The 5-Hour Rule五小時(shí)原則

Michael Simmons

在10 歲那年，本杰明·富蘭克林就離開了正規(guī)的學(xué)校教育成了學(xué)徒。而當(dāng)他離世之時(shí)，他已成為美國最受人敬重的政治家、發(fā)明家、作家以及企業(yè)家。在他的一生中，究竟是什么讓他獲得了如此迅速的提升呢？

Throughout Benjamin Franklin’s adultlife， he consistently 1）invested roughly anhour a day in deliberate learning. Now it iscalled Franklin’s five-hour rule： one hour aday on every weekday.

Franklin’s learning time consisted of：waking up early to read and write， settingpersonal-growth goals and 2）trackingthe results， creating a club for “l(fā)ike-minded aspiring artisans andtradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved theircommunity”， turning his ideas into experiments， having morning andevening 3）reflection questions.

Every time that Franklintook time out of his busy dayto follow his five-hour rule andspend at least an hour learning，he accomplished less on thatday. However， in the long run， it

was 4）arguably the best investment of histime he could have made.

Franklin’s five-hour rule reflects the verysimple idea that， over time， the smartestand most successful people are the oneswho are constant and deliberate learners.

The core concept： empty space

To find out， we need look no further than chess grandmaster andworld-champion martial artist Josh Waitzkin. Instead of 5）squeezinghis days for the maximum productivity， he’s actually done theopposite. Waitzkin， who also authored The Art of Learning， purposelycreates 6）slack in his day so he has “empty space” for learning，creativity， and doing things at a higher quality. Here’s his explanationof this approach： “I have built a life around having empty space forthe development of my ideas for the creative process. And for thecultivation of a physiological state which is receptive enough to tunein very， very deeply to people I work with… In the creative process，it’s so easy to drive for efficiency and take for granted the really subtleinternal work that it takes to play on that razor’s edge.”

Adding slack to our day allows us to：

1. Plan out the learning. This allows us to think carefully about what we want to learn. We shouldn’t just have goals for what we want?to accomplish. We should also have goals forwhat we want to learn.

2. Deliberately practice. Rather than doingthings automatically and not improving， wecan apply the proven principles of deliberatepractice so we keep improving. This meansdoing things like taking time to get honest feedback on our work andpracticing specific skills we want to improve.

3. Ruminate. This helps us get more perspective on our lessonslearned and assimilate new ideas. It can also help us develop slowhunches in order to have creative breakthroughs. Walking is a greatway to process these insights， as shown by many greats who wereor are walking fanatics， from Beethoven and Charles Darwin to SteveJobs and Jack Dorsey. Another powerful way is through conversationpartners.

4. Set aside time just for learning.This includes activities like reading，having conversations， participating in amastermind， taking classes， observingothers， etc.

5. Solve problems as they arise. Whenmost people experience problems duringthe day， they sweep them under the rugso that they can continue their to-do list.Having slack creates the space to address small problems before theyturn into big problems.

1） invest v. 投入

2） track v. 追蹤

3） reflection n. 思考；沉思

4） arguably adv. 可以說

5） squeeze v. 擠出

6） slack n. 富余部分

詞組加油站

consist of 由……組成

take for granted 認(rèn)為……是理所當(dāng)然

set aside 留出（錢或時(shí)間）

6. Do small experiments with big potential payoffs. Whether or notan experiment works， it’s an opportunity to learn and test your ideas.

本杰明·富蘭克林成年以后，堅(jiān)持每天都抽出約一小時(shí)用來學(xué)習(xí)，這稱之為“富蘭克林的五小時(shí)原則”：每個(gè)工作日，每日一小時(shí)。

富蘭克林的學(xué)習(xí)時(shí)間包括：早起讀書寫作；設(shè)立個(gè)人成長目標(biāo)并跟蹤結(jié)果；為那些志趣相投且有抱負(fù)的藝術(shù)家和商人們成立一個(gè)俱樂部，讓他們在為社會做貢獻(xiàn)的同時(shí)也能不斷提升自己；將想法付諸實(shí)踐；早晨和晚上都提出一些思考問題。

每次，富蘭克林都會在繁忙的一天中抽出一小時(shí)踐行他的五小時(shí)原則，這看似使他當(dāng)天完成的任務(wù)減少了，但從長遠(yuǎn)來看，這可以稱為他為自己的時(shí)間做出的最好投資。

富蘭克林的五小時(shí)原則說明了一個(gè)很簡單的道理：最聰明、最成功的那些人，其實(shí)正是那些能夠持續(xù)用心學(xué)習(xí)的人。

核心原則：留白

國際象棋大師和世界冠軍武術(shù)家喬希·維茨金就是最好的證明。維茨金并沒有為了追求最大化的高產(chǎn)能而去擠時(shí)間，事實(shí)上，他所做的恰恰相反。作為《學(xué)習(xí)之道》一書的作者，他有意在一天中擠出空閑，把“時(shí)間留白”用以學(xué)習(xí)、創(chuàng)意并提升做事效率。他這樣解釋自己的這一方法：“我構(gòu)建的這種生活能夠使我有時(shí)間發(fā)展一些創(chuàng)意，并且能夠使我和同事之間的關(guān)系更加融洽。在這一創(chuàng)造性過程中，效率很容易得到提高，而且這種微妙的內(nèi)部工作在緊急關(guān)頭也能夠發(fā)揮作用。”

給生活“留白”能夠使我們：

1. 規(guī)劃學(xué)習(xí)。這讓我們能夠認(rèn)真考慮自己想要學(xué)習(xí)的東西。我們不應(yīng)只為那些我們想完成的事情樹立目標(biāo)，也應(yīng)為那些我們想學(xué)到的知識樹立目標(biāo)。

2. 專門練習(xí)。我們可以利用一些已被證實(shí)的原則進(jìn)行專門練習(xí)，從而使自己得到提高，而不是漫無目的地去做事而毫無進(jìn)步。這意味著做這些事情時(shí)，我們需要像在工作中一樣花時(shí)間得到誠實(shí)反饋，或者練習(xí)一些我們希望獲得的特殊技能。

3. 沉思。這能使我們對學(xué)到的經(jīng)驗(yàn)產(chǎn)生更多領(lǐng)悟和吸收新的觀點(diǎn)，也能使我們緩慢積累一些想法，這樣才能產(chǎn)生創(chuàng)造性的突破。散步是處理這些想法的一個(gè)好方式，貝多芬、查爾斯·達(dá)爾文、史蒂夫·喬布斯和杰克·多西都是散步的狂熱愛好者。另一個(gè)有效的方式則是與同伴溝通交流。

4. 專門為學(xué)習(xí)留出時(shí)間。這包括閱讀、對話、參與策劃、參加課程以及觀察他人等活動(dòng)。

5. 問題一經(jīng)出現(xiàn)就立即解決。當(dāng)天遇到問題的時(shí)候，很多人會采取回避的方法以便繼續(xù)完成自己的待辦清單。留白為人們創(chuàng)造出一個(gè)在小問題變成大問題之前就進(jìn)行解決的空間。

6. 去做具有巨大潛在回報(bào)的小嘗試。一次嘗試無論成功與否，都是一個(gè)學(xué)習(xí)和驗(yàn)證自己想法的機(jī)會。