Yak Shaving & 专注力

“Yak shaving” (or “shaving a yak”) is a term coined by Carlin Vieri, an MIT Ph.D., in the ’90s after watching an episode of “The Ren & Stimpy Show.”

But what is yak shaving?

Yak shaving refers to a task, that leads you to perform another related task and so on, and so on — all distracting you from your original goal. This is sometimes called “going down the rabbit hole.”

Yak Shaving 的字面意思是为剪牦牛毛，而引申出来的意思是，当你在进行一个工作时，发现另一个工作还没有完成，你便先去解决那个工作，在进行那个工作时，你又发现另一个工作… 如此往复，让你偏离了原本本该完成的工作，最终却也什么都没有完成。一个实际的例子：

You want to bake an apple pie, so you head to the kitchen.

你想烤一个苹果派，所以你去了厨房。

In the hallway, you notice some paint chipping on the wall.

在走廊里，你注意到墙上有一些油漆剥落

So you walk to the hardware store for some paint.

于是你走去五金店去买一些油漆

On the way, you pass a bakery and stop in for a cupcake.

在路上，你经过一家面包店，停下来吃了一个小蛋糕

While eating the cupcake, you feel a pain in your mouth. It’s that cavity that you’ve been putting off.

在吃蛋糕时，你感到嘴里很痛。这是你一直在拖延的蛀牙

You pick up your phone to call the dentist to make an appointment, but you see a notification from your friend Cher, who’s having a party

当你拿起手机想给预约牙医时，你看到了你朋友 Cher 正在举行一个聚会的通知

You don’t want to show up empty-handed, so you stop for a bottle of wine…

你不想空手去参加聚会，所以你停下来买了一瓶酒…