Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator (1) Tim Urban: Das Innenleben eines Meisters der Prokrastination (1) Tim Urban: Inside the mind of a master procrastinator (1) Tim Urban: la mente de un maestro de la dilación (1) Tim Urban : dans la tête d'un maître de la procrastination (1) ティム・アーバン：先延ばしの達人の心の内（1） Tim Urban: Wnętrze umysłu mistrza prokrastynacji (1) Tim Urban: Por dentro da mente de um mestre da procrastinação (1) Тим Урбан: Внутри сознания мастера промедления (1) Tim Urban: I huvudet på en mästare på att skjuta upp saker (1) Tim Urban: Usta bir erteleyicinin zihninin içinde (1) Тім Урбан: Усвідомлення майстра прокрастинації (1) 蒂姆-乌尔班：拖延大师的内心世界 (1)

00:11So in college, I was a government major, which means I had to write a lot of papers.

Now, when a normal student writes a paper, they might spread the work out a little like this. So, you know --

00:24(Laughter)

00:25you get started maybe a little slowly, but you get enough done in the first week that, with some heavier days later on, everything gets done, things stay civil. 00:25 vous démarrez peut-être un peu lentement, mais vous en faites assez la première semaine pour que, avec quelques jours plus lourds par la suite, tout soit fait et que les choses restent civiles.

00:33(Laughter)

00:34And I would want to do that like that.

That would be the plan. I would have it all ready to go, but then, actually, the paper would come along, and then I would kind of do this. J'avais tout préparé, mais en fait, le papier arrivait et je faisais alors ceci.

00:45(Laughter)

00:47And that would happen every single paper.

00:50But then came my 90-page senior thesis, a paper you're supposed to spend a year on. ||||||dissertation||||||||| 00:50Mais c'est alors qu'est arrivé mon mémoire de fin d'études de 90 pages, un travail sur lequel on est censé passer un an.

And I knew for a paper like that, my normal work flow was not an option. It was way too big a project So I planned things out, and I decided I kind of had to go something like this. This is how the year would go. So I'd start off light, and I'd bump it up in the middle months, and then at the end, I would kick it up into high gear just like a little staircase. Je commençais donc en douceur, puis j'augmentais la cadence au cours des mois intermédiaires et, à la fin, je passais à la vitesse supérieure, comme dans un petit escalier. How hard could it be to walk up the stairs? No big deal, right?

01:22But then, the funniest thing happened.

Those first few months? Les premiers mois ? They came and went, and I couldn't quite do stuff. Ils allaient et venaient, et je n'arrivais pas à faire grand-chose. So we had an awesome new revised plan.

01:30(Laughter)

01:31And then --

01:32(Laughter)

01:34But then those middle months actually went by, and I didn't really write words, and so we were here.

And then two months turned into one month, which turned into two weeks. Et puis deux mois se sont transformés en un mois, qui s'est transformé en deux semaines. And one day I woke up with three days until the deadline, still not having written a word, and so I did the only thing I could: I wrote 90 pages over 72 hours, pulling not one but two all-nighters -- humans are not supposed to pull two all-nighters --sprinted across campus, dove in slow motion, and got it in just at the deadline. |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||dived||||||||||| Eines Tages wachte ich drei Tage vor dem Abgabetermin auf und hatte immer noch kein Wort geschrieben, und so tat ich das Einzige, was ich konnte: Ich schrieb 90 Seiten innerhalb von 72 Stunden, wobei ich nicht nur eine, sondern zwei Nächte durcharbeitete - Menschen sollten nicht zwei Nächte durcharbeiten -, druckte quer über den Campus, tauchte in Zeitlupe ab und schaffte es gerade noch vor dem Abgabetermin. Un jour, je me suis réveillé à trois jours de la date limite, sans avoir écrit un seul mot, et j'ai fait la seule chose que je pouvais faire : j'ai écrit 90 pages en 72 heures, en passant non pas une mais deux nuits blanches - les humains ne sont pas censés passer deux nuits blanches -, j'ai imprimé à travers le campus, j'ai plongé au ralenti, et j'ai rendu mon travail juste à la date limite.

02:10I thought that was the end of everything But a week later I get a call, and it's the school.

And they say, "Is this Tim Urban?" And I say, "Yeah." And they say, "We need to talk about your thesis." And I say, "OK." And they say, "It's the best one we've ever seen. Et ils disent : "C'est la meilleure que nous ayons jamais vue. " 02:28(Laughter) 02:31(Applause)

02:35That did not happen. 02:35Cela ne s'est pas produit.

02:37(Laughter)

02:39It was a very, very bad thesis.

02:42(Laughter)

02:44I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This guy is amazing! 02:44Je voulais juste profiter de ce moment où vous vous êtes tous dit : "Ce type est incroyable !

" 02:50(Laughter) 02:51No, no, it was very, very bad.

Anyway, today I'm a writer-blogger guy. Quoi qu'il en soit, aujourd'hui, je suis un écrivain-blogueur. I write the blog Wait But Why And a couple of years ago, I decided to write about procrastination. J'écris le blog Wait But Why et il y a quelques années, j'ai décidé d'écrire sur la procrastination. My behavior has always perplexed the non-procrastinators around me, and I wanted to explain to the non-procrastinators of the world what goes on in the heads of procrastinators, and why we are the way we are. Now, I had a hypothesis that the brains of procrastinators were actually different than the brains of other people. And to test this, I found an MRI lab that actually let me scan both my brain and the brain of a proven non-procrastinator, so I could compare them. I actually brought them here to show you today. I want you to take a look carefully to see if you can notice a difference. I know that if you're not a trained brain expert, it's not that obvious, but just take a look, OK? So here's the brain of a non-procrastinator.

03:42(Laughter)

03:45Now .. here's my brain.

03:49(Laughter)

03:54There is a difference.

Both brains have a Rational Decision-Maker in them, but the procrastinator's brain also has an Instant Gratification Monkey. Les deux cerveaux contiennent un décideur rationnel, mais le cerveau du procrastinateur contient également un singe de la gratification instantanée. Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator? Qu'est-ce que cela signifie pour le procrastinateur ? Well, it means everything's fine until this happens. Cela signifie que tout va bien jusqu'à ce que cela se produise.

04:08[This is a perfect time to get some work done.

] [Nope! ] 04:11So the Rational Decision-Maker will make the rational decision to do something productive, but the Monkey doesn't like that plan, so he actually takes the wheel, and he says, "Actually, let's read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding scandal, because I just remembered that that happened. 04:11Le décideur rationnel prend la décision rationnelle de faire quelque chose de productif, mais le singe n'aime pas ce plan, alors il prend le volant et dit : "En fait, lisons toute la page Wikipédia sur le scandale Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding, parce que je viens de me rappeler que cela s'est produit. 04:27(Laughter)

04:28Then --

04:29(Laughter)

04:30Then we're going to go over to the fridge, to see if there's anything new in there since 10 minutes ago.After that, we're going to go on a YouTube spiral that starts with videos of Richard Feynman talking about magnets and ends much, much later with us watching interviews with Justin Bieber's mom.

04:46(Laughter)

04:48"All of that's going to take a while, so we're not going to really have room on the schedule for any work today. 04:48 "Tout cela va prendre du temps, donc nous n'aurons pas vraiment de place dans le programme pour travailler aujourd'hui.

Sorry! " 04:54(Sigh) 04:57Now, what is going on here?

The Instant Gratification Monkey does not seem like a guy you want behind the wheel He lives entirely in the present moment. Le singe de la gratification instantanée n'est pas le genre de personne que l'on souhaite voir au volant. Il vit entièrement dans le moment présent. He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future, and he only cares about two things: easy and fun.

05:15Now, in the animal world, that works fine.

If you're a dog and you spend your whole life doing nothing other than easy and fun things, you're a huge success! Si tu es un chien et que tu passes ta vie à ne faire que des choses faciles et amusantes, tu es un grand succès !

05:24(Laughter)

05:26And to the Monkey, humans are just another animal species.

You have to keep well-slept, well-fed and propagating into the next generation, which in tribal times might have worked OK. Il faut veiller à ce que les gens dorment bien, soient bien nourris et se transmettent à la génération suivante, ce qui, à l'époque des tribus, aurait pu fonctionner correctement. But, if you haven't noticed, now we're not in tribal times. We're in an advanced civilization, and the Monkey does not know what that is. Which is why we have another guy in our brain, the Rational Decision-Maker, who gives us the ability to do things no other animal can do. We can visualize the future. We can see the big picture We can make long-term plans. And he wants to take all of that into account. Et il veut tenir compte de tout cela. And he wants to just have us do whatever makes sense to be doing right now. Et il veut que nous fassions tout ce qu'il est logique de faire en ce moment. Now, sometimes it makes sense to be doing things that are easy and fun, like when you're having dinner or going to bed or enjoying well-earned leisure time. That's why there's an overlap. Il est parfois judicieux de faire des choses faciles et amusantes, par exemple au moment de dîner ou de se coucher, ou de profiter d'un temps libre bien mérité. C'est pourquoi il y a chevauchement. Sometimes they agree. But other times, it makes much more sense to be doing things that are harder and less pleasant, for the sake of the big picture. Mais d'autres fois, il est beaucoup plus logique de faire des choses plus difficiles et moins agréables, dans l'intérêt de la situation dans son ensemble. And that's when we have a conflict. And for the procrastinator, that conflict tends to end a certain way every time, leaving him spending a lot of time in this orange zone, an easy and fun place that's entirely out of the Makes Sense circle. Et pour le procrastinateur, ce conflit a tendance à se terminer toujours de la même manière, ce qui lui fait passer beaucoup de temps dans cette zone orange, un endroit facile et amusant qui est complètement en dehors du cercle de Makes Sense. I call it the Dark Playground Je l'appelle le "Dark Playground" (terrain de jeu sombre)

06:41(Laughter)

06:42Now, the Dark Playground is a place that all of you procrastinators out there know very well. 06:42Le Dark Playground est un endroit que tous les procrastinateurs connaissent très bien.

It's where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. C'est là que les activités de loisirs se déroulent à des moments où les activités de loisirs ne sont pas censées se dérouler. The fun you have in the Dark Playground isn't actually fun, because it's completely unearned, and the air is filled with guilt, dread, anxiety, self-hatred -- all of those good procrastinator feelings. Le plaisir que vous éprouvez dans le Dark Playground n'est pas vraiment amusant, car il n'est absolument pas mérité, et l'air est rempli de culpabilité, d'effroi, d'anxiété, de haine de soi - tous ces bons sentiments de procrastinateur. And the question is, in this situation, with the Monkey behind the wheel, how does the procrastinator ever get himself over here to this blue zone, a less pleasant place, but where really important things happen? Et la question qui se pose est la suivante : dans cette situation, avec le Singe au volant, comment le procrastinateur arrive-t-il à passer dans cette zone bleue, un endroit moins agréable, mais où les choses vraiment importantes se passent ?

07:16Well, turns out the procrastinator has a guardian angel, someone who's always looking down on him and watching over him in his darkest moments -- someone called the Panic Monster.

07:27(Laughter)

07:33Now, the Panic Monster is dormant most of the time, but he suddenly wakes up anytime a deadline gets too close or there's danger of public embarrassment, a career disaster or some other scary consequence.

And importantly, he's the only thing the Monkey is terrified of. Now, he became very relevant in my life pretty recently, because the people of TED reached out to me about six months ago and invited me to do a TED Talk. Il est devenu très important dans ma vie assez récemment, parce que les gens de TED m'ont contacté il y a environ six mois et m'ont invité à faire un discours TED.

08:00(Laughter)

08:06Now, of course, I said yes.

It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past.

08:11(Laughter)

08:15(Applause) But in the middle of all this excitement, the Rational Decision-Maker seemed to have something else on his mind He was saying, "Are we clear on what we just accepted? 08:15(Applaudissements) Mais au milieu de toute cette agitation, le décideur rationnel semblait avoir une autre idée en tête.

Do we get what's going to be now happening one day in the future? Est-ce que nous obtenons ce qui va se passer aujourd'hui un jour dans le futur ? We need to sit down and work on this right now." And the Monkey said, "Totally agree, but let's just open Google Earth and zoom in to the bottom of India, like 200 feet above the ground, and scroll up for two and a half hours til we get to the top of the country, so we can get a better feel for India. Le singe a répondu : "Je suis tout à fait d'accord, mais ouvrons Google Earth et zoomons sur la partie inférieure de l'Inde, à environ 200 pieds au-dessus du sol, et faisons défiler l'écran pendant deux heures et demie jusqu'à ce que nous atteignions le sommet du pays, afin d'avoir une meilleure idée de l'Inde". " 08:48(Laughter) 08:54So that's what we did that day.

08:55(Laughter)

08:59As six months turned into four and then two and then one, the people of TED decided to release the speakers. 08:59Alors que les six mois se sont transformés en quatre, puis en deux, puis en un, les responsables de TED ont décidé de libérer les conférenciers.

And I opened up the website, and there was my face staring right back at me. And guess who woke up?

09:12(Laughter)

09:16So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem. |||||||||||||||||chaos 09:16Le monstre de panique commence à perdre la tête et, quelques secondes plus tard, tout le système est en ébullition.

09:21(Laughter)

09:26And the Monkey -- remember, he's terrified of the Panic Monster -- boom, he's up the tree!

And finally, finally, the Rational Decision-Maker can take the wheel and I can start working on the talk.

09:36Now, the Panic Monster explains all kinds of pretty insane procrastinator behavior, like how someone like me could spend two weeks unable to start the opening sentence of a paper, and then miraculously find the unbelievable work ethic to stay up all night and write eight pages. 09:36 Le monstre de panique explique toutes sortes de comportements de procrastination assez fous, comme le fait que quelqu'un comme moi puisse passer deux semaines à ne pas pouvoir commencer la première phrase d'un article, puis trouver miraculeusement une éthique de travail incroyable pour rester éveillé toute la nuit et écrire huit pages.

And this entire situation, with the three characters -- this is the procrastinator's system. It's not pretty, but in the end, it works This is what I decided to write about on the blog a couple of years ago. C'est ce que j'ai décidé d'écrire sur le blog il y a quelques années.

10:08When I did, I was amazed by the response.

Literally thousands of emails came in, from all different kinds of people from all over the world, doing all different kinds of things. These are people who were nurses, bankers, painters, engineers and lots and lots of PhD students.

10:23(Laughter)

10:25And they were all writing, saying the same thing: "I have this problem too.

" But what struck me was the contrast between the light tone of the post and the heaviness of these emails. "Mais ce qui m'a frappé, c'est le contraste entre le ton léger du billet et la lourdeur de ces courriels. These people were writing with intense frustration about what procrastination had done to their lives, about what this Monkey had done to them. And I thought about this, and I said, well, if the procrastinator's system works, then what's going on? J'y ai réfléchi et je me suis dit que si le système du procrastinateur fonctionnait, alors que se passait-il ? Why are all of these people in such a dark place?

10:54Well, it turns out that there's two kinds of procrastination.

Everything I've talked about today, the examples I've given, they all have deadlines. Tout ce dont j'ai parlé aujourd'hui, les exemples que j'ai donnés, ont tous des échéances. And when there's deadlines, the effects of procrastination are contained to the short term because the Panic Monster gets involved But there's a second kind of procrastination that happens in situations when there is no deadline. Et lorsqu'il y a des échéances, les effets de la procrastination se limitent au court terme parce que le monstre de panique entre en jeu Mais il y a un deuxième type de procrastination qui se produit lorsqu'il n'y a pas d'échéance. So if you wanted a career where you're a self-starter -- something in the arts, something entrepreneurial -- there's no deadlines on those things at first, because nothing's happening, not until you've gone out and done the hard work to get momentum, get things going. Donc, si vous voulez une carrière où vous êtes autonome - quelque chose dans les arts, quelque chose d'entrepreneurial - il n'y a pas de délais pour ces choses au début, parce que rien ne se passe, pas tant que vous n'êtes pas sorti et n'avez pas fait le travail difficile pour créer une dynamique, pour faire avancer les choses. There's also all kinds of important things outside of your career that don't involve any deadlines, like seeing your family or exercising and taking care of your health, working on your relationship or getting out of a relationship that isn't working.

11:38Now if the procrastinator's only mechanism of doing these hard things is the Panic Monster, that's a problem, because in all of these non-deadline situations, the Panic Monster doesn't show up.

He has nothing to wake up for, so the effects of procrastination, they're not contained; they just extend outward forever. Il n'a aucune raison de se réveiller, et les effets de la procrastination ne sont pas limités ; ils s'étendent à l'infini. And it's this long-term kind of procrastination that's much less visible and much less talked about than the funnier, short-term deadline-based kind. Cette forme de procrastination à long terme est beaucoup moins visible et beaucoup moins évoquée que la procrastination à court terme, plus amusante, fondée sur les délais. It's usually suffered quietly and privately. And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness, and regrets. |||||||||||||||regret And I thought, that's why those people are emailing, and that's why they're in such a bad place. It's not that they're cramming for some project Ce n'est pas qu'ils soient en train de bachoter pour un projet quelconque