快乐计划：跟踪进步

I'm working on my Happiness Project, and you could have one, too! Everyone's project will look different, but it’s the rare person who can't benefit. Join in -- no need to catch up, just jump in right now. Each Friday’s post will help you think about your own happiness project.

我正在进行自己的快乐计划，你也应该有一个!虽然人人不尽相同，可是极少人不从中受益。参与进来--不需要从后边赶上，只要立刻加入。每周五的帖子将帮助你思考自己的快乐计划。

One strategy that I find hugely helpful in many aspects of my life is to track my progress. Having some concrete proof of advancement¹ gives me the gold stars I crave², and the accountability of charting my progress – or lack thereof – keeps me diligent³.

在生活中许多方面帮助了我的一个策略是跟踪自己的进步。有确凿证据表明进步给我带来了渴求的“小星星”，对有了进步或缺少进步进行记录的问责制让我勤奋。

One key way I track my progress is through my Resolutions Chart. The boxes below each resolution show me where I'm making progress and where I need to work harder.

跟踪进步的一个关键是通过我的决议图。 每个决议下的格子说明我在哪些地方取得了进步，哪些地方需要再加把劲。

I’ve found other ways to keep track of progress, too. As I’ve worked on the draft of my Happiness Project book (self-promotion alert: it comes out in January), I kept a pile of all the print-outs I’ve made. I work almost exclusively on the computer, but every once in a while I have to read it in a hard copy -- somehow, words look so different printed on a page. Keeping a stack of my evolving manuscript was a way to remind myself visually of how far I’ve come since I started.

我还发现了另一个跟踪进步的方法。当我给“快乐计划”一书起草时(警告：自我推销--该书将于明年一月出版)，我有一大堆自己制作的打印本。几乎全部都是在电脑上进行，但是隔一段时间，我必须要读一读纸质本--不知怎么地，字印刷在一页纸上就是不一样。有一叠逐渐发展下的手稿是一个通过视觉方式提醒自己自己从一开始已经进行到了什么程度的方法。

As the photo here shows, the pile was also fairly unattractive, so after taking this picture I rewarded myself for completing the copy-edited version by tossing the entire stack. Now, in a reversal, the absence of the pile is a different sign of progress.

正如上边图片现实，这一堆看上去十分没魅力，所以，在拍完后，为了庆祝完成了书稿版，将这一堆都丢了。现在，反过来，没有这一堆成了展现出进步的另一个不同的标记。

Keeping track of progress can help deter⁴ you from doing things you don’t want to do – for example, snacking mindlessly. In Brian Wansink’s fascinating book Mindless Eating, he describes an experiment where students were served free chicken wings while they watched the Super Bowl. When the tables were bussed so that people had a clean table in front of them and no evidence to remind them of how much they’d eaten, they ate 28% more chicken wings than the people did when the leftover⁵ bones were left piled in front of them. A friend applied⁶ this strategy herself. She is a big candy fan, and for a week, after she ate candy, she saved the wrapper in her purse. At the end of the week, she was horrified⁷ by the number of wrappers she’d accumulated, and she was inspired to cut back on her candy consumption.

跟踪进步可以帮助你阻止做那些不想做的事情--例如，盲目吃零食。 在Brian Wansink精彩一书“Mindless Eating”中，他讲述了一个试验。实验中，学生被提供免费鸡翅，一边看Super Bowl。当餐座被撤掉，这样人们面前是干净的桌子，没有证据来提醒人们吃了多少，那么他们吃的鸡翅比那些鸡骨头堆被留在面前的人们吃的多28%。一位朋友对自己采用了这个方法。她很喜欢吃糖，有一周，在吃完后，她把糖纸存在了钱包中。一个礼拜后，她惊恐地发现积累了多少张糖纸，这让她少吃糖。

Another way to keep track of progress is to keep a one-sentence journal. The thought of keeping a real journal – the kind written in beautiful script in a parchment journal – is daunting⁸, but keeping a journal of one daily sentence is manageable. My one-sentence journal is just general family news, but other people use them to track progress in a specific area: the launch of a new business, brainstorming⁹ ideas for a project, tracking training for a marathon.

另一个跟踪进步的方法是记录一句话日记。写真正的日记--那种在羊皮纸日记本中漂亮语言写下的那种日记--令人畏怯，但是写“每天一句话”的日记却是可以做到。我的一句话日记不过是普通家庭内容，但是有人用它跟踪明确方面的进步: 创业、为一个计划想电子，为训练跑马拉松。

Have you found any good ways to track your progress? –and does it help you achieve your goals and keep your resolutions?

你有没有发现任何跟踪自己进步的好方法呢?--它能帮助你实现目标、保持决议吗?