Every few years a talk gets posted that is so remarkable that people love it so much they want to share it. In 2015 Tim Urban delivered one of those talks. Urban is the co-founder of Wait But Why, a site he’s run since 2013 that generates millions of page views a month.
Urban does a lot of things brilliantly in Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator. These are four that we can all learn from.
1. He blends humility and humour
It’s takes thirty-three seconds to fall in love with Urban as a speaker. Two sentences in to is 2015 TED talk he projects a chart that shows how most college students spread their paper-writing workload over time. “So, you know -- you 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,” he says, opening his arms and bowing his head down before the Vancouver audience.
In an ideal world, Urban’s study strategy would have followed a similarly measured format. “That would be the plan,” he explains. “I would have it all ready to go, but then, actually, the paper would come along, and then I would kind of do this…” Here, he drops his head with a hint of shame, pointing at a second projected chart. On that chart, all the paper writing work has moved to the day-before-deadline column. The audience laughs. How could they not? From his manner down to his jeans and crew-tee, Urban’s blend of humility and humor is refreshing.
2. He makes us think, “That sounds like me”
Urban’s careful construction of a universal struggle is irresistible. As he talks, he repeatedly evokes a “That sounds like me” response from his listeners. The best speakers do. At the 4:12 mark, for example, he uses personable and relatable examples of the ways we all get sidetracked. "Let's read the entire Wikipedia page of the Nancy Kerrigan/ Tonya Harding scandal, because I just remembered that that happened,” he says. “Then we're going to go over to the fridge, to see if there's anything new in there since 10 minutes ago.” Sounds about right.
3. He uses specific and concrete language to make his points
Equally important to notice is the specificity and concreteness of Urban’s descriptions. He doesn’t simply say “we get distracted watching videos.” No, he says, “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.” By using such concrete, even endearingly idiosyncratic scenarios, Urban ensures that even them more disciplined and focussed in the audience can identify with his experiences.
4. He uses constructs and personas to give life to his insights
Once Urban’s pulled us in to the shared problem, he presents insights using constructs that he illustrates and names.
Like The Dark Playground: “It's where leisure activities happen at times when leisure activities are not supposed to be happening. 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.”
Urban outlines two kinds of procrastination: deadline and non-deadline. A persona he calls “The Panic Monster” solves the former. The latter is more complicated; left unaddressed, non-deadline procrastination can make you feel like a spectator in your own life and frustrated you haven’t achieved your dreams.
If you dream of giving a talk that will capture and move a crowd, consider following Urban’s lead and apply the four lessons from his terrific talk. And give yourself a deadline.
* Combined views from TED.com and YouTube.com
