What you don't hear much about is the real value of doing nothing.

你很少聽到的是什麼都不做的真正價值。

With Susan Spencer, let's all take it easy.

有 Susan Spencer 在，大家都別緊張。

For most of her working life, Celeste Headley never made any time for any time off.

在她工作生涯的大部分時間裡，Celeste Headley 從未抽出時間休息過。

I used to say, I can outwork anybody.

我曾經說過，我能勝過任何人。

That used to be like my calling card.

這曾經是我的標誌。

A single mother, at one point she was balancing childcare with seven different jobs.

作為一名單身母親，她曾一度要兼顧照顧孩子和七份不同的工作。

I am a professional opera singer, so I sang for the Michigan Opera Theater.

我是一名專業歌劇演員，所以我為密歇根歌劇院演唱過。

I also did a lot of writing jobs.

我還做過很多寫作工作。

I wrote for the Detroit News.

我為《底特律新聞報》寫過文章。

I was filing freelance pieces for National Public Radio.

我當時是國家公共電臺的自由撰稿人。

But in 2017, at age 47, she hit a wall.

但在 2017 年，47 歲的她碰壁了。

I was irritable all the time.

我總是很煩躁。

I was tired all the time.

我一直都很累。

I mean, I started getting sick, and I'm a very healthy person.

我開始生病，而我本來是一個非常健康的人。

I mean, I don't generally get sick, so obviously I was overworked.

我一般不會生病，所以很明顯我是過度勞累了。

And that was a problem that had to be solved.

這是一個必須解決的問題。

First step, she quit her full-time job.

第一步，她辭去了全職工作。

Second, equally drastic move, she took a two-week cross-country train ride, much of it without Wi-Fi, just to see what would happen.

其次，她採取了同樣激烈的行動，乘坐了兩週的跨國火車，其中大部分時間都沒有無線網絡，只是想看看會發生什麼。

For the first three or four days, it was panic.

最初的三四天，我都很恐慌。

You know when you leave your house, and you realize you don't have your cell phone on you, and you're like, oh!

當你離開家時，發現手機沒帶在身上，你會想：「天阿！」

But eventually, it just started to feel okay.

但最終，我開始覺得還不錯。

By the time she got home, she'd had an epiphany.

回到家後，她頓悟了。

Idleness, leisure time, is necessary for our own health and well-being.

閒暇，閒暇時間，是我們自身健康和幸福所必需的。

The title of Hedley's recent book says it all, but she argues social pressures make doing nothing hard to do.

Hedley 最近出版的一本書的書名就說明了一切，但她認為，社會壓力讓人很難做到什麼都不做。

After all, we might be accused of the dreaded sin of laziness.

畢竟，我們可能會被指責犯有可怕的懶惰罪。

If somebody's lazy, right, they're not earning their place in society.

如果有人懶惰，他們就沒有在社會上贏得一席之地。

They're a bum.

他們是無用的。

So you think laziness has become a bad word?

所以你認為懶惰成了一個不好的詞？

Yeah, absolutely.

是的，當然。

How did laziness get such a bum rap?

懶惰怎麼會被說得如此不堪？

Laziness gets a bum rap from religion.

懶惰是宗教的弊端。

It gets a bum rap from capitalism.

它被資本主義說得一無是處。

It gets a bum rap because we are trying to be productive in our lives.

因為我們都想在生活中有所作為，所以它被說得很糟糕。

And productivity is the real priority in America, says Professor Lonnie Golden, who teaches economics at Penn State Abington.

賓夕法尼亞州立大學阿賓頓分校經濟學教授 Lonnie Golden 說，生產力才是美國真正的當務之急。

The big payoffs in the U.S. are making yourself available for promotion or building your own business from scratch.

美國的豐厚回報是讓自己得到晉升，或是白手起家建立自己的事業。

So there's many good rewards from that.

所以我們從中獲得了很多豐厚的回報。

But there's no reward for being lazy.

但懶惰是沒有回報的。

There's no reward for being lazy, I think it's fair to say.

沒錯，懶惰是沒有回報的。

When you're at your high school reunion, you don't want to be saying, you know, "I've been doing nothing. "

當你參加高中同學會時，你不會想對同學說：「我一直無所事事。」

According to a recent survey, Americans value hard work over just about everything else,

根據最近的一項調查，美國人對努力工作的重視幾乎超過了其他一切，

including self-fulfillment, marriage, patriotism, religion, and tolerance for others.

包括自我實現、婚姻、愛國主義、宗教和對他人的寬容。

Even retirees have a hard time doing nothing.

即使是退休人員也很難做到無所事事。

It gets to be what's called the conspicuous busyness.

這就是所謂的顯而易見的忙碌。

Like, hey, look how busy I am and look how much time I'm spending.

比如，嘿，看看我有多忙，看看我花了多少時間。

Maybe it's volunteering, but it should be okay to say I'm retired.

也許是志願服務，但說我退休了應該沒問題。

And as a result, I can be lazy when I feel like being lazy.

所以，我想偷懶的時候就能偷懶。

But it's not.

但事實並非如此。

Because we're in this cult, this anti-lazy cult.

因為我們在這個邪教裡，這個反懶惰的邪教裡。

Yeah, we have all been basically brainwashed to believe that we have to work hard or we're not of value.

是的，我們基本上都被洗腦了，認為我們必須努力工作，否則就沒有價值。

Which may explain why employers seem to love employees who say they can multitask.

這也許可以解釋為什麼僱主們似乎喜歡那些說自己會處理多項任務的員工。

Really, what could be less lazy?

真的，還有比這更懶的嗎？

We hear this all the time.

我們經常聽到這樣的話。

Businesses ask candidates, "Are you good at multitasking?"

企業會問應聘者：「你擅長多任務處理嗎？」

And they want to hear yes.

他們想聽到「是」。

But what they should want to hear is no.

但他們應該要聽到的是「不」。

People are motivated, people want to get ahead.

人都有上進心，都想出人頭地。

It's understandable.

這是可以理解的。

Professor Earl K. Miller, a neuroscientist at MIT's Picower Institute for Learning and Memory, has sobering news for a culture obsessed with juggling jobs.

Earl K. Miller 教授是麻省理工學院皮考爾學習與記憶研究所的神經學家，他的研究成果讓沉迷於兼顧工作的人們清醒了許多。

Our brains are very one track.

我們的大腦非常單一。

We can hold only one or two thoughts in mind at a time. And that is it.

我們一次只能記住一個或兩個想法。就這樣。

We're very single-minded.

我們一心一意。

You mean it is physically impossible to multitask?

你的意思是說，要同時處理多項任務在生理上是不可能的？

I mean it is physically impossible to multitask.

沒錯，要同時處理多項任務，從生理上來說是不可能的。

Our poor brains, when struggling to multitask, instead simply slow down and make mistakes.

我們可憐的大腦在努力完成多項任務時，反而會放慢速度，犯下錯誤。

A far better plan, says Professor Miller, is to try doing no tasks at all.

Miller 教授說，更好的辦法是嘗試不做任何任務。

You know, a lot of times some of your best thoughts come to you when your conscious mind is out of the way, or when you allow these unconscious thoughts to bubble up. Right?

你知道嗎，很多時候，當你的意識離開你的思維，或者當你允許這些無意識的想法湧現出來時，你就會產生一些最好的想法。

And sometimes it's good to be lazy, not lazy, but to tune out a bit and let these thoughts bubble up.

有時偷懶也不錯，不是偷懶，而是稍微放鬆一下，讓這些想法冒出來。

That advice is a way of life at the 93-year-old Institute for Advanced Study, an academic research center in Princeton, New Jersey, where remarkably, doing nothing does not have a bad name, says director David Nuremberg.

擁有 93 年曆史的高級研究所是位於新澤西州普林斯頓的一個學術研究中心，該研究所所長 David Nuremberg 說，在這裡，無所事事並不是一件壞事。

What's a typical day like?

這裡典型的一天是怎樣的？

There isn't a typical day.

沒有典型的一天。

You can do whatever you want.

你想做什麼就做什麼。

The day is yours.

這一天屬於你。

When not gathering for tea each day, scholars may take a walk in the woods, sit by the pond, or even nap.

每天不聚在一起喝茶時，學者們可以在樹林裡散步，坐在池塘邊，甚至打盹。

We all need space for non-intentional activity, non-intentional thought, contemplation.

我們都需要非刻意活動、非刻意思考和沉思的空間。

That's why weekends exist.

這就是週末存在的意義。

I think that's why so many of our faith traditions have introduced days of rest.

我想這就是為什麼我們的許多信仰傳統都引入了休息日。

But we think of that as being lazy.

但我們認為這是在偷懶。

I think it's a crucial part of being human.

我認為這是人類的重要組成部分。

Not to imply that anyone's slacking off.

並不是說誰在偷懶。

The Institute has been an intellectual home to Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, and 35 Nobel laureates.

該研究所是愛因斯坦、奧本海默和 35 名諾貝爾獎得主的知識分子故鄉。

Some of the most productive and renowned people in history worked maybe four hours a day.

歷史上一些最有成就、最負盛名的人每天可能工作 4 個小時。

Charles Dickens, Charles Darwin, Henri Poincaré.

查爾斯·狄更斯、查爾斯·達爾文、亨利·龐加萊。

I mean, these are people who had a focused time of four hours, and the rest of the time, what were they doing?

這些人有四個小時的集中時間，其餘時間他們在做什麼？

They were dining, they were sitting in the garden, they were hanging out with friends.

他們在用餐，他們坐在花園裡，他們和朋友們一起閒逛。

They were being lazy.

他們在偷懶。

Yeah, to our 21st century eyes, yeah, they were being lazy.

是的，以我們 21 世紀的眼光來看，是的，他們在偷懶。

To them, they were living their life.

對他們來說，他們在過自己的生活。

My friends definitely see me more.

我的朋友們肯定會更常看到我。

And Celeste Headley wants all of us to start living our lives, too.

Celeste Headley 希望我們所有人也能開始過自己的生活。

Yeah, of course you take vacations.

是啊，你當然會休假。

So if you had one message about laziness, what would it be?

那麼，如果你有一條關於懶惰的資訊，會是什麼呢？

The most successful animals on the planet are the laziest.

地球上最成功的動物都是最懶惰的。

Think about how long lions lie around on the savanna.

想想獅子在大草原上能躺多久。

And when they need food, there's a burst of energy and activity, and they get it, and then they go back to lying around.

當它們需要食物時，就會爆發出能量和活動，它們得到食物後，又會繼續躺著。

If you look at the apex predators, some of the most successful species on planet Earth, they spend a good amount of their time doing nothing at all.

如果你看看頂級掠食者，地球上一些最成功的物種，它們有相當多的時間是什麼都不做的。