As a procrastinator myself, I was immediately drawn to the Ted Talk by Tim Urban titled “Inside the mind of a master procrastinator.” It’s a video that I watched previously in one of my high school classes, but I revisited it for this blog post.

Urban’s main thesis of his speech is that procrastinators are the way they are because their brains are simply different. He argues that procrastinators have an “instant gratification monkey” in their brain that prevents rational decision-making from occurring unless there is an imminent deadline. He offers a paradigm shift by explaining that procrastinators are not “lazy,” which is what most people perceive them to be. Instead, Urban says that procrastinators simply think about tasks differently, and there is no way for them to be able to prioritize these tasks until the last minute.

I really appreciated the message that Urban pushes towards the end of his speech. He defends procrastinators by telling the audience that everyone is a procrastinator. There are two kinds of procrastination– that which relates to deadlines and that which does not relate to deadlines. Procrastination of tasks that do not have deadlines impacts all people, from taking the time to talk to an old friend to going to the gym. Urban encourages everyone to make sure to not procrastinate on those tasks because life is short, and life itself is a deadline. He offers another paradigm shift of how short life really is by presenting a figure of boxes of each week we have to live. This speech truly expanded my idea of the timeline of life and what I wish to accomplish before the deadline of my existence.

Urban does an incredible job at keeping his audience engaged. He incorporates humor throughout his speech, talking openly and honestly. He starts his speech with an anecdote of how he wrote his senior thesis in one day, which smoothly transitions into the topic of procrastination. Even his explanation of procrastinator’s brains is humorous, using stick figures and doodles to add to his talk. Urban does a presentation, for he does not simply deliver a monologue. He does a performance where he effectively engages his audience with his topic through humor and a likable personality. He refers to ideas that are relatable to all people– we have all forgotten about a deadline at the last minute, and Urban knows this. He uses this to his advantage, making sure to talk about something that his audience can understand.

As we prepare for our own Ted Talks, I hope that my speech can be like Urban’s. I believe that it can indeed be as successful as his… so long as I do not procrastinate.