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看過幾次自己所列出來的待辦事項呢？特別是那些你一想到就提不起勁的事，心裡總想著「好吧！我待會再做吧！」。我敢打賭我們通常會對這個理由深感內疚，還替自己找了一些像太累、太忙或太專心某些事情等諸如此類的良好藉口。儘管這些是很棒的藉口，但是並沒有完成最重要的事：那就是完成待辦事項上的工作。所以只要有待辦的事項，不管是記下來或只是你的想法，就是一種負擔、一個煩惱，以及浪費掉你原本可以用在你真正覺得有趣的事。

    勇於馬上去做想做的事！只要是列在待辦事項中的事，你必須像一隻充滿戰鬥力的鬥牛犬一樣，衝出所有的困難立刻去處理眼前的事。當你完成事情之後，你會覺得很有效率，且掌管你的人生。你會明白你的想法和能思考比清理乾淨你的壁櫥或預約去看牙醫（你知道在那裡你必須聆聽一場既冗長、又能保養好你牙齒的枯燥乏味的演講）來得更重要及更有趣。自己許下承諾，如果可以馬上找出方法去實行，不論事情有多麼簡單，以致於拖延至明天、下週或下個月才能做的事，你都可以先行處理，繼續過著你的生活。

     Sometimes, of course, you might really have to delay doing something until later because your to-do list is so long that not even a superhuman Daring Female could get everything done. This is when it gets really ugly, and after having had too many unpleasant days like this, I now try to practice restraint when deciding what goes on my to-do list. I like to write things down, so every morning before I drink my coffee or turn on my computer, I jot down my work-related and personal to-dos for the day. As I do, I think about when I’ll have time to do each task, and if I can’t envision getting it done, I leave it off the list. I love crossing items off my to-do list; I feel this great sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when I do it. On the flip side, if I get to only half of my to-dos I feel unproductive and overwhelmed, two emotions that every Daring Female should fight with all her power. There are still too many times when I have things left undone, but I’m getting better about judging my time and realizing that most days are still stubborn about being only twenty-four hours long.

      You might be wondering why this is such big deal; hey, if you can do something later, no harm done. And when we’re talking about scheduling a dentist appointment, as long as you don’t put if off for years, that’s probably okay. But I find that how we deal with things on a day-to-day basis is often very similar to the way we live or lives: If you put off the small stuff on your daily to-do list, you might well be putting off some big stuff on your life to-do list. Getting into great shape, moving to a city where you’ve always wanted to live, beginning to write the next great American novel, changing your career path—putting off life changes as big as these has a much greater impact on your life than failing to pick up your dry cleaning on time. Of course, sometimes you have to delay doing one thing in your life because you’re pursuing another goal. If you’ve just bought a house for which you’ve been saving up for years and need a secure source of income, then a new career adventure will probably have to wait. But if you’re delaying making big life decisions because you’re scared or averse to risk, or because you think there will be an ideal time for it later on, you might be missing out on making your life as rewarding as it could be.

    There rarely is an ideal time to make a big life change and life has an awful way of rushing by us far faster than we realize. You’ve got to remember what’s on your life to-do list and always look for an opportunity to accomplish something and cross it off. If you decide to wait and not make a change today, how do you know that you’ll make it tomorrow or a year from now?

    Dare to do now what you could do later. For example, if you don’t like your job, start doing something about it. Begin to think about changing jobs and start checking out other opportunities in your field. Or consider staying where you are but changing your responsibilities; put together a proposal to discuss with your boss. Go to the bookstore and buy a career advice book or call up an old mentor for advice. Whatever you do, don’t wait and hope that things will change on their own or that somehow in a month you’ll be in a better place in your life to do something about it. Do something now, take a concrete action, and feel like a powerful and productive Daring Female in control of your life. Of course, there’s no guarantee that every step you take will lead you in the right direction, but there’s huge value in knowing that you’re not standing still.

    當然，有時候你可能真的必須延後，直到後來才能去做，因為你列出的待辦事項是如此多，甚至連一位超級的前衛女性也都不可能完成。那麼一來，未完成的待辦事情，就會真的很慘，隨後就會有太多諸如此類不愉快的日子，現在當我決定要列出待辦事項時，我都會嘗試著練習克制我自己。我喜歡把事情寫下來，所以每天早上在我喝咖啡或者打開電腦之前，我會很快記下那天與我工作相關和自己所要做的事。當我去做時，我會想何時我才有時間去實行每一件事，而且原先想的事如果不能完成的話，我就會放棄這個事項。我喜歡刪除我列出的待辦清單，我覺得當我去刪除時，這是很棒的成就感及滿足感。相反的，如果我一開始只有列出一半要待辦的事項，那麼我會覺得沒有效率且沉重。這兩種情緒，每一位前衛女性都應該盡所有的力量去克服。我仍然有很多次沒有把事情完成的經驗，但是我漸漸的比較會調配自己的時間，以及了解到一天就是只有二十四小時。

    你可能會感到奇怪，這又不是一件大事；嘿！如果你能提早去做一些事，那並沒有任何的損失。而且當我們正在談論安排預約看牙醫時，只要你不要延到數年之後，那可能都是可以的。但是，我發現平日我們處理事情的方式，通常和我們的生活方式有關：如果你拖延了每天待辦事項中的小事情，那麼可能會拖延到你人生待辦事項中的一些重大事件。鍛練健康的身體、搬到一個你一直想要去住的城市、開始寫下一本暢銷的美國小說、改變你的人生方向──延後人生變化，就像比不能及時拿起乾洗的衣物對你的人生衝擊還重大一樣。當然，由於你要追尋人生的另一個目標，所以有時候就必須延後去做人生中的一件事。假設你剛剛已經買下一棟房子，你就會花掉多來年所存下的儲蓄，而且需要一份很穩定的收入來源，那麼新的冒險生活就可能因此必須延後了。但是，如果因為你害怕及不願意冒險，或者認為要等待一個理想的時機而待會再做，所以延後做了一個很大的人生決定，那麼你就可能會失去一個美好的人生。

    難得有一個很理想的時機去為我們人生做很大的改變，而且生命匆匆遠比我們所了解的還要快。你必須記住：你人生中要做什麼事，而且隨時尋找機會來完成和刪掉一些事。如果你決定等，而且今天還不想改變的話，那麼你怎麼知道要拖到明天還是明年才能實行呢？

　　勇於馬上去做想做的事。例如，如果你不喜歡你的工作，那麼開始去做一些相關的事。開始考慮換工作和開始運用你的專長，試試其他的機會。或者考慮停留在原地，但調換你的職位；提出一項提案與你的老闆討論。到書局買一本生涯規劃的書，或打電話給一位資深的顧問尋求建議。無論你做什麼，就是不要等待，也不要期望事情會因此改變，或是你人生中要做的事在一個月內就可處理的很好。馬上去做一些事，採取實際的行動，感覺就像一個充滿活力及高效率的前衛女性掌控自己的人生。當然，並不保證你採取的每個方法將可指引你正確的方向，但是你會在體驗認知中獲得很大的價值感，而不是毫無作為。