If your system is going to be liberating rather than suffocating, however, you need to follow a few guidelines: 然而，如果你的系统想要解放而不是扼制，就需要遵循一些准则：

Rule #1 - Your system needs to fit your work(not the other way around) 准则一：系统需要适配你的工作（而不是反过来）

Any system is designed using certain assumptions about your work.If those assumptions are wrong, the system may backfire.
任何系统在设计时都会对你的工作做出一些假设，如果那些假设出错了，系统就可能适得其反。


Take Weekly/Daily Goals, the system I use most often. The idea is that you have two lists, a weekly to-do list and a daily to-do list.The latter is intended to be fixed-you decide what to work on that day and hold it constant, even if you finish early.
就拿我最常使用的每周/每天目标系统来说吧。它有两个清单，一个是每周待办事项清单，一个是每天待办事项清单。后者理应是确定的–你决定这一天要做什么并保持不变，即使你早早提前完成。


This system works well when you have a bunch of concrete tasks you need to finish that you might procrastinate on, but if you just sat down and did them all in a burst of focus you could probably get them done easily.The goal here is to use the potential reward of a workday finished early to get thins done in an effective manner.
如果你有一堆具体的任务要完成，则这个系统很好用。你原本或许会拖延，但如果坐下来，集中精力把它们全部做完，可能很容易就完成了。这里的目标是利用工作日提前收工这个潜在的奖励来有效地做完事情


This system doesn’t work as well if your tasks are ambiguous and open-ended.It struggles more when your day is mostly meetings occurring at fixed times on your calendar.If your daily goals list just contains one task, “Work on X.” then it isn’t even functioning as a productivity system at all.
但如果你的任务模糊不清，或者是开放式的，这个系统就没那么好用了。如果你这一天大部分是在日程表上固定的时间开会，这个系统也会比较吃力。如果你的该日目标清单上只有一个任务:做X，那么它根本无法起到生产力系统的作用。


Therefore, before you get started with a system, it’s important to ask what the assumptions are that underpin it .What does your work need to look like for this bo be effective?
因此，在你开始运用一个系统前，重要的是询问它背后的假设是什么。这个系统要有效，你的工作需要是什么样的?


Rule #2 - The system should counterbalance your worst tendencies.
准则二：系统应该抗衡你最坏的倾向



The guiding philosophy behind Getting Things Done is that , without writing down what needs doing , we’re liable to forget.Although the system aims at more than this, the key tendency it’s trying to counteract is simply forgetting what you need to do.
尽管去做(GTD)方法背后的指导理念是，如果不把需要做的事情写下来，我们就很可能忘记。尽管系统的目标不止于此，但它想要抗衡的关键倾向只是忘记你需要做什么。


Fixed-schedule productivity counterbalances the tendency to constantly work overtime, having your office hours bleed into your home life.You’re answering emails at midnight, but at the same time, you’re exhausted in the evening and not as sharp when at work.
固定时间表生产力系统想要抗衡的是不断加班的倾向，让你的办公时间渗入家庭生活。你在半夜回复邮件，但同时，你在晚上疲惫不堪，工作时也没有那么敏锐。


Maintaining deep work hours suggests the problem is mostly distraction, particularly from tasks that feel like work but aren’t your main source of value.
保持深度工作时间认为，问题主要在于分心，尤其是在做你认为是工作而不是主要价值来源的事情时。


The Most Important Task method works when you have a few hard tasks that you need to prioritize. It assumes you’ll end up working on convenient, easy tasks, rather than those that really matter.Quadrant systems over merely urgent ones, are another tool for prioritizing.
最重要任务法适用于当你有几项困难的任务需要优先处理时。它假设你最终会去做方便、容易的任务，而不是那些真正重要的事项。象限系统将焦点放在重要而非只是紧急的任务上，是另一种确定优先级的工具。


Breaking your day into Pomodoro chunks assumes the problem is that the work feels too large to get started, so you procrastinate. Small chunks with mandatory breaks focus your attention on the next mile marker and not the entire marathon.
把你的一天分成若干番茄时段，这种做法是假设工作看上去太大量，感觉无从下手，于是你就会拖延。但有强制休息的小块时间，让你把注意力集中在下一个里程标志上，而不是整个马拉松。


These tendencies need not be mutually exclusive.You could, for instance, combine deep work hours with Pomodoro chunks or the Most Important Task method.What matters is that these systems are balancing the problems you’re actually facing.A sales person investing in deep work hours probably doesn’t make sense.
这些倾向不一定是相互排斥的。例如，你可以将深度工作时间与番茄时段或最重要任务法结合起来。重要的是这些系统要适合你切实面对的问题。一个销售人员投入精力在深度工作时间上可能是没有意义的。


Rule #3 - The system needs a way of dealing with exceptions.
准则三：系统需要一种处理例外的方式

Every system, no matter how complicated, will create situations where it no longer makes sense to follow the guidelines it sets.
每一个系统，不论多么复杂，都会产生一些情况，在这些情况下，遵循它所设定的规则已经没有意义。


What’s needed, then, is a way of handling exceptions to the rules without making so many ad-hoc adjustments that the original system is rendered meaningless.Unfortunately, there’s no way to crate a list of such meta-rules since if there were, they could simply be included into the original system.
那么，我们所需要的，就是一种处理规则例外的方法，而不需要做太多特别的调整，以至于原先的系统变得没有意义。遗憾的是，没有办法创建一个这样的元规则列表，因为如果存在这样的列表的话，就可以简单地将它们纳入原来的系统中