Inside the mind of a master procrastinator

A TED Talk by Tim Urban- founder of Waitbutwhy

This is hands down the most hilarious TED talk I’ve ever watched.

Major takeaway:

A humorous take on what goes on inside the mind of a master procrastinator.

Tim Urban juxtaposes the mind of a procrastinator with a non-procrastinator.

Each mind has a Rational decision maker which suggests the smartest and most rational thing to do, but the procrastinator has another personality to take care of; the Instant Gratification Monkey.

The talk explains the constant bickering between the monkey and the rational decision-maker and how the monkey wins out most of the time, as a result of which procrastinators find themselves in sticky situations.

The Panic Monster is the only one the Monkey is afraid of, and this Panic monster wakes up a day or two before the deadline of a task.

There are two types of procrastination:

One with deadlines.

One without.

One with deadlines are usually short-term deadlines with direct consequences.

Long term deadlines are abstract and examples include career, relationships, health, and other long term ideas.

Don’t procrastinate.