"Inside the mind of a master procrastinator" to approach the psychology that will postpone what to do until just before the deadline

ByHolly DeVane

There are a lot of people who have experienced that they have to do some work, such as writing homework, jobs, or thesis, but they finish behind them and finally it will be difficult to work on insomnia just before the deadline. Blogger Tim Urban tells TED about the psychology of why people procrastinate despite knowing that they should "do", and it is approaching its true horror.

Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | TED Talk Subtitles and Transcript | TED.com
https://www.ted.com/talks/tim_urban_inside_the_mind_of_a_master_procrastinator/transcript

You can see the movie from the following.

Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | Tim Urban - YouTube


When I was a college student, Tim Urban who majored in political science and had to submit a lot of papers.


Normally, the progress of students writing papers will look like the following. In other words, it begins writing slowly, repeats the interruption and fast pace, gradually increases the speed towards the deadline.


Meanwhile, Mr. Urban's paper usually advanced in the following way. Of course, my goal was to gradually write down, but before I knew it was a matter of panic just before the deadline.


However, when I was given the task of writing a 90-page paper, I thought that my usual progress was impossible and I rebuilt the schedule. That's it.


It is three months until the deadline. At first it is a perfect plan that the quantity is lighter and closer to the deadline, the more you do it step by step.


However, Urban changed the plan because the work was not going at all after the first month of the plan was over. I allocated the work that was supposed to finish in the first month for the rest of the time. The thing to do is increased a little, but it is still possible to realize.


However, one month has elapsed before I have hardly done anything. Works that were supposed to proceed slowly in the first two months will be accumulated in the remaining month.


And one month is two weeks ... ...


It's been a week ... ...


Finally Urban says that if the student is an ordinary student, it will finish over a year to finish the 90-page paper in 72 hours of sleepless absence.


And after submitting the paper, Mr. Urban received a phone from the university and said like this.


"Your paper is the most wonderful one I've ever seen"


...... That did not happen, Urban. "The paper was actually terrible," he says.


Mr. Urban said "Wait But Why"I am writing a blog called" Mr. Urban's action, which always goes to the deadline without always doing what he / she is going to do, was always puzzled by those who could act as planned, so UrbanProclusterinatorI decided to write a blog about the person who will postpone it. So the hypothesis that we set up first is that "the brain is different for people who can move as planned and people who postpone the schedule."


"I compared my brain with MRI laboratory and compare it with the brains of those who can do as planned.Today I will see you all the results.Please be careful to observe the difference carefully."


"This is not a pro clasinator, it's the brains of those who can do as planned"


And this is the brains of Urban-san's proclassinator. There is a desire monkey next to a rational decision-maker taking a rudder.


What is that, both brains have reasonable decision makers holding handles, that is, I feel like I'm going to do things as planned, but in the brains of pro clasinator " There is a monkey who dislikes "I do not want to do!" Against the intention of the decision maker, "I do not like!"


And steal the handle ......


"Tonya · Maxine · HardingButNancy KerriganWikipedia will investigate the circumstances involved in the raid incident! The situation occurs that you do something that is completely unrelated to what you should do.


Then go to see the fridge, come back from the refrigerator and get into the YouTube spiral and finally whyJustin BieberI'm watching an interview with my mother, Urban.


Why does this happen? If it says, there are only "now" in monkeys, because they have no past or present. What monkey is seeking is the current comfort and pleasure. There is no problem with that in the animal world, but when it comes to the human world the story differs.


It is necessary for humans to eat and sleep, to pass the baton to the next generation, but monkeys do not understand it. Rational decision-makers are giving us the ability to understand other animals. That is the ability to "see things in the long run" and "see the whole picture of things".


Sometimes things to do for the "whole picture" are easy and fun to do. That is the green part of the figure below.


But for a larger "overall picture", you also need to do something fun and difficult. At this time, conflict is born among people. And when a conflict is born, the pro clasinator escapes to an orange part which is easy and pleasant, but does not make sense for the whole picture. Urban says that this orange part is called "dark playground".


The darkness playground is a place where people who know that "I should do something fun at times that I should not." When playing, guilt, fear, anxiety, and so on are attached, it is similar to real enjoyment.


However, I can not postpone things forever. Mr. Urban who continued to postpour the paper on page 90 also started the thesis 72 hours before the deadline. So what happens when we get out of the playground in the darkness and a reasoned decision maker takes a rash and heads for what people should do?


It is "panic monster" that appears here. Panic monsters are usually sleeping but suddenly they will get up when the deadline approaches or they are going to be ashamed in the presence of the public or when people are scared of anything. And the monkey frightened by a panic monster fled away somewhere.


Recently when a request for appearance to TED came, Panic monster woke up, Urban. Urban who had been dreaming of talking to "TED in person!" Received a request six months ago and acknowledged with two responses, but at that time, "I understand what request was received "Let's sit down and start work from now" and "Voice of a reasonable decision maker speaking to you," I agree with your decision but let's zoom in on the state of India by opening Google Earth and over 200 feet 60 meters away), the monkey's voice saying that the atmosphere of India is clearly understood! "


6 months is 2 months, 2 months is 2 weeks, 2 weeks is 1 week ... ...


One day, a panic monster wakes up.


Then, everyone was surprised ......


The monkey escapes to the shadow of the tree, so that a rational decision-maker can take over again.


Where did the panic monster finish the paper that took two months to write in 72 hours, where were you hiding? It is to let you concentrate like such. When Mr. Urban wrote this on the blog, there was an echo of people from various countries around the world. Regardless of the occupation, I was worried that many people are professional clinators, even bankers, painters, engineers, students trying to acquire a doctorate.


However, in contrast to the bright tone of blogs, people who sent e-mails and messages all felt frustrated that they were seriously professional clusterators.


Mr. Urban wrote that in the proclinator it is the 2 types of "type that happens when there is no deadline" such as "type that occurs when there is a deadline" and "to succeed in life" or "keep health" I notice there is a type. The problem is that in the former case panic monsters will appear but in the latter case it will be hard to show up. Therefore, the latter is more problematic than the short-term proclinator who will live in a funny story, and it is easy for one person to worry about it as "I can not become motivated" "I am a useless guy". The problem they have is not "they can not realize their dreams" but "they can not even chase dreams".


There are not people in this world such as those who are not pro clasinators, Urban. What we should keep in mind is that when there is no deadline, monkeys cheat us the most.


Urban's point here is what is called "life calendar". In the image below, it corresponds to one week when one box lives to 90 years old. We already know that we should fill some boxes, and the remaining boxes are never countable.


"We must realize that I am a pro clasinator and have to be aware of the existence of monkeys and I must start right now," Urban said. "Well, even then, not today"