今年夏天只剩下幾周了,,我跟往常一樣在辦公室忙工作,,一邊為夏季休假做準(zhǔn)備。我準(zhǔn)備去海灘休息兩周,,感覺(jué)真的很有必要:今年忙了大半年,,秋天只會(huì)更忙。唉,,就可憐可憐我吧,,去年為了趕稿寫書一天假都沒(méi)放,。所以今年休假我特別興奮。 我在學(xué)習(xí)提高效率,,收集了不少妙招,、訣竅和策略想把工作做得更好。今年我比以往更看重休假,,一開(kāi)始盤算就回憶起一句我最喜歡的有關(guān)度假的名言,。這句名言來(lái)自華爾街鼎鼎大名的金融家與銀行家約翰·皮爾龐特·摩根。19世紀(jì)末20世紀(jì)初,,他曾掌控美國(guó)公司金融領(lǐng)域,,著名的摩根大通集團(tuán)正是以他的名字命名,目前摩根大通首席執(zhí)行官為杰米·戴蒙,。 摩根以充滿個(gè)性且工作狂著稱,,真實(shí)的他比傳聞還要強(qiáng)大。20世紀(jì)初,,他領(lǐng)導(dǎo)下的銀行曾推動(dòng)整個(gè)美國(guó)經(jīng)濟(jì)轉(zhuǎn)型,,幾乎憑一己之力將全球金融中心從倫敦轉(zhuǎn)移到紐約。此外,,讓·斯特勞斯1999年出版的傳記《美國(guó)銀行家:摩根傳》稱,,摩根對(duì)工作和休息有一套獨(dú)特的個(gè)人哲學(xué)。具體來(lái)說(shuō),,他堅(jiān)信自己“九個(gè)月就可能做完一年的工作,,用不了12個(gè)月?!睋Q句話說(shuō),,如果一年休息不到三個(gè)月,其他時(shí)間也沒(méi)法高效工作,。 摩根特別看重休假,。傳記寫到,1912年末,,他按照慣例準(zhǔn)備了三個(gè)月的假期,,次年年初先去了埃及,看看他支持的考古發(fā)掘,。第二站是羅馬,,參觀了在美國(guó)人文與科學(xué)院任職時(shí)資助修建的建筑。接下來(lái),,他趕赴法國(guó)南部小鎮(zhèn)艾克斯萊班,,開(kāi)始一年一度的溫泉之旅。摩根就是在那次度假期間離開(kāi)人世的,。1913年3月,,他在羅馬下榻的大酒店入睡,,再也沒(méi)有醒來(lái),只差幾天就是他的76歲壽辰,。每年他都認(rèn)真安排假期,。盡管要去美國(guó)國(guó)會(huì)作證,面對(duì)普約委員會(huì)對(duì)他和其他少數(shù)金融家——所謂“貨幣托拉斯”是否過(guò)多操控全國(guó)金融的調(diào)查,,他仍然安排了1913年的度假,。看上去什么都不能攔住他休假三個(gè)月,。這也是他成功的關(guān)鍵,。 摩根的休假觀是相當(dāng)先進(jìn)的,哪怕從現(xiàn)代角度看,,他的觀念也不過(guò)時(shí),。他可能是喜歡冥想的人。今時(shí)今日,,這位金融業(yè)傳奇人物的休息哲學(xué)比以往還要重要?,F(xiàn)在勞動(dòng)力大軍日漸縮減,科技又十分進(jìn)步經(jīng)??梢噪S時(shí)隨地辦公,,不分晝夜也不分周末,甚至可以通過(guò)手環(huán)工作,。根本不可能完全擺脫電子設(shè)備,。(再加上近來(lái)美國(guó)政界頻傳勁爆新聞,我們更是離不開(kāi)各種設(shè)備,。) 然而,,只有休息好才能更好地工作。偶爾放空大腦,,刻意留白,,讓繁忙的工作日程送一送,哪怕只是片刻閑暇,,才有可能想出最棒的點(diǎn)子,。洗澡的時(shí)候創(chuàng)意多可不是陳詞濫調(diào),,科學(xué)研究已經(jīng)證明(我最近聽(tīng)說(shuō),,有人因此在浴室里放白板)。研究證明,,做一些相對(duì)輕松的事情時(shí),,迸發(fā)創(chuàng)意火花的可能性會(huì)增加。美國(guó)暢銷休閑雜志Mental Floss的文章稱,,高負(fù)荷的大腦暫停運(yùn)轉(zhuǎn)時(shí),,腦部的前額葉皮層就會(huì)感到輕松,,潛意識(shí)開(kāi)始自由發(fā)揮,盡情徜徉,,“產(chǎn)生清醒時(shí)不會(huì)留意的創(chuàng)造性聯(lián)想,。”當(dāng)然,,還有大量研究顯示,,良好的睡眠也對(duì)大腦休息和提升業(yè)績(jī)有幫助(這方面問(wèn)題可以咨詢熱心宣傳睡眠好處的《赫芬頓郵報(bào)》創(chuàng)始人阿里安娜·赫芬頓,她一直認(rèn)為,,人類深陷睡眠不足的危機(jī),。) 當(dāng)然,現(xiàn)在大多數(shù)員工無(wú)法請(qǐng)三個(gè)月假,,整日忙碌無(wú)比的首席執(zhí)行官就更別提了,。很難想象摩根如果在世,休假時(shí)如何應(yīng)付互聯(lián)網(wǎng)和電子交易,。他會(huì)不會(huì)帶著iPhone度假,?會(huì)不會(huì)通過(guò)助理處理工作?會(huì)不會(huì)在電郵里設(shè)置措辭強(qiáng)硬的自動(dòng)回復(fù)宣布他正在休假,?我們沒(méi)了解,,只能暢想一下他多么幸運(yùn),不必面對(duì)種種困難的決定,。 對(duì)我們一般人來(lái)說(shuō),,還是盡可能從摩根身上汲取一點(diǎn)靈感吧,即使只是少用點(diǎn)手機(jī),,少查看幾次工作,。我不會(huì)環(huán)游歐洲,去法國(guó)泡溫泉,,只能選擇沒(méi)什么異國(guó)風(fēng)情的紐約長(zhǎng)島海灘度假,。但我還是盡可能在內(nèi)心深處學(xué)習(xí)摩根。大家都可以做到,。首先,,不要把休假當(dāng)成公司福利或者帶孩子的任務(wù),要當(dāng)成照顧自己的方式,,如此剩下的幾個(gè)月里才能把工作干得更好,。說(shuō)到這要抱歉一下,我去休假了,。就算要找我,,我也不會(huì)(經(jīng)常)查看電郵的。(財(cái)富中文網(wǎng)) 譯者:Pessy 審校:夏林 |
It’s the final few weeks of summer, and like many others this month, I’m wrapping up things at the office to get ready for a summer vacation. I’m taking two weeks to go to the beach and it feels much needed: It’s been a busy year, the fall promises to be busier still, and—yes, I know, play me a violin—I didn’t take a vacation last year because I crash-wrote a book. So I’m particularly excited for this one. I am a student of productivity, and tend to collect hacks, tactics and strategies to be able to work better. But this year, way more than in years past, planning this summer sojourn has brought to mind over and over my all-time favorite quote about vacation. It comes from, of all people, John Pierpont Morgan, the financier and banker who dominated corporate finance in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and in whose name Jamie Dimon now toils as the CEO of JPMorgan Chase. Morgan was a larger than life personality and a well-known workaholic, and by the early 1900s, his bank helped transform the U.S. economy and almost single handedly shifted the global center of finance from London to New York. And yet, as documented in Jean Strause’s 1999 biography, Morgan: American Financier, Morgan had a particular philosophy about work and rest. Specifically, he firmly believed that he “could do a year’s work in nine months—but not in twelve months.” Without three months of rest, in other words, he wouldn’t be able to do what he did during the rest of the year. Morgan was obsessive about that rest. The book describes him in late 1912 getting ready for his ritualistic three-month recess, which in early 1913 would take him first to Egypt, where he had underwritten archaeological excavations, then to Rome to see buildings he’d funded at the American Academy, and after that he’d set off for his annual visit to the springs at Aix-les-Bains in France. Morgan died during this trip—passing away in his sleep in the Grand Hotel in Rome in March of 1913, just shy of his 76th birthday. But he was religious about taking this trip every year—he was planning out his 1913 itinerary even as he was testifying in front of the Pujo Committee, the congressional subcommittee investigating whether Morgan and a small group of financiers—the so called “money trust"—had too much control over the nation’s finances. Nothing, it seemed, could come in the way of three-month trip; it was the key to his success. It was quite an evolved philosophy even for the time; were he around today, Morgan might be a meditator. But the legendary financier’s rest doctrine is more critical today than ever before. Between workforces being leaner than ever and technology now enabling us to carry the workplace in our pockets—or even on our wrists—at night and on weekends, there is no time for unplugging. (Add in the firehose of shocking news coming out of Washington these days and it’s even harder.) And yet doing so can enable great things to happen. The best ideas tend to come to us when we shut down our brains, create white space and let a little bit of air in our schedules, even for a few moments. It’s not just a cliché that good ideas come to us in the shower; studies have shown it (I heard tell recently of someone who kept a whiteboard in their bathroom for this reason). Research has proven that we’re more likely to have creative epiphanies when we’re doing things that don’t require much thought. When we shut off our brains, the prefrontal cortex relaxes and our unconscious is freed up to wander and roam and “make creative connections that your conscious mind would have dismissed,” writes Mental Floss (and they would know.) And there is of course also an ample body of research showing what good sleep does to our brain and our performance. (Just ask sleep evangelist Arianna Huffington, who maintains we are in the midst of a sleep deprivation crisis). Of course, most employees can’t take a three-month vacation. What CEO could even get away with doing so today? It’s also hard to know how Morgan would have incorporated the Internet and electronic trading into his annual rite of passage. Would he have carried an iPhone? Checked in with an assistant? Put on a strongly-worded out-of-office reply? We’ll never know. We can only fantasize about how lucky he was that he never had to make those decisions. For the rest of us, let’s try to take a little bit of inspiration from him, even if that only means stepping away from the phone and checking in a little less. I won’t be touring Europe and lounging in hot springs of France—I’ll be on the much less exotic beaches of Long Island—but I’m still going to do my best to try to channel my inner John Pierpont. We’d all do well to do the same. Let’s start to see vacation as more than just a part of our comp package or a way to occupy the kids—and as a way to take care of ourselves so that we can perform better for the rest of the year. Now if you'll excuse, I'm off, and if you need me, I won't be checking email (that much). |