閱讀暖身
準時下班與完成每天工作事項不見得背道而馳。工作超時或許能贏得盡忠職守的美名，對長期的工作績效和生活品質卻不盡然。如果想盡力完成當天工作，又想準時離 開辦公室，你需要一些技巧管理你的工作習慣。 進入本文前,請先想想怎麼表達以下單字：
a) 精疲力盡
b) 應付
c) 空出、 撥出
The clock has ticked past 6:30pm but you are still sitting in front of your computer. You have been thinking about going home on time today so as to spend some time with your kids, but you are still facing a pile of work. When you finally get to leave the office, it’s already 9 pm and you are the last one to turn off the office lights again. You feel a) drained by work after getting home, and feel like 1) hitting the sack right away.
牆上的時鐘早已過了六點半，你還坐在你的電腦前面工作。雖然一直想著要早點回家陪小孩，卻有堆積如山的 工作還沒完成。當你終於準備要離開公司，發現已經九點鐘了，而且你又是最後一個離開辦公室的人。當你到 家之後，早已覺得精疲力盡，一心只想趕快上床睡覺。It's a pattern with which most full-time professionals are familiar–you’re spending increasing amounts of time at your office, compromising your personal life just to make a good impression at work. However, staying longer at the office does not necessarily make you more productive. It often works 2) the other way around. The following tips might help you shorten your office hours so you can leave work on time.
這是大部分全職上班族都不陌生的情況，每天花越來越多的時間待在辦公室，犧牲了自己的私人時間，只為求 在工作上有好的表現。然而，在辦公室的時間越長，並不代表你會更有生產力，而且通常還會得到反效果。以 下提供幾個方法，或許可以幫助你縮短工作時間，讓你準時離開工作崗位。First, learn to prioritize things. Make a list of the three most important things you have to get done in a day. Limit it to three and focus on them. Don’t try to b) juggle too many things at once. Tackle the important and difficult tasks first so they won’t slow you down at the end of the day when you might get stuck. Second, stay on top of your emails. c) Set aside two or three particular times a day for checking emails and that’s it! Don’t bother to reply to every email as soon as it arrives in your inbox. You are not going to miss out on important messages because people will call you if it’s urgent.
首先，訂出工作的優先順序。先寫下一天最重要的三件工作，記得要限制只有「三件」，並專注地完成它們，不要試著一次處理太多事情。先完成這些比較重要和困難的工作，不要留到下班前再做，這樣在遇到瓶頸的時>候，才不會拖延到你的下班時間。第二點，控制回覆電子郵件的時間。每天撥出兩到三個時間點回覆郵件即可 ，不要一收到新郵件就急著立刻回覆。你不必擔心會漏掉重要訊息，若有緊急的情況，別人會直接用電話聯繫
Third, be flexible. When you are busy, you can try to get to work earlier or compromise some of your lunch break time. Bring your own lunchbox so that it saves you more time. Don’t get involved in too many 3) “water cooler chats”; focus on accomplishing your tasks first. Lastly, feel good about what you have done. When you leave the office every day, don’t just think about the things you have yet to do. Remind yourself of the things you have accomplished today, ending your work-day feeling good about what you have done.
第三，「彈性」調配時間。當你業務繁忙的時候，可以試著早點進辦公室,或者是利用一點自己的午休時間工 作，自己帶便當會比中午出去外面吃飯來的更省時。試著減少參與同事的「茶水間閒聊」，讓自己先專注在當天要完成的任務。最後，對自己的工作進度感到滿意。每天離開辦公室前，不要只掛念著自己還沒完成的工作，提醒自己今天已經完成了哪些任務，在結束一天工作前能夠感覺充實。
口語詞彙：
1. hit the sack 上床睡覺
hit the sack 的意思和go to bed一樣，但hit the sack是更口語的表達方式。
I am very tired, so I guess it’s time for me to hit the sack. 我現在很累，所以我想該上床睡覺了。
2. the other way around 相反地、以相反地方式進行
I don't think the table will go through the door this way. Let’s try it the other way around. 我不覺得桌子可以從這個角度搬進門，我們應該要換個方向試試看。
3. water cooler chats 茶水間閒聊
Water cooler 是飲水機，water cooler chat 顧名思義就是在飲水機或茶水間的閒聊，也可以說 water cooler conversation.
The gossip has become water-cooler chat/conversation, and has spread around the office. 八卦已經成為茶水間閒聊話題，並且已在辦公室內傳開。
世界公民文化中心是一所兩年制英語學院。
以「英語島學程」獨有的一對一教學和國際商業趨勢同步的團體討論課程，幫助企業人士善用英語整合能力，達成個人和企業國際化的目標，為高科技與國際跨國公司仰賴的商務英語學習機構。
