about us. And so that hooks us into even greater novelty. And it's really novelty that is the biggest source of distraction. Um in our brain we have this idea called the novelty bias. It's a a bias embedded within the the logical center of our mind, our prefrontal cortex. Uh whereby for every new and novel thing we direct our attention at, we get a hit of dopamine. Uh and so we go to Instagram, we get a hit of dopamine. We then we you know check the news, then we get another hit of dopamine. Then we go to something else. We go on Tik Tok, we get another hit of We check email, we get another hit of dopamine. Research that has been conducted by Gloria Mark, she's found that the median amount of time we focus on something for when we're in front of a computer is 40 seconds. That's it. That's 40 seconds. That's all we got. And when we have our phone nearby, this lowers down to 35 seconds. And so this is the rhythm of our attention. And you can see it from the moment you wake up, right? Your maybe your phone wakes you up. And so you're you're tapping, you're swiping around, and then 40 seconds after that, maybe you check email. 40 seconds after that, maybe you go over to Instagram. 40 seconds after that, oh, I should just check on this app over here. Whatever it might be. And where multitasking comes in is, well, we can't actually do it. What we see as doing more than one thing at one time is really just as rapidly switching between things which creates the illusion that we are doing more than one thing at one time. And why this matters is there is a phenomenon that research has identified has been called attention residue where whenever we go from doing one thing to doing the next thing, we're always remembering a little bit of what we were just doing. So, think about, you know, you're in a big meeting. There's maybe something big happened in it and you're trying to check your email after you you're going to be remembering the meeting in your head. You're going to remember the conflict. You're going to remember the the brainstorming. You're going to remember whatever it is that happened in there. And attention works the same way but on a on a very smaller more granular basis throughout the day where we're always remembering a little bit of what we were doing before. And this makes our attention less efficient. So if we had no attention residue, if we were always just cleanly going from task A to task B to task C to task A to B, that would be fine. Multitasking would work. But when attention residue is in play, that means we can't really actively uh be doing more than one conscious thing at one time. Now there is an exception to this though, which is with habits. So we can actually multitask with habits. We can walk while we chew bubble gum while we do something that requires our full attention like listening to an audio book or something. But when it when we need to bring conscious intent to something and intervene to move things forward, multitasking just kind of makes us way less efficient and things take way longer than they ought to. And so this is the battlefield that we have for our attention these days, right? And I I really firmly believe that the state of our attention is what determines the state of our lives. Um if our attention is overwhelmed in each moment, these moments will uh sum up to make us feel overwhelmed in general. Whereas if our attention is calm, if we're chill, if if we don't constantly bounce around in these dopamine fueled feedback loops, we can be with whatever it is that we're doing. We can be present with whomever it is that we're with. And this is everything with productivity, right? Productivity is being able to bring our full deliberate time, attention, and energy to something and creating the conditions for that. So our attention is incredibly in demand. It's constantly being hijacked because of these novel sources of stimulation. And so that's the playing field that we have with regard to our attention. And so we need to create the conditions to counterbalance that. We have these kind of two modes that we go between throughout the day. There's the autopilot mode where we're just doing things in response to whatever happens in front of us. We're running on what uh Buddhist monks often call habit energy. So our habits are uh propelling us forward to doing the next thing and then the next thing and then the next thing. And often autopilot mode is nice. You know, you had a long day and you're kind of tired. You're kind of wiped and so you just want to unwind and lay on the couch and not do much of anything and just recharge and watch a couple of episodes of something. I I I'm a productivity expert, but I'm also fundamentally lazy. And so I can sympathize with people who are also wanting to be lazy, right? In my opinion, that's why I'm into productivity is so I have more time to be lazy, right? So autopilot mode, it can be relaxing. It can be uh restful. But when we want to actually accomplish things, when we want to go a different way, when we want to uh move our our days and our life to to uh be in a in a certain direction that is different from where we are just otherwise. That is where intention comes into play. And it's very curious intention and attention have this interplay with one another, right? So it we set an intention to accomplish something then we need the attention to carry it through the finish line.超专注：在干扰中深度聚焦的四个步骤
超专注（Hyperfocus: 将全部刻意注意力投入到单一任务中，进入心流状态）听起来很紧张，但它实际上是指将全部刻意注意力集中于某事。这类似于心流（Flow: 全神贯注于一项活动，以至于时间感消失），超专注能让我们达到这种完全沉浸、时间感消失的状态。超专注包含四个步骤：
- 选择注意力对象： 反思“此刻我能做的最有生产力/最有意义的事情是什么？”
- 排除干扰： 思考哪些因素可能阻碍意图实现，并主动消除这些干扰。生产力与意图性息息相关，我们需要保护并强化所设定的意图。
- 注意思维游走： 超专注也带有一点冥想的意味。就像冥想时，注意力会从呼吸游走到其他更吸引人的事物一样，工作中，尽管排除了外部干扰，大脑中仍会不断出现新的想法（“我需要跟进那个人”、“如果我下午做这个呢？”）。你需要将这些想法记录下来，形成一个干扰清单（Distraction List: 记录突然冒出的想法或待办事项，以便稍后处理，从而保持当前任务的专注），将它们从脑中清空，以便自信地继续当前工作。
- 温柔地拉回注意力： 当思维游走时，无论是偏离了正在专注的事情，还是偏离了最初的意图，都要轻轻地将注意力拉回来。分心是人类的常态，但关键在于不断将注意力重新带回到重要的事情上，直到完成。 培养专注力的重要部分是设计一个有利于意图实现的环境，包括外部环境（External Environment: 周围的物理或数字环境，如手机提醒、办公室同事打扰）和内部环境（Internal Environment: 个人内心的平静状态和思维习惯）。我们需要预先处理那些可能出现的干扰，例如关闭手机通知，或在办公室设置“勿扰”信号。 在团队协作中，我们通常有两类工作：专注型工作（Focused Work: 需要长时间不间断深度思考和独立完成的任务）和协作型工作（Collaborative Work: 需要与他人频繁沟通、互动和共同完成的任务）。专注型工作的极端例子是深山中的小说家，而协作型工作的极端例子则是 NASA 的工程师。我们大多数人都介于两者之间，需要根据自己的角色（例如程序员偏向专注，管理者偏向协作）来校准工作方式。如果你的角色偏向专注，可以通过外部信号表明你正在集中精力；如果偏向协作，可以保持开放政策，但在需要专注时发出信号。
Original English Source
A hyperfocus is you know it's a word that sounds intense but it's really when we bring our full deliberate attention to something. And so we all have those moments where what we're doing consumes our full attention. We're in an engrossing conversation. We're hunkered down on something that's really important. And this in the it's very similar to flow in a way where hyperfocus leads to flow where we're completely immersed and then then we reach that flow-like state where time seems to not not even exist at all. And so hyperfocus is this process that involves four distinct steps. First we choose our object of attention which is you know that reflection. What is the most productive thing that I could be doing now? What's the most meaningful thing I could be doing now? Then we eliminate distractions. So we think what can get in the way of my intention. Right? Productivity is all about intention. So we need to uh protect the intentions that we set. Fortify the intentions that we set to eliminate the distractions that might be coming at us while we engage with them. Step three is noticing when your mind wanders. And so it's almost meditative in a way. So when you meditate, you focus on your breath and then your mind will constantly wander to to to more engaging things, more interesting things, more novel things than the breath. And work can be meditative in that same way where we have the intention that we want to accomplish. We eliminated the external distractions, but then we still have the stuff in our head that's going to come at us. Oh, I need to follow up with this person. or oh, what if I did this instead later today? Write those down. Make a distractions list where you jot them down. Whatever it takes to get these things out of your head so you can work on what you're doing with confidence. And then finally, when your mind does wander, when you do veer off not only what you're focusing on, but also what your intention was in the first place, bring it back just gently. Right? We all veer off intention. And this is a a part of the process of being human. We get derailed. We get distracted. But bring your attention back to focus on what's important until it's done. A big part of uh bringing more attention to whatever it is that our intention is to accomplish is designing an environment both external to us and internal to us. Uh so a calm mind for example um that is conducive and supportive of the intentions that we set. And so for the external environment that we have what are the distractions that are likely going to come up as you're engaged with the thing that you're doing? So for example, is your phone going to go off every 40 seconds or something? Are people going to come up to you in the office and ask if you have a moment to chat? Things like that. So not every distraction that we face can be dealt with ahead of time but many of them can and we need to deal with those uh that we can and modifying our environment is a big part of that. You know one of the awkward things with working with a team is that we all have two types of work that we do. We have the focused work that we do and we have the collaborative work that we do. So the focused work that we do is you know an extreme example of this is a novelist in a woods right a novelist can go off into the wilderness and and write their book for weeks on end not talking to a single soul and they do work that is very very individualistic very uh non- collaborative but then you got this person you got this person over here who is hyper collaborative is what the research calls it. You know, think of a NASA engineer who is launching a new shuttle into into the heavens. Um, their work is going to be super collaborative. Think of the the the control room, right? Everybody's interrupting each other constantly. That is the process of doing work that's collaborative. But between those extremes, between the novelist in the woods and the NASA engineer, we're somewhere in between here. Some of us are more individual. Maybe you're a a computer programmer. Other people are more on the extreme collaborative side. Maybe you're a people manager or an administrative assistant, whatever it might look like. So realize where you are and where your team is between those two extremes, between the focused extreme and the collaborative extreme and calibrate accordingly. If you're more on the focused end, maybe having outward signals that you're more focused can be very helpful. If you're more on the collaborative end and collaboration is your default, maybe have that open door policy at the office for most of the time, but have that signal that when the door is closed or when you know a flag is up or something, then then you're focused. And so calibrate for how focused versus collaborative your role is and work within those boundaries to uh understand how to protect your focus but also protect your wandering time.散点专注：在主动神游中激发创造力
在人工智能日益发展的时代，意图性变得前所未有的重要，而退后一步思考意图背后的策略（Strategy）也同样关键。实现这一目标最好的方法之一就是神游（Wander: 让思维自由漫游，不设定明确目标）。你可能曾有过灵光乍现的经历，那时你在做什么？也许是在淋浴时，你的大脑有机会将各种零散的想法串联起来；也许是在散步时，在轻松的背景下，各种念头自然涌现。当我们主动让思绪漫游，并为这种散点专注（Scatter Focus: 有意识地让思维在无结构活动中自由漫游，以促进思考和创意）创造条件时，例如在做一些习惯性事情（淋浴、散步）时，我们能激发更多创造力。 当思维漫游时，它主要会游走到三个地方：过去、现在和未来。
- 大约12%的时间，我们思考过去，回顾想法和记忆。
- 28%的时间，我们思考现在，例如在撰写邮件时突然想到了完美的措辞。
- 而思维漫游的48%的时间，我们都在思考未来。例如在淋浴或散步时，大脑会将许多想法连接起来，为未来的计划和目标做准备。 散点专注不仅能让大脑充电（Recharge），还能帮助我们进行规划（Planning），并在思维表面浮现新的想法。所以，休息的关键在于做一些轻松、习惯性的事情，让你的思维自由漫游，无需持续有意识的干预。日常生活中，我们常常需要调节注意力，处理各种紧急情况，这会让大脑充满噪音。而散点专注是一种高效让思维漫游的方式，例如在散步、跑步、健身等喜欢的习惯性活动中，让思维自由驰骋。当我们散点专注时，大脑会处理并连接之前吸收的所有信息：将经验与记忆、知识、事实、新闻和阅读过的书籍自动整合在一起。因此，有意识地选择我们接收的信息质量至关重要——书籍中的思想通常比随机新闻文章更能激发深刻思考和联系。 一个令人振奋的统计数据是：当我们的思维处于漫游状态时，我们思考未来目标的频率是专注状态下的14倍。这意味着，当我们退后一步让思维自由漫游时，我们实际上会更有意识地选择未来的前进方向。通过连接过去、现在和未来的想法，我们能够挖掘出在其他情况下永远无法获得的新观点。
Original English Source
So the more that intentionality matters, the more that strategy matters, the more deliberate you can become about the direction of your work, the more you need to wander. And I think especially as things advance with artificial intelligence where we're guiding not only ourselves, our own intentions, we're guiding the intentions of machines and agents. Now intention has never been more important. But also stepping back to have a strategy behind that intention has never been more important. And one of the best ways to do that is to wander. You think about intention more often. You plan for the future more often, too. The scatter focus is when we let our mind deliberately wander. And so I don't know if you can think back to when your best, most brilliant ideas have struck you. What were you doing when they did? Maybe you're taking a shower and then out of the mist your mind had a chance to uh connect a bunch of the uh constellations of ideas that were swirling around inside of it. Right? We're going on a walk and we connect ideas in that context too. It's when we let our mind wander and we create the conditions where our mind can wander when we're doing something habitual. Maybe it's going for a shower. Maybe it's going on a walk. That's what leads to the conditions that lead to more creativity. So when our mind wanders, we wander to three main places. The past, the present, and the future. So we think about the past around 12% of the time. And a lot of this time we're recalling ideas. We're uh we're we're thinking about memories from them. Sometimes we're recalling those cringe-worthy things that we said that, you know, is is uncomfortable, but that happens less than we might think. 28% of the time we're thinking about the present. So, this is when you're typing up an email and you can't figure out the perfect way to phrase it. And so, you walk across the apartment or your house to get a cup of coffee or something and on the way there it hits you. That's how you should answer the email. and you run back, you type it up, you you hit send, and you forget about the cup of coffee in the first place. But the beautiful thing about scatter focus is we wander to think about the future more than the past and the present combined. So 48% of the time that our mind is wandering, we're thinking about the future. So, this is when you're taking that shower, you're going for that walk, and on the way there, your your mind has a chance to connect a bunch of these ideas. And these numbers don't add up to 100 is because the rest of the time our mind is it's dull, it's blank, or it's focusing on ideas that aren't rooted in time. But because we we actually get this chance to wander, we don't have to force ourselves to focus on anything, which lets lets us recharge. we have more energy for later on. So we get the recharging benefits, we get the planning benefits. So we actually become more intentional when we enter into scatter focus mode. So there is a key when it comes to the breaks that we take. And there are multiple ways that we can take a break with the work that we do. But the key is to do something that is effortless for yourself. Right? do do something that is habitual in other words. So something that doesn't require constant conscious intervention but something that it roots you down into doing something that is habitual so you can actually let your mind wander at the same time. So all day we're trying to regulate our attention. you know, focus on this, hunker down on this problem, deal with this situation, put out that fire, deal with that emergency. And all of this fills our mind with a lot of noise. All this is a lot of activity that can get in the way of thinking clearly and focusing clearly and actually recharging with what we're doing. So, the research shows that there are different types of mind wandering that we can do. We can wander around a problem, for example. So you you're dealing with an issue at work and so you go on a walk with a notepad and you you write down thoughts that occur to you around that idea. But one of the most productive ways that we can let our mind wander is habitual scatter focus where we do something habitual that we love. Whether that's going for a walk, going for a run, doing a a a workout, just you know doing a stretch, whatever it might look like. Those are all exercise examples I realize. But whatever it might look like maybe taking an extra long shower for example um and just letting your mind roam free something habitual that you love is the key to a restful break. So the interesting thing that happens in our mind when we're scattering our attention is we're processing and connecting all of the previous information we've consumed during that time. So when our mind is wandering we connect experiences with memories with knowledge with uh facts with news with uh books we've read with all all automatically in our mind we connect the the the various issues and problems and information and data and oh my all together um in our head and so it's so critical to become more deliberate about the information we consume in the first place. So the dots that you're pouring into your head, the information that you consume throughout the day, it really matters, right? What is the the quality of that information, you know? So I I try to pour more books into my head than I do random news articles, for example, because I find that when I reflect, I'll be thinking about ideas. I'll be thinking about deeper issues. I'll be making connections uh between that information too instead of being concerned. And this is not an argument for burying your head in the sand or anything like that. You know, there are ways to stay informed that are essentially a higher quality uh informationbased, but it's so critical uh look at the information that you consume. What's the quality of that information and what is that leading you to in terms of your thoughts and the ideas that you're generating? One of my favorite stats, and I know stats are not motivating in and of themselves, um, but one of my favorite stats that motivates me to scatter focus more is that we think about our future goals 14 times as often when our mind is wandering versus when we're focused on something. It's remarkable. So when we take that step back, we automatically choose where we're going to take that step forward. So we get the rest, we get the future planning, and we get the ideas that rise to the surface of our mind because we bounce from thinking about the past to thinking about a problem that we're going to face later on in the day in the future to a situation that we're facing in the present. We connect all three destinations and we unearth ideas we would never have arrived at otherwise.📌 文中提及的人物和组织
人物: Shalom Schwarz, Gloria Mark
媒体/书籍: Intentional, Hyperfocus