Why is it that geniuses tend to have the most intriguing routines?
为什么大师们的日常事务总是那么有趣呢？
According to Mason Curry, author of "Daily Rituals: How Artists Work," a "solid routine fosters a well-worn groove for one’s mental energies."
在《日常事务：艺术家如何工作》的作者麦森-卡里看来，固定的日常事务为人们的心理能量提供了烂熟的套路。
In other words, having a set routine lets you put all of your energy into the work you're doing, rather than spend your time deciding which work to do.
换句话说，固定的日程安排能让你把精力专注到正在做的事情上，而不用浪费时间犹豫该做哪件事情。
Harvard Business Review writer Sarah Green recently looked into the routines of brilliant artists, including Pablo Picasso, Jane Austen, and Ernest Hemingway, to find out how they got their work done. Here's what she found:
《哈佛商业评论》的作者萨拉·格林最近调查了毕加索、奥斯汀以及海明威等杰出艺术家们的日常活动，进而探究他们是如何完成工作的。下面就是萨拉的发现：
1. They minimized distractions.他们尽量避免分心。
With our increasing use of technology, brain researchers are finding that we're more distracted, and it's making us dumber. But history's creatives — authors especially — knew to block out the noise. William Faulkner didn't have a lock on the door to his study, so he brought the doorknob with him. Austen kept a door hinge squeaky so she'd always know when people were approaching. And if Mark Twain's family wanted to speak with him, they'd blow a horn, so as to not disturb him with a knock.
随着科技应用的日益普及，大脑研究人员发现，人们变得更容易分心，也更加愚钝。但历史上的大师们，尤其是作家，都懂得如何屏蔽干扰。威廉·福克纳的书房没有门锁，所以他就把门把手带在身边。奥斯汀则刻意让门有吱呀声，这样一有人来她就知道了。还有马克·吐温，家人要跟他讲话时就吹喇叭，这样就不用敲门打扰他了。
2. They went for a daily walk.他们每天都散步。
Armed with a notebook, Friedrich Nietzsche took a two-hour walk twice a day, once in the morning and again after lunch. Immanuel Kant also had a daily walk after lunch. Meanwhile, Charles Dickens, Soren Kierkegaard, and Ludwig van Beethoven all did their thinking while meandering. (Although Beethoven did some of his best composing while bathing.)
尼采每天早上和饭后都要夹上一本笔记去散步，每次都有2个小时。康德每天饭后也必定会去散步。此外，狄更斯、索伦·克尔凯郭尔和贝多芬通常也在散步时进行思考。（不过贝多芬一些最好的作品是在泡澡时萌发灵感的。）
3. They drew a line between important work and busywork.他们将重要事务和繁忙事务分得很清楚。
"Before there was email, there were letters," Green writes at HBR. "Many (creative geniuses) would divide the day into real work (such as composing or painting in the morning) and busywork (answering letters in the afternoon)."
“邮件未发明之前，人们都是采用信件，“格林在《哈佛商业评论》中这样写道，” 许多大师会将一天分成真正的工作（比如早上创作或作画）和繁忙的工作（下午回信）。
4. They weren't very social.他们不太热衷于社交。
While some behavioral scientists have found that having strong connections makes you more successful, some of the most influential creative people lived in relative isolation.
尽管有些行为科学家认为，广泛的社交关系有助于人们取得更大成功；但是，有些颇具影响的大师实际上生活得相对隔绝。
Take Simone de Beauvoir, whose 1949 "The Second Sex" gave a theoretical voice to feminism. A friend of Beauvoir's said her lifestyle included "no parties, no receptions, no bourgeois values… It was an uncluttered kind of life, a simplicity deliberately constructed so that she could do her work.”
就比如波伏娃吧，她在1949年问世的《第二性》为女权主义发出了理论呐喊。但波伏娃的一个朋友透露说，她的生活“没有聚会、没有访客、没有资产阶级享乐……是一种简单纯粹的生活，是一种刻意营造的简洁，这样她才能专心工作。”
Semi-isolation worked for painters, too. As Green reports, Picasso and his girlfriend Fernande Olivier designated their Sundays as "at-home" days, so they wouldn't have to deal with the "obligations of friendship."
画家也有存在半隔绝状态的。格林写道，毕加索和他的女朋友费尔南德·奥利弗把星期日称为“宅着的日子”，这样他们就不用应付“友谊之责任”了。
5. They stopped before they were running on empty. 他们懂得适可而止，而不是盲目前进。
Hemingway was rigorous about his productivity. He'd track the number of words he wrote per day on a chart, "so as not to kid myself.” But he was also careful not to exhaust his creative stores. In an interview with the Paris Review, Hemingway emphasized the importance of building a creative rhythm, saying you shouldn't finish your work for the day unless you know how you'll start tomorrow.
海明威对自己的写作产量非常严格。他把自己每天要写的字数记在一张表格上，“这样就不会糊弄自己。” 同时，他也非常注意不要过分榨取自己的灵感。在《巴黎评论》的一次采访中，海明威强调了形成创作节奏的重要性，他认为除非清楚第二天该如何开始，否则不可以结束一天的工作。
"The important thing is to have good water in the well," Hemingway said, "and it is better to take a regular amount out than to pump the well dry and wait for it to refill."
“重要的是井里要有好泉水，”海明威说，“与其一下子就把水榨干然后干等，不如循序渐进每次汲取一定量的泉水。”
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