????在炎炎夏日，許多人都希望自己生而為法國人，這樣就可以在海灘上度過一個月的酷暑，在這樣的天氣，人們似乎更難達到最佳工作效率。當然，這并不意味著，在其他季節，工作效率低下便不是熱門話題：蘋果（Apple）應用商店有超過3,700款幫助人們處理待辦事項的應用，而網上搜索結果顯示，僅美國從2011年以來出版的關于如何提高工作效率的圖書，便有5,000多本。

????盡管如此，對于拖延癥和錯過最終期限這兩個工作效率問題，大多數管理者的處理方法似乎并不正確。至少，這是4家商學院所做的一項最新研究得出的結論。

????來做個快速測試：如果一名團隊成員將項目推遲到最終期限之后，你會a)認為他有太多事情要做，因此減輕他的工作量，使他可以集中更多精力做好手頭的任務，或者b) 設定新的最終期限，但不減少他的任務數量？

????大多數善良的老板都會選擇a)，但其實b)才是更好的答案。該項目負責人，匹茲堡大學（University of Pittsburgh）約瑟夫?卡茨商學院（Joseph A. Katz Graduate School of Business）教授安德魯?T?史蒂芬表示：“人們錯過最終期限時，通常會感到慚愧。他們非常愧疚，甚至會有些難堪。”這些情緒“會讓人變得消極。一旦有人在某項任務上產生了負面情緒，完成任務就會變得更難。”

????史蒂芬說道，相反，如果錯過最終期限的人除了未按時完成的項目之外，還有一些其他工作，“他們便不會變得如此消極。他們會為未按時完成任務尋找借口：‘我還有另外10件事要做呢。’這樣可以減輕他們的壓力，使他們更容易完成任務。”

????該項研究對一款生產效率應用的586,808個數據點進行了分析，連續兩周對250人進行了現場研究，并進行了兩次可控實驗室實驗，因此，可謂非常全面，并且產生了許多其他方面的見解。

????首先，一個人不得不完成的絕對任務數量，并沒有他或她是否覺得自己非常忙碌那么重要。因此，史蒂芬表示，為了減少員工拖延的可能性，管理者可能需要在不實際增加工作量的前提下，增強員工“忙碌感”。

????他說道：“一種方法是將一個項目分成多個組成部分，分別設定單獨的最終期限，使員工感覺他們有10件工作要做，而不是一件。而且，許多人自己也會這么做，因為這會使一個任務看起來更易于管理。”

????史蒂芬非常謹慎地指出，這項研究對“忙碌”的定義不同于多任務處理，后者通常會降低工作效率。他說道：“我們也不建議給一個人安排過多的工作量，因為在這種情況，員工會驚慌失措，結果反而無法正常工作。但也要抵制減輕員工工作量的誘惑，尤其是對于拖延癥患者。因為這樣做毫無幫助。”（財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Here in the dog days of summer, when many of us are wishing we had had the foresight to be born French so we could spend the month on a beach, peak productivity might be a little harder to achieve than usual. Not that it isn’t also a hot topic the rest of the year: Apple’s App Store offers no fewer than 3,700 applications designed to help users tackle their to-do lists, and a quick online search turns up more than 5,000 books on how to boost productivity published since 2011 in the U.S. alone.

????Even so, it seems most managers handle two big productivity problems—procrastination and missed deadlines—all wrong. At least, that’s the conclusion of a new study from researchers at four B-schools.

????Here’s a quick quiz: When a member of your team puts off a project until the deadline has sailed past, do you a) assume he has too many things to do and take away some of his workload so he can concentrate better on the task at hand, or b) simply set a new deadline, without reducing his total number of tasks?

????Most well-intentioned bosses would choose a), but the better answer is b). “When people miss a deadline, they usually feel bad about it. They feel guilty and maybe embarrassed,” notes Andrew T. Stephen, a professor at the University of Pittsburgh’s Joseph A. Katz Graduate School of Business, who led the study. Those emotions “are demotivating. Once someone starts associating negative feelings with a task, it just makes it even harder to get the damn thing done.”

????By contrast, when people who blow a deadline have plenty of other work on their plates, besides the project they didn’t finish on time, “they don’t get as demotivated,” Stephen says. “They can excuse their failure to finish this one thing on time by telling themselves, ‘Well, I had 10 other things going on.’ It takes the edge off, and makes it easier to complete that task.”

????Based on an analysis of 586,808 data points from a productivity app, a field study of 250 people over two consecutive weeks, and two controlled lab experiments, the research was nothing if not thorough, and it yielded a few other insights.

????For one thing, the absolute number of tasks someone has to do isn’t as important as whether or not she perceives herself to be busy. So, to make people less prone to procrastinate, Stephen says managers might want to help boost employees’ feelings of “busy-ness,” without actually piling on any more work.

????“One approach is to break each project down into many component parts, with separate deadlines, so that someone feels they’ve got 10 things to do instead of just one,” he says, adding that “many people tend to do this for themselves anyway, partly because it makes a task seem more manageable.”

????Stephen is careful to point out that the study’s definition of “busy-ness” is not the same as multitasking, which usually reduces productivity. “We’re also not recommending overloading anyone to the point where they’re like a deer in headlights and can’t function,” he says. “But do resist the temptation to let people—especially procrastinators—be less busy. It won’t help.”