TOW #21 - Tim Urban's "Inside the mind of a procrastinator" (TED Talk)

                For some people, deadlines come easy; go home, do work consistently, and be cool as a cucumber the day before an assignment is due. Unfortunately, deadlines and homework in general, do not come second nature to some people, including myself. In April of 2016, Tim Urban, American internet writer, shared a TED Talk Lecture entitled, “Inside the mind of a procrastinator” where he employs visual metaphors and eye-opening diction in order to convey that there is a procrastinator in all of us, one we may never realize. During his presentation, Urban takes advantage of the digital board behind him, thus using it to literally illustrate the mind of a procrastinator. He does this with metaphors which are meant to represent parts of the brain, and the reasons why a procrastinator procrastinates. Referring to a procrastinator’s decision making process (area of the brain), he says, “An easy and fun place that's entirely out of the "make sense circle"; I call it the "dark playground”” (Urban). Personally, I know it is a frustrating time when the brain switches over to the “dark playground” when it is time to do work, so Urban comforts his audience by relating on this level. However, we are all human, everyone must go on break mode, which is a point that Urban stresses, while employing eye-opening diction, towards the close of his lecture. While presenting a calendar visual of the entirety of weeks in an average person’s life, he states, “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” (Urban). After consideration, procrastination is not only involving homework or deadlines, but more importantly, life itself. There is something in life, whether it be relationships, exercise, religion, that people procrastinate on. Therefore, Urban makes a clear point that life is short, so we must not spend our time awaiting it, just living it, and doing what we need to do without hesitation.

Visual: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=0ahUKEwjLpYLU7sDSAhXL5CYKHTmcD3oQjxwIAw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwaitbutwhy.com%2F2013%2F10%2Fwhy-procrastinators-procrastinate.html&psig=AFQjCNGwsNJ7OkrLkdQdSarJEkmINgO37Q&ust=1488854840947111

 
Caption: "Rational Thought Ruined"