Inside the mind of a procrastinator

Ernest John Deo Lopez, ACT223

Tim Urban is an author who used to be a government major in college, and he talked
about procrastination in Ted Talk using his own experiences that I think all of us, humans share.
According to him, he does not think that there is even a person that is not a procrastinator, and I
have to agree. I think at some point, each and every one of us has procrastinated one way or
another. Procrastination, according to Tim Urban, is the main impediment that we all have in
achieving the dreams that we have in life. This is mainly because the goals that we set for
ourselves are ones that do not have a deadline that feels real. As opposed to the kind of deadlines
being imposed on us by external parties like our job or school.

A deadline that feels “real” is one that will have an immediate consequence if you fail to
meet it. In our own lives with our own goals, that is something that we lack. Hence why it may
be sometimes hard for us to chase after our dreams or fulfill our personal goals. It is because of
this lack of an immediate consequence that we fail to wake up the “panic monster” — that the
speaker, Tim Urban, like to refer to — that elevates us from the state of procrastinating to the
state of being productive. This idea that the speaker, Tim Urban, established in his talk is
something that I couldn’t agree with more. I, myself, can be a living witness to how this
phenomenon can really break your dreams and shove you to the dirt. Back when it was still
summer break, I was planning a lot of things to do that I believe can move me forward from what
I currently am, something that will help me grow as a person. I prepared my planner and
calendar and wrote down in detail everything that I plan to do during the vacation so that once I
enter university, I would be a completely different person. I was so optimistic about what was
going to happen in the next few weeks, and I am more than excited to see the new me right after
the vacation ends. I am going to change for good! Or so I thought. The next day came, I was
looking at my calendar and the agenda that I have for the day. I couldn’t seem to move. I felt like
doing something first that would get me productive so I could finish the tasks that I assigned for
myself today. Until dusk came and I have done nothing. This would go on and on until the end of
the summer break. I just found myself lost and feeling like a failure for giving in to the
“monkey” that Tim Urban calls. This is the exact same narrative, I believe, that a lot of people
find themselves telling to others. And this is the exact same narrative that Tim told the audience
in his speech in Ted Talk. This is how procrastination and the lack of a “real” deadline sabotage
our lives.

As one might derive if he contemplates this situation, the main driver of procrastination is
the absence of fear of an immediate consequence once a deadline we set for ourselves in our
goals is not met. However, despite this, we know for sure that this may not affect us in the short
term, but its impacts in the long term are significant and far-reaching. In order to solve this
problem, according to Tim Urban, we have to realize the consequence that procrastination has,
and we have to see how this eats the time that we have in the world. We may not have a “real”
deadline that will punish us, but after some time we will be eaten by the feeling of regret, and
this feeling, is the worst consequence that we could get, even worse than any other that we will
obtain in situations that involve “real” deadlines.