Day 216: On Accounting for Flexibility in Your Plans
第216天：關于考慮計劃的靈活性
Another drawback of daily plans is that they lack flexibility. They deprive the person of the chance to make choices along the way, so the person feels locked into a rigid and grinding sequence of tasks. Life rarely goes exactly according to plan, and so the daily plans can be demoralizing as soon as you fall off schedule. With a monthly plan, you can make adjustments. If a delay arises one day, your plan is still intact.
每日計劃的另一個缺點是缺乏靈活性。
它們剝奪了一個人在過程中改變選擇的機會，是以我們就會覺得自己好像被困在一系列僵化的任務中一般。
其實生活很少會完全按照計劃進行，是以，一旦偏離了計劃，每日計劃就會讓人士氣低落。
如果是月度計劃，你就可以靈活做出調整。
如果某天出現了延誤，你的計劃依然會完好無損。
—Roy Baumeister
I’m a fan of daily routines: writing a specific number of words, sticking to the same number of consumed calories, or learning the same number of words in a foreign language every day.
我是日常習慣的粉絲：每天堅持寫特定數量的單詞，攝入相同數量的卡路裡，或者學習相同數量的外語單詞。
However, at the same time, having experienced on more than a few occasions that life often doesn’t go exactly according to the plan and disruptions are bound to happen, I account for some flexibility in my plan. This way, when I mess up one day, it doesn’t have to affect my entire progress.
但與此同時，我也不止一次地經曆過，生活往往不會完全按照計劃進行，難免會出現中斷，是以我在計劃中考慮了一些靈活性。
這樣，即使有一天我搞砸了，也不會影響我的整體進度。
For example, whenever I’m tweaking my caloric intake, I try to focus more on what happens during an entire week or month than any specific day. This way, if I mess it up one day by eating too little or too much, it doesn’t matter because I can make up for it the next day or a week later. Granted, it carries the risk of making regular exceptions and setting a precedent, so it’s important to always plan exactly when you’re going to adjust for a day of variance .
例如，每當我調整卡路裡攝入量時，我都會試着更多地關注一周或一個月内發生的事情，而不是某一天。
這樣一來，如果某天我吃得太少或太多而搞砸了，也沒關系，因為我可以在第二天或一周後再彌補。
當然，這樣做也有可能會經常出現例外情況和開創先例的風險，是以，始終準确計劃何時調整一天的差異就變得非常重要。
Recently I set for myself a goal to write 10 daily entries for this book for 10 days so that after the end of this sprint, I will have written entries for 100 days, or almost 30% of the book.
最近，我給自己定了一個目标，每天為這本書寫 10 篇文章，持續 10 天，這樣在沖刺階段結束後，我将寫滿 100 天的文章，也就是這本書的近 30%。
If I were to only count it as successful if I stuck to writing 10 entries every day, without allowing myself any kind of flexibility, I’d have failed on the eighth day, which I spent outdoors. However, knowing that such a disruption would happen, I wrote 14 entries the day before my trip and 6 in the early morning before my departure.
如果我堅持每天寫 10 篇文章才算成功，而不允許自己有任何靈活性，那麼第八天我就失敗了，因為這一天我是在戶外度過的。
但是，我知道這種情況會發生，是以我在出發前一天寫了 14 篇文章，在出發前的清晨寫了 6 篇文章。
Thanks to accounting for flexibility, I avoided the demoralizing effect of dropping the ball, and after 10 days, I had also completed my goal of writing 100 entries in total.
由于考慮到了靈活性，我避免了丢三落四的影響，10 天後，我也完成了總共寫 100 篇文章的目标。
When setting new routines and goals, allow yourself some flexibility, too. If you have a daily quota, don’t immediately count it as a failure if you don’t perform it for one day. Work a little more for the next several days and instead of falling off the bandwagon, you’ll still achieve your original goal.
在制定新的目标時，也要給自己留出一些靈活性。
如果你有一個每日定額，如果有一天沒有完成，不要立即認為這是失敗。
在接下來的幾天裡多做一點，你就不會掉隊，依然能夠實作最初的目标。