All language subtitles for (Demo Subtitles) TED Talk.en_US

So in college.

I was a government major which means
I had to write a lot of papers.

Now when a normal student writes a paper

they might spread the work
out a little like this.

So you know.

You get started maybe a little slowly
but you get enough done in the first week

that some have your days later on
everything gets done things stay civil

and I would want to do that like that.

That would be the plan.

I would I would have it all ready to go.

But then than that the people would come
along and then I would kind of do this.

And that would happen every single paper.

But then came my 90 page senior thesis
paper you're supposed to spend a year on.

I knew for a paper like that my normal
workflow was not an option.

It was way too big a project.

So I planned things out and I decided
I kind of had to go something like this.

This is how the year would go.

So it started off light.

And I bumped it up in the middle months.

And then at the end I would kick it up
into high gears a little staircase.

How hard could it be
just walk up the stairs.

No big deal right.

But then funniest thing happened those
first few months they came and went.

And I I couldn't quite do stuff.

So we had an awesome new revised plan.

And then.

But then those middle months
actually went by.

And I didn't really write words.

And so we were here.

And then two months turned into one month

turned into two weeks
and one day I woke up.

With three days until the deadline.

Still not having written a word.

And so I did the only thing I could.

I wrote 90 pages over 72 hours
pulling not one but two all nighters.

Humans are not supposed
to put two all nighters.

Sprinted across campus dove in slow
motion and got it in of the deadline.

Now I thought that was
the end of everything.

But a week later I get a call.

It's the school.

And they say is this Tim Urban.

And I say Yeah.

And they say we need
to talk about your thesis.

And I say Okay.

And they say it's the best
one we've ever seen.

That did not happen.

It was a very very bad.

I just.

Wanted to enjoy that one moment when
all of you thought this guy's amazing.

No no.
It was very very bad.

Anyway today I'm a writer blogger guy.

I write the blog Wait But Why.

And a couple of years ago I decided
to write about Krastev nation my behaviors

are always perplexed the non
procrastinators around me and I wanted

to explain to the non
procrastinators of the world.

What goes on in the heads

of procrastinators and why
we are the where we are now.

I had a hypothesis that the brains

of procrastinators were actually different
than the brains of other people

and to testis I found an MRI lab
that she'd let me scan both my brain

and the brain of a proven non
procrastinator and I so I could compare

them and I actually brought
them here to show you today.

And I want you to take a look carefully

to see if you can notice the difference
and I know that if you're not a trained

brain expert it's not that obvious
but just take a look.

OK so here's the brain
of a non procrastinator.

Now.

Here's my brain.

There is a difference.

Both brains have a rational decision maker

in them but the procrastinators brain
also has an Instant Gratification Monkey.

Now what does this mean
for the procrastinator.

Well it means everything's
fine until this happens.

So the rational decision maker will make
the rational decision to do something

productive with the monkey
doesn't like that plan.

So he actually takes the wheel and he says
actually let's read the entire Wikipedia

page of the Nancy Kerrigan
Tonya Harding scandal.

I just remember that that happened.

Then.

Then we're going to go over to the fridge

to see if it's anything
new in there since ten

minutes ago.

After that.

We're going to go on a YouTube spiral
that starts with videos of Richard Fineman

talking about magnets
and ends much much later.

With us watching interviews
with Justin Bieber's mom.

Oh that's going to take a while so we're

not going to really have room
on the schedule for any work today sorry.

Now what is going on here

the Instant Gratification Monkey does not
seem like a guy you want behind the wheel.

He lives entirely in the present moment.

He has no memory of the past.

No knowledge of the future and only
cares about two things easy and fun.

Now in the animal world
that works fine if you're a dog and you

spend your whole life doing nothing
other than easy and fun things.

You were a huge success.
And.

To the monkey.

Humans are just another animal species

to keep well slept well fed
and propagating into the next generation.

Which in tribal times
might have worked OK.

But if you haven't noticed now we're not

in tribal times we're
in an advanced civilization.

And the monkey does not know what that is.

Which is why we have another guy in our
brain the rational decision maker

who gives us the ability to do
things no other animal can do.

We can visualize the future.

We can see the big picture.

We can make long term plans and he
wants to take all of that into account

and he wants to just have us do whatever
makes sense to be doing right now.

Now sometimes it makes sense to be doing
things that are easy and fun like when

you're having dinner or going to bed
or enjoying well earned leisure time.

That's why there's an overlap.

Sometimes they agree.

But other times it makes much more sense

to be doing things that are harder
and less pleasant for the sake of the big

picture and that's when
we have a conflict.

And for the procrastinator that conflict
tends to end the certain way every time

leaving him spending a lot of time
in this orange zone and easy and fun

place that's entirely out
of the Make Sense circle.

I call it the dark playground.

Now.

The dark playground is a place that all

of you procrastinators
out there know very well.

It's where leisure activities happen

at times when leisure activities
are not supposed to be happening.

The fun you have in the dark playground

isn't actually fun because it's completely
unearned and the air is filled with guilt

dread anxiety self-hatred all those
good procrastinator feelings.

And the question is in this situation
with the monkey behind the wheel how does

the procrastinator ever get himself over
here to this Blue Zone a less pleasant

place but were really
important things happen.

Well.
It turns out that the procrastinator has

a guardian angel someone who's always
looking down on him and watching over him

in his darkest moments someone
called the panic monster.

Now.

The panic monster is dormant most
of the time but he suddenly wakes up.

Anytime a deadline gets too close or
there's danger of public embarrassment

a career disaster or some
other scary consequence.

And importantly he's the only thing
that the monkey is terrified of.

Now.

He became very relevant in my life pretty
recently because people have Ted reached

out to me about six months ago
and invited me to do a TED talk.

Now of course I said yes it's always been

a dream of mine to have done
a TED talk in the past.

But in the middle of all of this

excitement the rational decision makers
seem to have something else on his mind.

He was saying.
We're not clear on what we just accepted

do we get what's going to be now happening
one day in the future we need to sit down

and work on this right
now and the monkey said.

Totally agree but also let's just open
Google Earth and let's zoom

in to the bottom of India like
200 feet above the ground.

We're going to scroll up to two and a half

hours to get to the top of the country
so we can get a better feel for India.

So that's what we did that day.

As six months turned into four and then
two and then one the people of Ted decided

to release the speakers
and I opened up the website.

And there was my face
staring right back at me.

And guess who woke up.

So the panic Monster starts losing his

mind and a few seconds later
the whole systems and mayhem.

And the monkey you remember he's terrified

of the panic mounts or
boom he's up the tree.

And finally finally the rational decision

maker can take the wheel and I
can start working on the talk.

Now the panic monster explains all kinds
of pretty insane procrastinated behavior

like how someone like me could spend two
weeks unable to start the opening sentence

of a paper and then miraculously
find the unbelievable worth.

Work ethic stay up all
night and write eight pages

and this entire situation
with the three characters.

This is the procrastinators system.
It's not pretty.

But in the end it works.

And this is what I decided
to write about on the blog.

Just a couple of years ago now when I did
I was amazed by the response literally

thousands of e-mails came in from all
different kinds of people from all over

the world doing all
different kinds of things.

These are people who were nurses

and bankers and painters and engineers
and lots and lots of Ph.D. students.

And they were all writing
saying the same thing.

I have this problem too.

But what struck me was the contrast

between the light tone of the post
and the heaviness of these e-mails.

These people were writing with intense

frustration about what procrastination
had done to their lives

about what this monkey had done to them.

And I thought about this and I said
well the procrastinator system works.

What's going on.

Why are all these people
in such a dark place.

Well it turns out that there's
two kinds of procrastination.

Everything I've talked about today

the examples I've given they all have
deadlines and there's deadlines.

The effects of procrastination are

contained to the short term because
the panic monster gets involved.

But there's a second kind

of procrastination that happens
in situations when there is no deadline.

So if you want to have a career you want

to be a self starter something
in the arts something entrepreneurial.

There's no deadlines on those things
first because nothing's happening first.

Not until you've gone out and done

the hard work to get some
momentum to get things going.

There's also all kinds of important things
outside of your career that don't involve

any deadlines like seeing your family or
exercising and taking care of your health.

Working on your relationship or getting
out of a relationship that isn't working.

Now if procrastinators only mechanism.

Of doing these hard things is the panic
Monastir that's a problem because in all

of these non deadlines situations
the panic monster doesn't show up.

Nothing to wake up for.

So the effects of procrastination are not
contain they just extend outward forever.

And it's this long term kind

of procrastination
that's much less visible and much less

talked about than the fun of your
short term deadline based kind.

It's usually suffer quietly and privately.

And it can be the source of a huge amount
of long term unhappiness and regrets.

And I thought that's why these people are

emailing and that's why
they're in such a bad place.

It's not that they're cramming for some
project it's that long term

procrastination has made them feel like
a spectator at times in their own lives.

You know the frustration was not that they
couldn't achieve their dreams it's

that they weren't even able
to start chasing them.

So.

I read these emails and I had
a little bit of an epiphany

that I don't think non
procrastinators exist.

That's right.
I think all of you are procrastinators.

Now you might not all be
a mess like some of us.

And some of you may have a healthy
relationship with deadlines.

But remember the monkeys sneakiest trick

is when the deadlines aren't there
now to show you one last thing.

I call this a life calendar.

That's one box for every week
of a 90 year life.

It's not that many boxes especially since
we've already used a bunch of those

so I think we need to all take
a long hard look at that calendar.

And we need to think about what we're

really procrastinating on because everyone
is procrastinating on something in life.

We need to stay aware of the
instant gratification monkey

that's a job for all of us.

And because there's not that many boxes

on there it's a job that should
probably start today.

Well maybe not today but.

You know.

Sometime soon.
Thank you.