当你遇到不想做某件事或者在处理某件事上遇到困难时，采取通用旋转餐盘的工作方式，先将该任务搁置一边，去做其他事情。待处理完其他事情后，再回来重新思考，可能会有新的思路，问题也会迎刃而解。 另一方面，选择去做其他事情，反而会提高处理其他任务的效率。这是因为遇到不想做或者遇到困难的任务，会产生拖延的倾向。然而，结构化拖延的要旨在于，不要与拖延的倾向作斗争，相反，应该利用这种拖延的倾向来完成其他任务。 通过这种方式，你可以将自己的时间和精力更好地分配，提高工作效率。当你暂时搁置某个任务时，可以专注于其他事情，这样不仅可以避免焦虑和压力，还可以让大脑得到一定的休息和切换，为后续的任务处理做好准备。 总之，利用通用旋转餐盘的工作方式，结合结构化拖延的策略，可以更好地管理时间和任务，提高工作效率。不要与拖延作斗争，而是善于利用它，合理安排任务的处理顺序，从而达到事半功倍的效果。在面对困难和瓶颈时，不要过于焦虑和沮丧，相信通过合理的时间安排和思维切换，问题总会得到解决。

结构化拖延：一个斯坦福的教授在1949年提出的这个概念 https://structuredprocrastination.com，以下是原文：

`anyone can do any amount of work, provided it isn't the work he is supposed to be doing at that moment." -- Robert Benchley, in Chips off the Old Benchley, 1949。任何人都可以做任何数量的工作，只要这不是他当时应该做的工作“——罗伯特·本奇利，在《老本奇利的筹码》中，1949年

I have been intending to write this essay for months. Why am I finally doing it? Because I finally found some uncommitted time? Wrong. I have papers to grade, textbook orders to fill out, an NSF proposal to referee, dissertation drafts to read. I am working on this essay as a way of not doing all of those things. This is the essence of what I call structured procrastination, an amazing strategy I have discovered that converts procrastinators into effective human beings, respected and admired for all that they can accomplish and the good use they make of time. All procrastinators put off things they have to do. Structured procrastination is the art of making this bad trait work for you. The key idea is that procrastinating does not mean doing absolutely nothing. Procrastinators seldom do absolutely nothing; they do marginally useful things, like gardening or sharpening pencils or making a diagram of how they will reorganize their files when they get around to it. Why does the procrastinator do these things? Because they are a way of not doing something more important. If all the procrastinator had left to do was to sharpen some pencils, no force on earth could get him do it. However, the procrastinator can be motivated to do difficult, timely and important tasks, as long as these tasks are a way of not doing something more important. 几个月来，我一直打算写这篇文章。为什么我终于做到了？因为我终于找到了一些空闲的时间吗？错。我有论文要批改，教科书订单要填写，NSF提案要裁判，论文草稿要阅读。我写这篇文章是为了避免做所有这些事情。这就是我所谓的结构化拖延的本质，我发现的一种惊人的策略，它将拖延者转化为有效的人，因为他们能完成的一切以及他们对时间的充分利用而受到尊重和钦佩。所有拖延者都会推迟他们必须做的事情。结构化拖延是让这种不良特质为你工作的艺术。关键思想是，拖延并不意味着什么都不做。拖延者很少什么都不做;他们做一些稍微有用的事情，比如园艺或削铅笔，或者制作一张图表，说明当他们处理文件时，他们将如何重新组织他们的文件。拖延者为什么要做这些事情？因为它们是一种不做更重要的事情的方式。如果拖延症患者剩下的只是削一些铅笔，那么地球上没有任何力量可以让他做到这一点。然而，拖延者可以被激励去做困难的、及时的和重要的任务，只要这些任务是一种不做更重要的事情的方式。

Structured procrastination means shaping the structure of the tasks one has to do in a way that exploits this fact. The list of tasks one has in mind will be ordered by importance. Tasks that seem most urgent and important are on top. But there are also worthwhile tasks to perform lower down on the list. Doing these tasks becomes a way of not doing the things higher up on the list. With this sort of appropriate task structure, the procrastinator becomes a useful citizen. Indeed, the procrastinator can even acquire, as I have, a reputation for getting a lot done. 结构化拖延意味着以利用这一事实的方式塑造一个人必须完成的任务的结构。人们想到的任务列表将按重要性排序。看似最紧迫和最重要的任务是最重要的。但也有一些有价值的任务需要执行列表的下方。执行这些任务成为不执行列表上较高位置的事情的一种方式。有了这种适当的任务结构，拖延者就会成为一个有用的公民。事实上，拖延者甚至可以像我一样获得完成很多事情的声誉。

The most perfect situation for structured procrastination that I ever had was when my wife and I served as Resident Fellows in Soto House, a Stanford dormitory. In the evening, faced with papers to grade, lectures to prepare, committee work to be done, I would leave our cottage next to the dorm and go over to the lounge and play ping-pong with the residents, or talk over things with them in their rooms, or just sit there and read the paper. I got a reputation for being a terrific Resident Fellow, and one of the rare profs on campus who spent time with undergraduates and got to know them. What a set up: play ping pong as a way of not doing more important things, and get a reputation as Mr. Chips. 我经历过的最完美的结构性拖延情况是我和妻子在斯坦福大学宿舍索托楼担任居民研究员的时候。晚上，面对要批改的论文，要准备的讲座，要完成的委员会工作，我会离开宿舍旁边的小屋，去休息室和居民打乒乓球，或者在他们的房间里和他们谈论事情，或者只是坐在那里看报纸。我以出色的住院研究员而闻名，也是校园里为数不多的与本科生共度时光并了解他们的教授之一。这是一个怎样的设置：打乒乓球是一种不做更重要的事情的方式，并获得筹码先生的声誉。

Procrastinators often follow exactly the wrong tack. They try to minimize their commitments, assuming that if they have only a few things to do, they will quit procrastinating and get them done. But this goes contrary to the basic nature of the procrastinator and destroys his most important source of motivation. The few tasks on his list will be by definition the most important, and the only way to avoid doing them will be to do nothing. This is a way to become a couch potato, not an effective human being. 拖延者往往遵循完全错误的策略。他们试图尽量减少自己的承诺，假设如果他们只有几件事要做，他们就会停止拖延并完成它们。但这违背了拖延者的基本本性，破坏了他最重要的动力来源。根据定义，他清单上的少数任务将是最重要的，避免做这些任务的唯一方法就是什么都不做。这是一种成为沙发土豆的方式，而不是一个有效的人。

At this point you may be asking, "How about the important tasks at the top of the list, that one never does?" Admittedly, there is a potential problem here. 在这一点上，你可能会问，“列表顶部的重要任务怎么样，那个任务从来没有做过？诚然，这里有一个潜在的问题。

The trick is to pick the right sorts of projects for the top of the list. The ideal sorts of things have two characteristics, First, they seem to have clear deadlines (but really don't). Second, they seem awfully important (but really aren't). Luckily, life abounds with such tasks. In universities the vast majority of tasks fall into this category, and I'm sure the same is true for most other large institutions. Take for example the item right at the top of my list right now. This is finishing an essay for a volume in the philosophy of language. It was supposed to be done eleven months ago. I have accomplished an enormous number of important things as a way of not working on it. A couple of months ago, bothered by guilt, I wrote a letter to the editor saying how sorry I was to be so late and expressing my good intentions to get to work. Writing the letter was, of course, a way of not working on the article. It turned out that I really wasn't much further behind schedule than anyone else. And how important is this article anyway? Not so important that at some point something that seems more important won't come along. Then I'll get to work on it. 诀窍是为列表顶部选择正确类型的项目。理想的事物有两个特征，首先，它们似乎有明确的截止日期（但实际上没有）。其次，它们看起来非常重要（但实际上并非如此）。幸运的是，生活中充满了这样的任务。在大学里，绝大多数任务都属于这一类，我相信大多数其他大型机构也是如此。以我现在列表顶部的项目为例。这是完成一篇关于语言哲学的论文。它应该在十一个月前完成。我已经完成了大量重要的事情，作为一种不工作的方式。几个月前，我被内疚所困扰，给编辑写了一封信，说我来这么晚是多么抱歉，并表达了我上班的良好意愿。当然，写这封信是一种不处理文章的方式。事实证明，我真的不比其他人落后于计划。这篇文章到底有多重要？不是那么重要，以至于在某些时候似乎更重要的事情不会出现。然后我会开始工作。

Another example is book order forms. I write this in June. In October, I will teach a class on Epistemology. The book order forms are already overdue at the book store. It is easy to take this as an important task with a pressing deadline (for you non-procrastinators, I will observe that deadlines really start to press a week or two after they pass.) I get almost daily reminders from the department secretary, students sometimes ask me what we will be reading, and the unfilled order form sits right in the middle of my desk, right under the wrapping from the sandwich I ate last Wednesday. This task is near the top of my list; it bothers me, and motivates me to do other useful but superficially less important things. But in fact, the book store is plenty busy with forms already filed by non-procrastinators. I can get mine in mid-Summer and things will be fine. I just need to order popular well-known books from efficient publishers. I will accept some other, apparently more important, task sometime between now and, say, August 1st. Then my psyche will feel comfortable about filling out the order forms as a way of not doing this new task. 另一个例子是图书订单。我在六月写这篇文章。十月，我将教授一门关于认识论的课程。书店的图书订购表已经过期。很容易将此视为一项重要的任务，并有一个紧迫的最后期限（对于你们这些非拖延者，我会观察到截止日期在过后一两周才真正开始按下。我几乎每天都会收到系秘书的提醒，学生们有时会问我将阅读什么，而未填写的订单就放在我的办公桌中间，就在我上周三吃的三明治的包装下面。此任务靠近我列表的顶部;它困扰着我，并激励我做其他有用但表面上不那么重要的事情。但事实上，书店忙于非拖延者已经提交的表格。我可以在仲夏得到我的，一切都会好起来的。我只需要从高效的出版商那里订购流行的知名书籍。我将接受其他一些显然更重要的任务，从现在到8月1日之间的某个时间。然后，我的心理会对填写订单感到自在，以此作为不执行这项新任务的一种方式。

The observant reader may feel at this point that structured procrastination requires a certain amount of self-deception, since one is in effect constantly perpetrating a pyramid scheme on oneself. Exactly. One needs to be able to recognize and commit oneself to tasks with inflated importance and unreal deadlines, while making oneself feel that they are important and urgent. This is not a problem, because virtually all procrastinators have excellent self-deceptive skills also. And what could be more noble than using one character flaw to offset the bad effects of another? 细心的读者可能会在这一点上感到，结构化的拖延需要一定程度的自我欺骗，因为一个人实际上是在不断地对自己实施传销。一个人需要能够认识到并致力于那些夸大其重要性和不真实的最后期限的任务，同时让自己觉得它们是重要和紧迫的。这不是问题，因为几乎所有拖延者都具有出色的自欺欺人的能力。还有什么比用一个性格缺陷来抵消另一个性格缺陷的不良影响更崇高的呢？