実践ビジネス英語ディクテーション (11/25,26)

こんにちは。NHKラジオ「実践ビジネス英語」”Talk the Talk”のディクテーションです。
Lesson 16のテーマは、‘Getting Things Done Early’（物事を早めに）でした。Vignetteでは、precrastinatorという単語が紹介されました。procrastinatorは物事を先延ばしにしてぎりぎりまで手を付けないようなタイプを指しますが、precrastinatorはその反対語で、物事を期限より早くし終える人を指すそうです。
2、3年前に心理学者が作り出した単語だということで、調べてみると、The Huffington Postの "Are You A Procrastinator Or A Pre-crastinator?"という2014年5月12日付けの記事が検索上位にありました。
“Talk the Talk”では、Heatherさんが両方のタイプに効くアドバイスについて語られます。

Getting Things Done Early（S: 杉田敏先生　H: Heather Howardさん）

S: Now, in our current vignette, Ueda Shota talks about how he is a precrastinator, someone who always try to get things done early.
Would you call yourself a precrastinator, Heather?

H: I am so tempted to lie here.
The vignette does talk about some of the detriments to being a precrastinator, but it still sounds a lot nicer than being a procrastinator, doesn’t it?
I can say that I’m like Steve Lyons ― I’m much better than I used to be.
That’s largely due to a very good book I found a long time ago about how to avoid procrastination.
I’ve kept it for many years and re-read it many times to keep its advice in my head.
There is one tip in there that might work well for precrastinators as well as procrastinators ― the author calls it “back timing”.
That’s where you plan your work schedule backwards.
You start with your deadline, say a report has to be written by Wednesday, November 30.
You think, OK, I’ll need two days to actually write it, so that takes me back to Monday, November 28.
I’ll also need five days to conduct research and talk to related staff, but there’s the weekend in there, so that’s really seven days.
OK, that means I have to start working on the report on Monday, November 21.
The idea is to help procrastinators get started and ensure that they have enough time to complete a task properly.
But a precrastnator could also use this technique to prevent themselves from starting too early.
They could make a rule that once they’ve decided on their back-timed work schedule, they will not start any earlier.
And they could promise themselves not to cut short any of the specific blocks within the schedule.
So if there are five days scheduled for research, they will spend five whole days.
Of course, they’d have to watch themselves to make sure they didn’t make the blocks too short in the first place.

S: The vignette mentions how procrastinating workers cost American companies trillions of dollars a year in terms of lost productivity.

H: I can believe it. It can certainly be costly in your personal life, too.
One thing I used to be pretty bad about was returning movie rentals on time.
I racked up a lot of late charges. It was really a stupid waste.
Another thing my book recommends is finding ways to make things easier or even automatic.
We often procrastinate because something is a hassle or we just forget.
That was usually my problem with the videos I would just forget.
So, when I learned about a rental service that would let me rent up to eight movies a month for a set fee and I could keep them as long as I wanted with no late charges, I signed right up.
I have no doubt it saved me a lot of money.

S: Any other advice you’d like to share with us from the book?

H: It also stressed the importance of taking breaks and taking care of ourselves especially at the times when we’re most busy.
It’s easy to get stressed out, to feel like there’s nothing in our lives except work and worry.
That’s when we need to go for a walk, do something with the family, step off the “hamster wheel”, as she put it.
We may think, “I just don’t have the time,” but I’ve always found that I work faster and better after a break like that.

最後までお読みくださり、ありがとうございました。