内容来源：https://lifehacker.com/use-the-action-method-when-you-need-extra-motivation?utm_medium=RSS

内容总结：

高效工作新思路：“行动方法”助你拆解复杂任务，实现目标步步为营

面对庞杂的工作任务时，许多人常感无从下手。近日，一种名为“行动方法”的 productivity 技巧受到关注。该方法主张将一切事务——无论是整理房间、准备会议发言，还是处理积压邮件——都视为“项目”，并通过结构化拆解，帮助个人或职场人士提升效率、聚焦长期目标。

“行动方法”由Behance联合创始人斯科特·贝尔斯基在其2010年著作《让创意落地》中提出，初衷是帮助创意工作者应对效率低下、缺乏条理等问题。与“先啃硬骨头”“两分钟法则”等强调立即行动的方法不同，“行动方法”更注重系统规划，强调将日常任务与长远目标整合为具体项目，再分解为可操作的步骤。

该方法的核心操作是将每个项目分为三类清单：

• 行动步骤：即需立即执行的具体任务，如“购买清洁用品”“拟定房间打扫顺序”；
• 参考资料：存放任务相关的背景信息、教程链接、邮件要点等辅助材料；
• 待办事项：记录基于当前行动可延伸的长期目标，例如“年底前拓展10位新客户”“建立家庭长效清洁机制”。

实践者可通过电子表格或纸质计划本进行分类管理，每日跟进。该方法能清晰展示短期行动与长远目标的关联，但需注意其本身不解决任务优先级问题。专家建议可结合ABC分类法、福斯特承诺清单等工具进行任务排序，并参考耶基斯-多德森定律，在效率最佳时段安排关键行动步骤。

目前，这一方法已在个人时间管理与团队项目规划中逐步推广，其“化整为零、持续推进”的思路，为应对复杂任务提供了具象化路径。

中文翻译：

当你着手一项复杂的任务时，往往不知从何入手——但如果你采用"行动法"则不然。这种效率管理技巧要求你将所有待办事项都视为"项目"。"项目"可以是打扫房屋、准备会议发言，或是处理积压的邮件。简而言之，任何能够分解为具体步骤的个人事务或工作任务都可纳入此范畴。这种思维转变的目的在于为每项任务建立清晰框架，从而减少因缺乏条理而浪费的时间。

当面对众多琐碎任务时，人们容易迷失长远目标。建立以渐进实现目标为导向的项目体系，不仅能提升完成效率，更有助于保持专注。下文将阐释为何需要以项目思维重构工作方式，以及如何让行动法为你所用。

什么是行动法？

如前所述，行动法通过将日常任务与长期目标整合为项目单元，再将项目拆解为可执行步骤，从而提升工作效率。该方法基本框架由Behance联合创始人斯科特·贝尔斯基在其2010年著作《让创意落地：跨越愿景与现实间的障碍》中提出。

行动法的诞生源于贝尔斯基希望帮助创意工作者摆脱效率低下、缺乏条理以及官僚主义导致的职场混乱。其核心不仅在于梳理思路，更在于制定可执行的行动计划。

虽然"行动法"的名称暗示着行动导向，但它比"吞青蛙法"或"两分钟法则"等行动类效率技巧更为复杂。后两者强调立即着手重要任务且无需过多思考，本质是纯粹的行动导向；而行动法则包含更多规划环节——尽管这听起来有违直觉。

如何实践行动法？

实践该方法首先需将项目分为三类：行动步骤、参考资料和长远目标。建议创建包含三列的电子表格（每类一列），每个项目单独建立工作表。

行动步骤指需要完成的具体任务，且必须包含可执行动作，例如准备演讲的流程或打扫客厅的步骤。若你的目标是在岳母五天后到访前完成全屋清洁，行动步骤可能包括采购短缺的清洁用品，或制定各房间清洁的时间规划。

参考资料涵盖任务所需的辅助信息，如背景研究文献、任务说明邮件或学习教程链接等。以清洁为例，可包含检查清单或采购清单。

长远目标指当前无需立即实现但更具远景的规划，这些目标应以行动项为基础。例如若行动列中的演讲目标是为了赢得新客户，长远目标可设为年底前拓展十位新客户。保持房屋长期整洁也可作为长远目标。预先设定长远目标能形成持续动力——不仅是为迎接岳母而临时打扫，更是以此为契机建立长期保持家居清洁的体系。随着时间推移，长期持续的清洁项目将逐步取代表格中短期性的"行动"与"参考资料"内容。

习惯纸质日程本的读者可采用线下版本，但电子表格只要每日检视并作为行动驱动力便已足够。你可以在完成任务时新增工作表，或在现有目标页补充参考资料与长远目标。关键在于监控可执行任务，理清它们与宏观目标的关联后立即行动。若需额外激励，表格能清晰展示具体任务与整体规划的关联。

这种方法既指明了立即执行的具体步骤，也揭示了这些行动如何支撑长远目标。但需注意几个潜在问题：其一，该方法无法协助项目间优先级排序，可结合ABC分类法或福斯特承诺清单等技巧确定处理顺序；其二，明确任务只是成功的一半，建议了解耶基斯-多德森定律等理论，掌握在截止期前保持最佳效率的规律，从而合理安排行动步骤的执行时机。

英文来源：

When you’re jumping into a complex project, it can be hard to know where to begin—but not if you’re using the “action method,” a productivity technique that requires you to view everything you do as a project. A “project” could be cleaning your house, presenting in a meeting, or answering all of your lingering emails. Basically, it's any larger task that can be broken down into smaller ones, whether personal or professional. The aim of this change in your mindset is to provide a structure for every task you need to complete, so you spend less time battling disorganization.
When you have a bunch of little tasks to do, it's easy to lose sight of the larger goals you have. Creating projects aimed at inching closer to those goals will not only help you get more done, but help you stay focused. Here’s why it makes sense to reframe your thinking around projects, and how to make the action method work for you.
What is the action method?
As noted, the action method seeks to help you increase your productivity and work more effectively by organizing your daily tasks, as well as your longer-term goals, into projects, then breaking those projects down into actionable steps. The basic framework comes from Scott Belsky, who laid out the method in his 2010 book Making Ideas Happen: Overcoming the Obstacles Between Vision and Reality.
The action method was born when Belsky, a co-founder of Behance, sought to help creative professionals tackle inefficiency, disorganization, and the overall chaos of careers being controlled by bureaucracy. The intent behind it is to not only organize your ideas, but to develop a plan of action to execute on them.
The name "action method" hints at that, but it's a little more involved than other action-based productivity techniques like "eat the frog" or the two-minute rule. With those methods, your overarching directive is to dive in on major tasks right away, and with relatively little thought. They are, in essence, about action—but the action method itself involves more planning, as counterintuitive as that might seem.
How does the action method work?
The “action” part of the action method comes after you organize your projects into three categories: Action steps, references, and back-burners. A good way to do this is to make a spreadsheet with three columns, one for each category, and a different spreadsheet tab for each project.
Action steps are the specific tasks you need to get done, and ones that have actions behind them—like the steps it takes to prepare a presentation or clean the living room. If your overall goal is to clean the house before your mother-in-law arrives in five days, your action steps might include buying materials you're low on or structuring a schedule for how and when you'll tackle different rooms.
References covers any extra information you need to accomplish those tasks, like articles that provide background research, emails detailing what needs to be done, or tutorials you plan to take; paste in or drops links to these materials here. With the cleaning example, this might include a checklist or a shopping list.
Back-burners are more nebulous goals that don’t need to be accomplished right now and can be lofty, but should use the action items as a foundation. For instance, if the goal of the presentation in your action column is to secure a new client, a back-burner can be to secure 10 new clients by year’s end. Cleaning the whole house and keeping it clean can be a back-burner, too. By designating back-burners upfront, you keep the momentum going. You're not just cleaning before your MIL gets there, in this case, but laying the foundation to maintain an all-around cleaner home long after she departs and using her arrival as the actionable jumping-off point. Eventually, longer-term, more sustained cleaning projects will replace the more immediate ones in your "action" and "references" tabs.
You can take the method offline if you’re a person who works better using a physical daily planner, but your spreadsheet will suffice as long as you check it every day and use it as motivation to get started and keep up with your action items. You can always add more tabs as you get things done, plus add new references and back-burners related to the goals on each existing tab, but the key is to monitor your actionable tasks and, after clearly outlining how they tie into broader goals, get moving on them right away. If you need additional motivation, the spreadsheet provides an easy summary of how they relate to your bigger-picture plans.
In this way, the method shows you the exact steps you need to take immediately to cross an item off of your list, but also illustrates how those efforts ladder up to your larger goals—but there are some potential pitfalls to keep in mind. For example, it doesn’t help you prioritize between projects. For that, fold in a prioritization technique like the ABC Method or Forster’s Commitment Inventory, which can help you determine which projects and steps to tackle first. Also, knowing what needs to be done is only half the battle, so familiarize yourself with concepts like the Yerkes-Dodson law, which dictates when you will feel most productive in relation to your deadlines, so you can slot in your action steps when they make the most sense.