What is on your to do list?
你的待辦事項清單上有什麼？
Neil: Hello and welcome to 6 Minute English, I'm Neil. And joining me it's Rob.
大家好，歡迎收聽六分鐘英語，我是尼爾。和我一同主持節目的是羅伯。
Rob: Hello.
大家好。
Neil: Now Rob, would you say you're someone who is quite organised?
羅布，你會說你自己是一個做事很有條理的人嗎？
Rob: I'd like to think so.
我想我會這麼說自己。
Neil: What's the best way to organise everything?
組織安排每件事的最好方式是什麼？
Rob: You need a 'to-do' list - a list of all the jobs you need to do that you can work your way through.
你需要一個「待辦事項清單」——即一張列滿你所有需要做並且自己能處理的事項的清單。
Neil: That's a good idea and something we can include in today's discussion about life admin. Admin is short for administration - that describes the activities and tasks you have to do to make a business or organisation run smoothly - but life admin is administration you have to do to make your day-to-day life run smoothly - like doing housework, or paying a bill. And the first thing on my 'to-do' list is to ask you and the listeners, a question.
這是個好主意，我們可以在今天的關於「生活管理」的討論中囊括這項內容。Admin(管理)是administration(管理)的縮寫，這個詞描述的是為了使企業或組織平穩運行而必須進行的活動和任務，但「life Admin(生活管理)」是為了讓你的日常生活平穩進行而必須進行的管理，比如做家務或付帳。我們要做的第一件事就是問你和聽眾一個問題。
Rob: Yes, you wouldn't want to forget that.
是的，你應該不希望忘記這一點的。
Neil: So, the website Hotels.com commissioned some research about how much time young adults - that's millennials - spend doing life admin. Do you know what proportion of their free time they spend doing life admin tasks? Is it... a) a quarter of a day b) a third of a day c) half a day?
所以，Hotels.com網站委託了一項「關於年輕人，也就是千禧一代花在管理生活上的時間」的調查。你知道他們（每天）有多少空閒時間花在生活管理上嗎？是a) 一天的四分之 b)一天的三分 c)半天?
Rob: Based on my personal experience, I would say about a quarter of a day.
根據我個人的經驗，我認為應該是一天的四分之一。
Neil: Well, we'll see if you're the same as other people at the end of the programme. But as we all know, life admin is necessary but it can be a bit of a chore - a boring, ordinary task you do regularly.
嗯，我們會在節目結束時看看你和其他人花在生活管理上的時間是否一樣。但我們都知道，生活管理是必要的，但也可能就是做家庭雜務——你經常做的無聊任務。
Rob: Experts have studied the subject and looked at how we do it and how we can make it less boring. One of them is Elizabeth Emens, Professor of Law at Columbia University and author of The Art of Life Admin.
專家們已經研究過這個話題，並研究了我們是如何做這件事的，以及我們如何做才能讓這件事不那麼無聊。專家之一是哥倫比亞大學(Columbia University)法學教授、《生活管理的藝術》(The Art of Life administration)一書的作者伊莉莎白·埃蒙斯(Elizabeth Emens)。
Neil: She's been speaking to the BBC Radio 4 programme, Woman's Hour, and described what she thought life admin is...
她在BBC廣播4臺的節目《女性時間》中描述了她所認為的生活管理是什麼...
Elizabeth Emens, Professor of Law at Columbia University
哥倫比亞大學法學教授伊莉莎白·埃蒙斯
Life admin is the office work of life, it's the invisible layer of work that is the kind of thing that managers and secretaries, aka admins, do for pay in the office but that everyone does in their own lives for free.
生活管理是生活中的「辦公室工作」，它是一種看不見的工作面，類似經理和秘書（即管理人員）在辦公室裡為工資而做的事情，但每個人在自己生活中做這件事都是沒有報酬的。
Rob: She calls life admin the invisible layer of work - so it's work, tasks or chores we carry out that people don't notice we're doing - or don't realise we have to do them it's extra work in our life.
她把生活管理稱為「看不見的工作面」，所以生活管理是大家在做別人沒有注意到工作、任務和雜物，或者沒有意識到我們必須做這些事情，這些事情是我們生活中的額外工作。
Neil: And we don't get paid for it - unless we're at work when it is the role of someone to do it - such as secretaries or aka admins - aka is short for 'also known as' - so secretaries might also be known as admins - that is short for people who do administration.
我們是無償做些事的，除非我們在職場以某個職位（比如秘書或又名管理員）去做，aka是「also known as（又稱）」的縮寫，所以秘書亦可以被稱為行政管理員，admin是做管理（行政）工作的人員的縮寫。
Rob: Right, so we know life admin is boring and we don't get paid for it - and also, trying to renew your house insurance or trying to query a bill with a utility company can be frustrating and feels like a waste of time. A utility company by the way, is one that supplies something such as electricity, gas, or water to the public.
對，所以我們知道生活管理很無聊，且我們也沒有報酬可拿，並且，續期房屋保險或向公用事業公司查詢帳單可能會讓人沮喪，感覺像是在浪費時間。順便說一下，公共實業公司是指向公眾提供電力、天然氣或水等物資的公司。
Neil: My problem is I never get round to doing my life admin - there are better things to do - so you could say I procrastinate - I delay doing things until later, probably because I don't want to do them.
我的問題是我從來沒有抽出時間來管理我的生活，我有更好的事情要做，所以你可以說我拖延，即我把事情推遲到以後做，可能是因為我不想做。
Rob: You are what Elizabeth classifies as an 'admin avoider'. So this is where my to-do list comes in handy Neil. You have a written record of tasks that can be quite satisfying to cross off as you do them. But this is something Elizabeth Emens has found to work, at least for some people. Let's hear from her again. What type of people did she find get most satisfaction from completing a to-do list?
你就是伊莉莎白所說的「管理迴避者」。這就是我的待辦事項清單派上用場的地方了，尼爾。假如你將任務書面記錄下來，當你做完任務劃掉這些任務的時候，你會很有成就感。但伊莉莎白·埃蒙斯表示這僅對某些人有效。讓我們再聽聽她的意見。她發現什麼類型的人能從完成待辦事項清單中獲得最大的滿足感？
Elizabeth Emens, Professor of Law at Columbia University
哥倫比亞大學法學教授伊莉莎白·埃蒙斯
If you've ever made a list and put things on it you've already done, just to cross them out, then you know the kind of 'done it' pleasure that goes with that. But actually I interviewed people, especially the super-doers that I interviewed, actually can find real pleasure in the actual doing of it - so trying to understand how we can get to that when we have to do it - how we can make it so that there is some meaning in it and some texture and there're ways of doing it that please us.
如果你曾經列過一個清單，並將你已經做過的事情列在上面，只是將它們劃掉，那麼你就能體會哪那種「已做」的樂趣。但實際上我採訪的群眾，尤其是我所採訪的超級實幹家們，實際上能在完成任務的過程中找到真正的樂趣，所以試著去理解，當我們必須做某件事的時候，我們怎麼才能完成它，我們如何才能讓這件事變得有意義、有條理，有很多能讓我們身心愉悅的方式來做這件事。
Neil: So she was describing the super-doers - these are the people who love admin and would spend an evening putting their book collection into alphabetical order!
所以她說超級實幹家—— 就是那些喜歡管理、會花一整晚的時間把他們的藏書按字母順序整理好的人。
Rob: Elizabeth mentioned that we should learn from the super-doers and get some 'done it' pleasure in doing our life admin. We need to find a meaning for doing it - in other words, what is represents - so we can see the benefit of completing our to-do list.
伊莉莎白提到我們應該向超級實幹家學習，在管理生活的過程中獲得一些「已完成」的樂趣。我們需要找到這件事的意義——換句話說，就是找到它所代表的意義——這樣我們才能看到完成待辦事項清單的好處。
Neil: How we find pleasure from doing life admin is different for different people - so personally, I think I'll stick with being an 'admin avoider' - but that might explain why I just got charged extra for not paying my credit card bill on time!
我們從管理生活中如何找到樂趣是因人而異的，就我個人而言，我想我會堅持做一個「管理迴避者」，但這也許可以解釋為什麼我因為沒有按時支付信用卡帳單而被多收了錢。
Rob: Well, please don't avoid giving us the answer to the quiz question you asked us earlier.
嗯，請不要迴避給我們之前你問我們的問題的答案。
Neil: Yes. Earlier I asked, researchers, commissioned by Hotels.com, polled 2,000 young professionals about their lives. How much of their free time do they spend doing life admin? Is it... a) quarter of a day b) a third of a day c) half a day?
是的，此前我詢問了Hotels.com委託調查了2000名年輕的專業人士的生活。他們有多少空閒時間花在管理生活上？是a) 四分之一天 b) 三分之一天 c) 半天
Rob: And I said a) a quarter of a day.
我選的是a) 四分之一天。
Neil: Yes, they spend a quarter of their days carrying out tasks like doctor's appointments, waiting in for packages to be delivered and doing household chores. Boring!
是的，他們每天將四分之一的時間花在了諸如預約醫生、等包裹、做家務等任務上。好無聊啊！
Rob: Unlike this programme Neil, which is not a chore - one of the words we discussed today.
不像這個節目，尼爾，這個節目不是一個無聊的苦差，「chore」是我們今天討論的一個詞。
Neil: Yes, our vocabulary today included chore - a boring, ordinary task you do regularly.
沒錯，我們今天的詞彙包括chore，意思是你經常做的一項無聊的、普通的工作。
Rob: We also mentioned admin, short for administration - the activities and tasks you have to do make a business, organisation or just your life, run smoothly.
我們還提到了admin，這個詞是是administration(管理)的縮寫，是指為了讓企業、組織或你的生活順利運轉而必須進行的活動和任務。
Neil: We heard aka - meaning 'also known as' - so for example, Rob aka The master of 6 Minute English!
我們聽到了aka，aka的意思是「也被稱為」，例如Rob——即6分鐘英語的大師。
Rob: Thanks very much Neil. Next we heard utility company. That's a company that supplies something such as electricity, gas, or water to the public. And we also heard how Neil likes to procrastinate - that's delay doing things until later, probably because he doesn't want to do them.
非常感謝你，尼爾。接下來我們聽到的是「utility company」（公用事業公司），這是一家向公眾提供電力、媒體或水等物資的公司。我們還聽到了尼爾喜歡拖延（procrastinate）——即把事情拖到以後做，可能是因為他不想做吧。
Neil: Finally, we mentioned super-doers - an informal term to describe people who get satisfaction out of doing life admin and do lots of it.
最後，我們提到了超級實幹家（super-doers），這是一個非正式的術語，用來描述那些從管理生活中獲得滿足感，並且完成了很多事項的人。
Rob: Like me.
比如我。
Neil: Well, it's time to go now but there's plenty more to discover on our website at bbclearningenglish.com. Goodbye for now.
好了，到了說再見的時刻裡，但在我們的網站bbclearningenglish.com上還有很多節目待你發現。再見了。
Rob: Bye bye.
拜拜。