Formative Assessment #4: Listening

I have always asked myself why I keep on doing my responsibilities when the
deadline is coming. is there something wrong with me? or am I really that lazy? I have
spent a lot of my time doing nonsense things that make me feel good. I have never for
once even thought about what it is like to stop procrastinating. Procrastination is a
common behavior among individuals that involves delaying or postponing important
tasks until the last minute. The main topic that was discussed by the speaker, Tim
Urban, was Procrastination. He first started by talking about what happens inside the
mind of a procrastinator. He shared his own experience about his thesis and then
followed it with an entertaining "brain x-ray" that led to a drawing of a monkey, a panic
monster, and a rational thinker human being to what was really happening inside the
mind of a procrastinator. Aside from the title of his talk, "Inside the Mind of a master
procrastinator," he also stated supporting sentences and examples to make the
receivers know what his talk is all about. he shared about the emails he received when
he wrote a blog about procrastination because thousands of people have said to him
that they were doing the same thing. As he is a procrastinator himself, he can easily
deliver his speech in a way that the audience can really understand what he was trying
to say, and he also made it very entertaining too.
Upon watching his speech, I was in awe of the way he describes what was
happening inside the mind of a procrastinator because I really thought that he was
describing my thoughts. it was that logical that I started to realize that it is not only me
who experience negative procrastination but a lot of other people too. He explains that
procrastinating not only harms you when you are trying to complete something on a
deadline but also harms you when you are trying to achieve a goal. which is true
because I, as a procrastinator, have never achieved a goal because I know that I have
enough time to do it on a later day and when that moment arrives, I will stop pursuing it
then because of lack of time. I have never realized that the reason I do not have any
goals right now was because of my procrastination. Tim Urban comes across as
educated about the subject of his ted talk and his enthusiasm for it which piqued my
curiosity, as an audience, to want to listen to his speech more. it felt like it was a 5-
minute speech because it was so logical that his speech still lingers in my mind because
of the realizations I have acquired.
Aside from his speech being entertaining itself, Tim also added funny visuals for
the audience to focus on his talk. this makes his speech manifest cohesion because
every time the next visual comes up, he can easily connect it with the last sentence he
will be saying which makes it an introduction to the next image which is exciting. He
designed his own visuals and made them comedic which kept the audience engaged in
his whole Ted Talk. He also continuously made strong connections between the visuals
and the audience which makes his topic even more relevant to the interests of his
audience. Urban varies the speed of his talk throughout to emphasize emotions of
excitement and misfortune, which keep his audience connected. it's as if he was telling
a narrative, he was so comfortable on the stage that he speaks without interruption and
with emotions. even though there are some inside jokes on the side, he can still go back
to what he was talking about in a glimpse as if it was part of his whole speech. it was
that seamless. it all links together and makes a larger sense when stated all together.
By educating us about the limited time we must live our lives, Tim's life calendar
aims to improve all of our quality of life. Occasionally, we discover ourselves neither
being contented nor making progress toward a better future. We can find ourselves
living day by day feeling depressed, frustrated, or upset, whether be due to having the
wrong career, relationship, self-discipline, or some other debilitating condition. Tim has
taught me that everyone is a procrastinator, it is just a matter of how we handle it which
can either affect our lives for the better or worst. Either we may live in the moment and
try to avoid the instant gratification monkey, or we can work to better our future selves at
the price of the present. His concluding visual aid made me open my eye as I am doing
this assessment 3 hours before the deadline, that I have less or maybe not enough time
to do what I want to do in my life. I know that I can do anything I would want to do but
because of this procrastination, I know that I will not be able to start. However, with the
life calendar he has shown and the statement that comes with it, I realized that even
though I feel like I have all the time in the world, but I do not.