To-do lists are a great way to keep your life organized and track goals. For instance, my to-do list for today is ‘call my accountant; buy milk; wait home for the courier to drop off shopping at 1PM; finish a book review;’ and that’s basically it. I felt pretty good about what I would accomplish — until I learned how Leonardo da Vinci went about his ‘mundane¹’ tasks.

待办事项能够起到非常棒的计划生活、追踪目标的作用。比如，我今天的待办事项就是“致电会计；买牛奶；下午一点在家等快递；完成一部读书笔记。”大致就是这样。完成一个事项我就会有一种很棒的成就感——但当我知道达芬奇的“日常”时就完全不这么觉得了。

Leonardo, one of the most brilliant men to have ever lived, diligently² documented his inventions, experiments, and interests which included painting, sculpting³, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy⁴, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography — to name only a few. Buried in one of his many notebooks dated from the 1490s is a to-do list, which NPR had translated. “It is useful,” Leonardo wrote, to “constantly observe, note, and consider.”

达芬奇是世界上最最智慧的人类之一，勤奋地记录下他的发明、实验以及他的兴趣爱好：画画、雕刻、建筑、科学、音乐、数学、工程学、文学、解剖学、地质学、天文学、植物学、写作、历史学和制图学——这仅仅只是其中几样而已。他的一些笔记本可以追溯到15世纪90年代，其中包括一个待办事项本（目前已经由美国国家公共之声翻译完毕）。达芬奇写道：“这真的很实用，可以不断遵循、记录和思考。”

来看看达芬奇某一天的to do list吧！

[Calculate] the measurement of Milan and Suburbs

【计算】测量米兰和郊区

[Find] a book that treats of Milan and its churches, which is to be had at the stationer’s on the way to Cordusio

寻找】一本关于米兰和其教堂的书籍，应该在去科尔杜西奥广场路上的文具店里有。

[Discover] the measurement of Corte Vecchio (the courtyard in the duke’s palace).

发现】测量科尔特韦吉奥（公爵宫殿的庭院）

[Discover] the measurement of the castello (the duke’s palace itself)

【发现】测量帝堡城（公爵宫殿）

Get the master of arithmetic to show you how to square a triangle.

掌握能够使得三角形变成正方形的算法。

Get Messer Fazio (a professor of medicine and law in Pavia) to show you about proportion.

找梅塞尔·法奇奥（帕威亚的医学兼法学教授）咨询比例问题。

Get the Brera Friar (at the Benedictine Monastery⁵ to Milan) to show you De Ponderibus (a medieval text on mechanics)

找布雷拉修道士（在米兰本笃会修道院）咨询De Ponderibus（一种关于力学的中世纪文本）。

Ask Benedetto Potinari (A Florentine Merchant) by what means they go on ice in Flanders

问贝内德托（一位佛罗伦萨商人）——意思是他们要去佛兰德斯溜冰。

Draw Milan

画米兰

Ask Maestro Antonio how mortars⁶ are positioned on bastions by day or night.

问安东尼奥大师关于白天或晚上堡垒的混凝土应该如何摆放。

[Examine] the Crossbow of Mastro Giannetto

【检查】安东尼奥大师的石弓

Find a master of hydraulics and get him to tell you how to repair a lock, canal and mill in the Lombard manner

找一位水力学大师，问问他用伦巴族人的方法怎么修水闸、水道和压榨机。