充分利用碎片时间

 

转自#百词斩阅读# 共勉

I must have been about fourteen then, and I put away the incident from my mind with the easy carelessness of youth.

那时我大概十四岁左右，因为年轻的我粗心大意，把这件事忘得一干二净了。

But the words Carl Walter spoke that day, came back to me years later, and ever since have been of great value to me.

但是，卡尔·沃尔特那天所说的话，多年以后又浮现在我的脑海中，并从那时起就对我变得很有价值。

Carl Walter was my piano teacher.

卡尔·沃尔特是我的钢琴老师。

During one of my lessons he asked how much practicing I was doing. I said three or four hours a day.

在一次课上，他问我练习了多久，我说每天练了三四个小时。

"Do you practice in long stretches, an hour at a time?"

“你一次练习很长时间吗，每次一小时?”

"I try to."

“我尽力那样做了。”

"Well, dont," he exclaimed. "When you grow up, time wont come in long stretches.

“不，你不要那样做，” 他大声说道，“等你长大了，你不会再有那么长的一段练习时间。”

Practice in minutes, whenever you can find them five or ten before school, after lunch, between household tasks.

“上学前、午饭后、做家务活的间隙里，只要5到10分钟的时间，那你就在这几分钟内练习。”

Spread the practice through the day, and piano-playing will become a part of your life."

“让练习贯穿你的一整天，弹钢琴就会成为你生活的一部分。”

When I was teaching at Columbia, I wanted to write, but class periods, theme-reading, and committee meetings filled my days and evenings.

当我在哥伦比亚大学教书时，我想写作，但上课、主题阅读活动和委员会会议占据了我的白天和夜晚。

For two years I got practically nothing down on paper, and my excuse was that I had no time.

两年来，我几乎什么都没有写，我的借口是我没有时间。

Then I remembered what Carl Walter had said.

然后我想起卡尔·沃尔特说过的话。

During the next week I conducted an experiment.

在接下来的一个星期里，我做了一个实验。

Whenever I had five minutes unoccupied, I sat down and wrote a hundred words or so.

每当我有5分钟空闲的时间，我就坐下来写一百字左右。

To my astonishment, at the end of the week I had a rather large manuscript ready for revision, later on I wrote novels by the same piecemeal method.

令我惊讶的是，到了周末，我有一份字数相当多的手稿准备修改，后来我就利用零碎时间的方法写小说。

Though my teaching schedule had become heavier than ever, in every day there were idle moments which could be caught and put to use.

虽然我的教学任务比以往任何时候都要繁重，但我每天都有空闲的时间可以利用。

I even took up piano — playing again, finding that the small intervals of the day provided sufficient time for both writing and piano practice.

我甚至重新开始弹钢琴，发现每天那些短短的间隙为写作和钢琴练习提供了充足的时间。

There is an important trick in this time-using formula: you must get into your work quickly.

这一利用时间的方法有一个重要的诀窍：你必须迅速投入工作。

If you have but five minutes for writing, you cant afford to waste four chewing your pencil.

如果你只有5分钟来写作，你就不能浪费4分钟来啃你的铅笔。

You must make your mental preparations beforehand, and concentrate on your task almost instantly when the time comes.

你必须事先做好心理准备，只要有空闲时间，你必须立刻把注意力集中到你的任务上。

Fortunately, rapid concentration is easier than most of us realize.

幸运的是，快速集中注意力比我们大多数人认识到的要容易。

I admit I have never learnt how to let go easily at the end of the five or ten minutes.

但我承认我从来没有学会如何在5分钟或10分钟后轻易停下来。

But life can be counted on to supply interruptions.

但在生活中我们总会找到空闲时间。

Carl Walter has had a tremendous influence on my life.

卡尔·沃尔特对我的生活产生了巨大的影响。

To him I owe the discovery that even very short periods of time add up to all useful hours I need, if I plunge in without delay.

我感激他使我发现，只要我毫不拖延地投入工作，即使是很短的时间，积累起来也会变成有用的几个小时。

转自百词斩阅读#百词斩#