Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator | Tim Urban | TED
Summary
TLDRIn diesem faszinierenden Talk erklärt Tim Urban die Psychologie des Prokrastinations anhand seines eigenen Lebens und seiner Promotionsarbeit. Er beschreibt, wie der 'Vernünftige Entscheidungsträger' im Gehirn mit dem 'Monument der sofortigen Befriedigung' in Konflikt gerät. Urban zeigt, wie Prokrastinatoren trotz der Anwesenheit eines 'Panic Monsters', das bei Fristen und ernsten Konsequenzen ins Spiel kommt, in der langfristigen Prokrastination ins Visier nehmen. Er fordert, dass wir uns alle mit unserer Zeit und unseren Prioritäten auseinandersetzen und uns bewusst sind, worauf wir unsere Aufmerksamkeit und Energie widmen.
Takeaways
- 🎓 Der Sprecher studierte Politikwissenschaften und hatte viel zu schreiben. Er beschreibt, wie er normalerweise mit Hausarbeiten umging, indem er sie in der ersten Woche begann und dann im Laufe der Zeit mehr Arbeit leistete.
- 📜 Bei der Arbeit an seiner 90-seitigen Abschlussarbeit stellte er fest, dass sein übliches Arbeitsvermögen nicht ausreichend war, um mit einem so großen Projekt umzugehen.
- 📅 Er plante stattdessen, seine Arbeit im Laufe des Jahres zu erhöhen, ähnlich wie eine Treppe, wo er zu Beginn leicht arbeitete, im mittleren Teil der Monate mehr einsteigen würde und dann in den letzten Monaten in den höchsten Gang schalten würde.
- 😅 Leider verpasste er die ersten Monate, um seine Pläne umzusetzen, und verlegte die Arbeit in den mittleren Monaten und letztendlich zwei Monate auf zwei Wochen.
- ⏰ Er erzählt, wie er schließlich 90 Seiten in 72 Stunden schrieb, nachdem er zwei durchgehende Nächte verbracht hatte, um rechtzeitig fertig zu werden.
- 🧠 Der Sprecher hatte die Hypothese, dass das Gehirn von Prokrastinatoren anders ist als das von anderen Menschen. Er vergleicht sein Gehirn mit dem eines Nicht-Prokrastinatoren mithilfe von MRI-Scans.
- 🐒 Beide Gehirne haben einen Rationalen Entscheidungsmacher, aber das Gehirn von Prokrastinatoren hat auch einen Instant Gratification Monkey (IGM), der auf sofortige Freude aus ist.
- 🚗 Der IGM möchte vernünftige Entscheidungen treffen, aber der IGM übernimmt die Kontrolle und lenkt die Aufmerksamkeit auf leichte und Freuden.
- 🌙 Der Prokrastinator verbringt viel Zeit im sogenannten 'Dark Playground', einer Zone, in der Freizeitaktivitäten stattfinden, die eigentlich nicht stattfinden sollten, und dies ist oft mit Schuld, Angst und Selbsthass geprägt.
- 😨 Der 'Panic Monster' ist ein Teil des Gehirns, der schläfrig ist, aber bei drohenden Fristen oder öffentlichen Erleichterungen aufwacht und den IGM erschreckt, was ihm die Kontrolle zurückgibt.
- 📆 Ohne Fristen ist der Panic Monster nicht aktiv und der IGM kann die Kontrolle nicht zurückerhalten. Dies führt zu langfristiger Prokrastination, die zu Unzufriedenheit und Bedauern führen kann.
- 🚀 Der Sprecher fordert die Zuhörer auf, sich bewusst zu sein, was sie in ihrem Leben verschieben, und die Kontrolle über den Instant Gratification Monkey zu behalten, um das volle Potenzial auszuschöpfen.
Q & A
Was war das Hauptthema des College-Referats des Sprechers?
-Das Hauptthema des College-Referats war die Prokrastination und wie sie im Kopfe von Prokrastinatoren funktioniert.
Wie beschreibt der Sprecher seine ursprüngliche Arbeitsabläufe während seines College-Lehrgangs?
-Der Sprecher beschreibt seine ursprünglichen Arbeitsabläufe als eine eher langsame, aber zuletzt intensive Steigerung der Arbeit, um die Deadline zu erreichen.
Wie hat sich der Sprecher vorgestellt, seine Abschlussarbeit zu schreiben?
-Der Sprecher plante, seine Abschlussarbeit in einem stegigen Prozess zu schreiben: zuerst geringe Arbeit, dann in den mittleren Monaten zunehmend intensiver und zuletzt in der Endphase in höchster Geschwindigkeit.
Was passierte letztendlich mit der Abschlussarbeit des Sprechers?
-Letztendlich schrieb der Sprecher seine 90-seitige Abschlussarbeit in 72 Stunden, nachdem er fast die gesamte Zeitspanne nicht genutzt hatte.
Wie stellt der Sprecher die Gehirnstruktur von Prokrastinatoren und Nicht-Prokrastinatoren gegenüber?
-Der Sprecher behauptet, dass die Gehirnstruktur von Prokrastinatoren durch den Einfluss des 'Instant Gratification Monkey' (IGM) unterscheidet, der für die Verzögerung verantwortlich ist, im Gegensatz zu den Gehirnen von Nicht-Prokrastinatoren.
Was ist der 'Instant Gratification Monkey' und wie beeinflusst er die Prokrastination?
-Der 'Instant Gratification Monkey' ist ein Teil des Gehirns von Prokrastinatoren, der darauf ausgerichtet ist, sofortige Freude und Vergnügen zu suchen und damit die Pläne des 'Rational Decision-Makers' stört, der für rationale Entscheidungen und langfristige Ziele verantwortlich ist.
Wer ist der 'Panic Monster' und wie hilft er Prokrastinatoren?
-Der 'Panic Monster' ist eine Instanz im Gehirn von Prokrastinatoren, der bei drohenden Fristen oder öffentlichen Beschämungen entwacht und den 'Instant Gratification Monkey' in Schach halten kann, was dazu führt, dass der 'Rational Decision-Maker' die Kontrolle übernimmt und die Arbeit beginnt.
Was ist der Unterschied zwischen kurzfristiger und langfristiger Prokrastination?
-Kurzfristige Prokrastination findet typically in Situationen mit Fristen statt, bei denen der 'Panic Monster' eingreift, um die Arbeit zu erledigen. Langfristige Prokrastination tritt auf, wenn keine Fristen vorhanden sind, was bedeutet, dass der 'Panic Monster' nicht entwacht und die Prokrastination unendlich weitergehen kann, was zu langfristigen negativen Auswirkungen führen kann.
Was hat der Sprecher nach der Veröffentlichung seines Blogposts über Prokrastination erfahren?
-Nach der Veröffentlichung seines Blogposts über Prokrastination erhielt der Sprecher Tausende von E-Mails von Menschen aus verschiedenen Berufen und Ländern, die alle ähnliche Probleme mit der Prokrastination hatten und wie sie ihr Leben beeinflusst hatten.
Was ist das 'Life Calendar' und warum ist es wichtig?
-Das 'Life Calendar' ist ein Diagramm, das eine 90-jährige Lebenszeit in Wochenboxen darstellt. Es ist wichtig, weil es dazu anregt, über unsere Prioritäten und die Dauer der Zeit, die wir haben, nachzudenken und uns auf die Dinge zu konzentrieren, die wir wirklich wichtig finden.
Was ist der wichtigste Takeaway aus dem College-Referat des Sprechers?
-Der wichtigste Takeaway ist die Erkenntnis, dass Prokrastination ein allgemeines Phänomen ist und dass es wichtig ist, bewusst zu sein und aktiv zu werden, um die Kontrolle über unsere Zeit und Ziele zu behalten, anstatt uns den Impulsen des 'Instant Gratification Monkey' hingeben.
Outlines
📚 College Life and Procrastination
Der Sprecher erzählt von seiner Zeit als Politikwissenschaftler an der Universität, in der er viele Aufsätze schreiben musste. Er beschreibt, wie er normalerweise mit der Arbeit beginnt, langsam startet, aber dann im Laufe der Zeit intensiver arbeitet, um alles rechtzeitig zu erledigen. Doch bei seiner 90-seitigen Abschlussarbeit stellte er fest, dass dieser Ansatz nicht funktioniert, da das Projekt zu groß war. Stattdessen plante er, die Arbeit im Laufe des Jahres zu verteilen, um es schrittweise zu erledigen. Leider konnte er diese Planung nicht umsetzen und schließlich in einem sehr kurzen Zeitraum den gesamten Aufsatz schreiben. Er beschreibt, wie er dachte, es wäre der beste Aufsatz, den die Uni je gesehen hat, was jedoch nicht der Fall war. Der Sprecher ist heute ein Schriftsteller und Blogautor und beschäftigt sich mit der Prokrastination.
🐒 Die Psychologie des Prokrastinator-Gehirns
Der Sprecher erklärt die Unterschiede zwischen dem Gehirn von Prokrastinatoren und Nicht-Prokrastinatoren. Er behauptet, dass Prokrastinatoren ein zusätzliches Tier in ihrem Gehirn haben, der als Sofort-Befriedigung-Affe bezeichnet wird. Dieser Affe lebt im Hier und Jetzt und kümmert sich nur um leichte und angenehme Dinge. Der rationale Entscheidungsträger im Gehirn ist für die Fähigkeit verantwortlich, die Zukunft zu visualisieren und langfristige Pläne zu machen. Es kommt zu Konflikten, wenn der rationale Entscheidungsträger eine produktive Handlung plant, die der Affe jedoch ablehnt und stattdessen andere Aktivitäten wählt, die keine Arbeit betreffen. Der Sprecher beschreibt, wie dieser Konflikt immer dem Affe zugutekommt und wie er die Kontrolle übernimmt, wenn der Panic-Monster, ein另一位, der im Einklang mit der Dringlichkeit von Fristen und der Furcht vor öffentlicher Demüt und Karriere-Katastrophe aufwacht, die Kontrolle übernimmt.
📅 Prokrastination ohne Fristen und ihre langfristigen Auswirkungen
Der Sprecher erläutert, dass es zwei Arten der Prokrastination gibt: diejenige mit Fristen und diejenige ohne. Er beschreibt, wie Prokrastination mit Fristen, die vom Panic-Monster begrenzt sind, im Vergleich dazu, wie Prokrastination ohne Fristen, bei der es keine äußeren Anstöße gibt, um die Kontrolle zurückzuübernehmen. Er erwähnt, dass viele wichtige Aspekte des Lebens, wie Karriere, familiäre Beziehungen und Gesundheit, keine klaren Fristen haben und wie die langfristige Prokrastination zu großem Leid und Bedauern führen kann. Der Sprecher empfiehlt, sich der Instant Gratification Monkey bewusst zu sein und frühzeitig Maßnahmen zu ergreifen, um Prokrastination zu vermeiden.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Aufschieben
💡Rationaler Entscheidungsträger
💡Sofortige Befriedigung
💡Dunkler Spielplatz
💡Panikmonster
💡TED Talk
💡Langzeitprokrastination
💡Lebenskalender
💡Selbstreflexion
💡Nicht-Prokrastinatoren
Highlights
The speaker was a government major in college and had to write a lot of papers.
Normal students tend to spread their work out over time, starting slow and increasing pace as the deadline approaches.
The speaker's typical approach to writing papers was to procrastinate until the last moment.
The challenge of writing a 90-page senior thesis required a different approach than the speaker's usual workflow.
The speaker initially planned a 'staircase' approach to writing the thesis, starting slow and increasing effort over time.
Despite the planned approach, the speaker found themselves unable to start working on the thesis for the first few months.
With only three days left before the deadline, the speaker wrote 90 pages in 72 hours, pulling two all-nighters.
The speaker humorously imagined that their thesis was the best one the school had ever seen, but in reality, it was very poor.
The speaker is now a writer-blogger and runs the blog Wait But Why, where they decided to write about procrastination.
The speaker hypothesized that procrastinators' brains are different from non-procrastinators' brains and had both scanned for comparison.
Both the speaker's and a non-procrastinator's brains have a Rational Decision-Maker, but the procrastinator's brain also has an Instant Gratification Monkey.
The Instant Gratification Monkey lives in the present, with no memory of the past or knowledge of the future, seeking only easy and fun activities.
The Rational Decision-Maker allows humans to visualize the future, see the big picture, and make long-term plans.
Procrastinators often find themselves in the 'Dark Playground', a place of unearned leisure activities filled with guilt and anxiety.
The Panic Monster is a guardian angel for procrastinators, waking up when deadlines are close or public embarrassment is imminent.
The Panic Monster is the only thing the Instant Gratification Monkey is terrified of, allowing the Rational Decision-Maker to take control.
There are two kinds of procrastination: one with deadlines that are contained in the short term, and one without deadlines that can lead to long-term unhappiness and regrets.
The speaker suggests that non-procrastinators might not exist, and everyone is procrastinating on something in life.
The 'Life Calendar' visualizes the limited time we have, emphasizing the importance of being aware of what we are procrastinating on.
Transcripts
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 --
(Laughter)
you get started maybe a little slowly,
but you get enough done in the first week
that, with some heavier days later on,
everything gets done, things stay civil.
(Laughter)
And I would want to do that like that.
That would be the plan.
I would have it all ready to go,
but then, actually, the paper would come along,
and then I would kind of do this.
(Laughter)
And that would happen every single paper.
But then came my 90-page senior thesis,
a paper you're supposed to spend a year on.
And I knew for a paper like that, my normal work flow 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 I'd start off light,
and I'd bump it up in the middle months,
and then at the end, I would kick it up into high gear
just like a little staircase.
How hard could it be to walk up the stairs?
No big deal, right?
But then, the funniest thing happened.
Those first few months?
They came and went,
and I couldn't quite do stuff.
So we had an awesome new revised plan.
(Laughter)
And then --
(Laughter)
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,
which 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 pull two all-nighters --
sprinted across campus,
dove in slow motion,
and got it in just at the deadline.
I thought that was the end of everything.
But a week later I get a call,
and 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, "OK."
And they say,
"It's the best one we've ever seen."
(Laughter)
(Applause)
That did not happen.
(Laughter)
It was a very, very bad thesis.
(Laughter)
I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought,
"This guy is amazing!"
(Laughter)
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 procrastination.
My behavior has 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 way we are.
Now, I had a hypothesis
that the brains of procrastinators were actually different
than the brains of other people.
And to test this, I found an MRI lab
that actually let me scan both my brain
and the brain of a proven non-procrastinator,
so I could compare them.
I actually brought them here to show you today.
I want you to take a look carefully to see if you can notice a difference.
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.
(Laughter)
Now ...
here's my brain.
(Laughter)
There is a difference.
Both brains have a Rational Decision-Maker in them,
but the procrastinator's brain
also has an Instant Gratification Monkey.
Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator?
Well, it means everything's fine until this happens.
[This is a perfect time to get some work done.] [Nope!]
So the Rational Decision-Maker will make the rational decision
to do something productive,
but 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,
because I just remembered that that happened.
(Laughter)
Then --
(Laughter)
Then we're going to go over to the fridge,
to see if there's anything new in there since 10 minutes ago.
After that, we're going to go on a YouTube spiral
that starts with videos of Richard Feynman talking about magnets
and ends much, much later with us watching interviews
with Justin Bieber's mom.
(Laughter)
"All of that's going to take a while,
so we're not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today.
Sorry!"
(Sigh)
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 he 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're a huge success!
(Laughter)
And to the Monkey,
humans are just another animal species.
You have 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 a certain way every time,
leaving him spending a lot of time in this orange zone,
an easy and fun place that's entirely out of the Makes Sense circle.
I call it the Dark Playground.
(Laughter)
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 of 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 where really important things happen?
Well, turns out 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.
(Laughter)
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 the Monkey is terrified of.
Now, he became very relevant in my life pretty recently,
because the people of TED reached out to me about six months ago
and invited me to do a TED Talk.
(Laughter)
Now, of course, I said yes.
It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past.
(Laughter)
(Applause)
But in the middle of all this excitement,
the Rational Decision-Maker seemed to have something else on his mind.
He was saying, "Are we 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 let's just open Google Earth
and zoom in to the bottom of India, like 200 feet above the ground,
and scroll up for two and a half hours til we get to the top of the country,
so we can get a better feel for India."
(Laughter)
So that's what we did that day.
(Laughter)
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?
(Laughter)
So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind,
and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem.
(Laughter)
And the Monkey -- remember, he's terrified of the Panic Monster --
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 procrastinator 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 work ethic
to stay up all night and write eight pages.
And this entire situation, with the three characters --
this is the procrastinator's system.
It's not pretty, but in the end, it works.
This is what I decided to write about on the blog a couple of years ago.
When I did, I was amazed by the response.
Literally thousands of emails 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, bankers, painters, engineers
and lots and lots of PhD students.
(Laughter)
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 emails.
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, if the procrastinator's system works, then what's going on?
Why are all of 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 when 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 wanted a career where you're a self-starter --
something in the arts, something entrepreneurial --
there's no deadlines on those things at first, because nothing's happening,
not until you've gone out and done the hard work
to get momentum, 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 the procrastinator's only mechanism of doing these hard things
is the Panic Monster, that's a problem,
because in all of these non-deadline situations,
the Panic Monster doesn't show up.
He has nothing to wake up for,
so the effects of procrastination, they're not contained;
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 funnier, short-term deadline-based kind.
It's usually suffered 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 those 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.
The frustration is 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,
(Laughter)
and some of you may have a healthy relationship with deadlines,
but remember: the Monkey's sneakiest trick
is when the deadlines aren't there.
Now, I want to show you one last thing.
I call this a Life Calendar.
That's one box for every week of a 90-year life.
That'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.
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 ...
(Laughter)
You know.
Sometime soon.
Thank you.
(Applause)
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