På universitetet læste jeg statskundskab, Så jeg havde mange afleveringer. Når typiske studerende laver en aflevering, spreder de muligvis arbejdet ud sådan her. Altså,
So 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 --
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man starter måske lidt langsomt ud, men man når nok i løbet af den første uge, sådan så, når de hårde dage kommer, bliver man færdig uden store problemer.
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.
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Sådan ville jeg også gøre det. Det var planen. Jeg ville have det hele klar, men når jeg så rent faktisk skulle lave en aflevering så det nærmere sådan her ud.
And 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.
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Og det skete hver gang.
And that would happen every single paper.
Men så kom mit 90 sider lange speciale, en opgave, man bør bruge et år på at lave. Jeg vidste, at for denne slags opgave, var min normale tilgang ikke mulig. Projektet var for stort. Så jeg planlagde. og besluttede mig for at strukturere tiden nogenlunde sådan her. Sådan her ville året forløbe. Jeg ville starte stille og roligt ud, Øge intensiteten i midterperioden og mod slutningen ville jeg skrue bissen på, ligesom en lille trappe. Hvor svært kunne det være? Ligetil, ikke?
But then came my 90-page senior thesis, a paper you're supposed to spend a year on. 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. How hard could it be to walk up the stairs? No big deal, right?
Men så skete noget sjovt. De første par måneder? De kom og gik, jeg kunne ikke helt komme i gang. Så jeg havde en fantastisk, ny plan.
But then, the funniest thing happened. Those first few months? They came and went, and I couldn't quite do stuff. So we had an awesome new revised plan.
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Og så -
And then --
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Men så forsvandt de næste måneder også, jeg skrev ikke rigtigt noget og så endte jeg her. To måneder blev til én måned, som blev til to uger. Jeg vågnede op en morgen, tre dage inden afleveringsfristen, jeg havde stadig ikke skrevet et ord, så jeg gjorde det eneste mulige: Jeg skrev 90 sider på 72 timer var vågen i to hele døgn - hvilket mennesker ikke er skabt til - løb tværs over campus, i slow-motion over målstregen og nåede det lige præcis til tiden.
But 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. 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.
Jeg troede, det var det. Men ugen efter blev jeg ringet op af universitetet. De spurgte: "Er dette Tim Urban?" Jeg svarede: "Ja." De sagde: "Vi er nødt til at tale om dit speciale" Jeg svarede: "Ok." De sagde: "Det er det bedste, vi har set."
I 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."
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(Bifald)
(Applause)
Det skete ikke.
That did not happen.
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Det var et meget, meget dårligt speciale.
It was a very, very bad thesis.
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Jeg ville bare nyde øjeblikket, hvor I alle tænkte: "Ham her er fantastisk!"
I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This guy is amazing!"
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Det var virkelig, virkelig dårligt. I dag er jeg skribent og blogger, jeg har bloggen Wait But Why. For et par år siden besluttede jeg at skrive om overspringshandlinger. Min adfærd har altid undret de omkring mig, der arbejder koncentreret og jeg ville derfor gerne forklare, hvad der sker i hovedet på os, der overspringshandler, og hvorfor vi er som vi er. Jeg havde en hypotese om at overspringshandleres hjerner faktisk er anderledes end andre menneskers hjerner. For at teste det, fandt jeg et MR-laboratorium, der både scannede min hjerne og hjernen hos en person der ikke overspringshandler, så jeg kunne sammenligne dem. Jeg har taget scanningerne med i dag. Jeg vil have jer til at se grundigt efter og se om I kan se en forskel. Jeg ved, at det ikke er så ligetil at se, hvis man ikke er hjerne-ekspert, men prøv. Hjernen hos en, der ikke overspringshandler
No, no, it was very, very bad. Anyway, today I'm a writer-blogger guy. I write the blog Wait But Why. And a couple of years ago, I decided to write about 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.
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og... Her er min hjerne.
Now ... here's my brain.
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Der er forskel. Begge hjerner har en Rationel Beslutningstager, men overspringshandlerens hjerne har også en Øjeblikkelig Nydelses-Abe. Og hvad betyder det for overspringshandleren? Det betyder, at han har det fint indtil dette sker.
There is a difference. Both brains have a Rational Decision-Maker in them, but the procrastinator's brain also has an Instant Gratification Monkey. Now, what does this mean for the procrastinator? Well, it means everything's fine until this happens.
[Lige nu er et godt tidspunkt at arbejde på.] [Nej!]
[This is a perfect time to get some work done.] [Nope!]
Den Rationelle Beslutningstager træffer en rationel beslutning om at være produktiv, men den plan er Aben ikke med på, så han tager styringen og siger: "Lad os i stedet læse hele Wikipedia-siden om Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding-skandalen, fordi jeg lige er kommet i tanke om den.
So 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.
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Og så -
Then --
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så går vi over til køleskabet for at se, om der er kommet ny mad siden for ti minutter siden. Efter det bevæger vi os ind i en ond YouTube-cirkel, der begynder med videoer om, hvordan magneter virker og slutter meget senere med, at vi ser interviews med Justin Biebers mor.
Then 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.
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"Alt det kommer til at tage noget tid så vi har ikke rigtigt tid til at arbejde i dag. Undskyld!"
"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. Sorry!"
(Suk)
(Sigh)
Hvad er det, der sker? Øjeblikkelig Nydelses-Aben virker ikke til at være typen man vil give styringen. Han lever altid i øjeblikket. Han har husker ikke fortiden og ved intet om fremtiden, og han går kun op i to ting: det skal være nemt og sjovt.
Now, 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. He has no memory of the past, no knowledge of the future, and he only cares about two things: easy and fun.
I dyreverdenen er det helt fint. Hvis du er en hund, og du kun bruger dit liv på at have det nemt og sjovt, så er du en stor succes!
Now, 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!
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Og for Aben er mennesker bare en anden dyrerace. Man skal være udhvilet, mæt og man skal formere sig, hvilket sikkert fungerede fint i oldtiden. Men nu er vi ikke længere i oldtiden. Vi er blevet en avanceret civilisation, men det ved Aben ikke hvad er. Derfor har vi også den anden i hjernen, den Rationelle Beslutningstager, som giver os evnerne til at gøre ting som andre dyr ikke kan. Vi kan visualisere fremtiden. Vi kan se det store billede. Vi kan langsigtede planer. Alt det vil han gerne have med i sine overvejelser. Og han vil have os til at gøre, hvad der giver mening her og nu. Nogle gange giver det mening at lave ting, der er nemme og sjove, som at spise middag eller at gå i seng eller at nyde sin velfortjente fritid. Derfor er der et overlap. Nogle gange er de enige. Men andre gange giver det meget mere mening at lave ting, der er sværere og mindre behagelige, set i et større perspektiv. Og det er der, vi har en konflikt. For overspringshandleren ender den konflikt typisk på samme måde hver gang, hvor han bruger meget tid i dette orange område, et nemt og sjovt område, der er helt uden for Rationalitetscirklen. Jeg kalder det Den Mørke Legeplads.
And 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. 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. And he wants to just have us do whatever makes sense to be doing right now. 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. 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. 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. I call it the Dark Playground.
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Den Mørke Legeplads er et sted, som alle jer overspringshandlere kender utroligt godt. Der hvor fritidsaktiviteter sker på tidspunkter, hvor man ikke skal lave fritidsaktiviteter. Det sjov man har på Den Mørke Legeplads er ikke rigtigt sjovt, fordi det er helt ufortjent, og luften er fyldt med skyld, frygt, angst og selvhad - alle de gode overspringshandlings- følelser. Med Aben ved roret er spørgsmålet så, hvordan overspringshandleren får sig selv over til det her blå område - et mindre rart sted, men der hvor de vigtige ting finder sted?
Now, the Dark Playground is a place that all of you procrastinators out there know very well. 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. 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?
Det viser sig, at overspringshandleren har en skytsengel, en som altid kigger ned og passer på ham i hans mørkeste øjeblikke - en skytsengel kaldet Panikmonsteret.
Well, 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.
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Panikmonsteret er i dvale det meste af tiden, men han vågner pludseligt, så snart en deadline kommer for tæt på, hvis der er fare for offentlig forlegenhed, en karrierekatastrofe eller andet skræmmende. Og vigtigst er alt er han den eneste som Aben er bange for. Han kom ind i mit liv igen for ganske nyligt, fordi folkene hos TED kontaktede mig for omkring seks måneder siden og inviterede mig til at holde en TED Talk
Now, 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.
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Jeg sagde selvfølgelig ja. Det har altid været en drøm at have holdt en TED Talk i fortiden.
Now, of course, I said yes. It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past.
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(Bifald) Men midt i al begejstringen tænkte den Rationelle Beslutningstager tydeligvis på noget andet. Han sagde: "Er du med på, hvad vi har sagt ja til? Ved du, hvad der kommer til at ske en dag i fremtiden? Vi er nødt til at lægge en plan lige nu." Og Aben siger: "Helt enig, men lad os åbne Google Earth og zoome ind på det sydligste Indien cirka 60 meter over jorden og scrolle op i to og en halv time, til vi når toppen af landet, så vi bedre kan fornemme Indien.
(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? Do we get what's going to be now happening one day in the future? 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."
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Så det var det, vi gjorde.
So that's what we did that day.
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Da de seks måneder blev til fire og herefter to og så én, besluttede folkene ved TED at offentliggøre talerne. Jeg åbnede hjemmesiden, og der stirrede mit ansigt direkte tilbage på mig. Og gæt, hvem der vågnede?
As six months turned into four and then two and then one, the people of TED decided to release the speakers. And I opened up the website, and there was my face staring right back at me. And guess who woke up?
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Panikmonsteret begyndte at gå fra forstanden og få sekunder senere brød systemet ud i kaos.
So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem.
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Og Aben - som er bange for Panikmonsteret - kravlede op i et træ! Og endelig fik den Rationelle Beslutningstager lov til at styre og jeg kunne arbejde på talen.
And 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.
Panikmonsteret forklarer mange former for vanvittig adfærd hos overspringshandleren, som hvordan en som mig kunne bruge to uger uden at være i stand til at skrive første sætning på et stykke papir og på mirakuløs vis finde en utrolig evne til at blive oppe hele natten og skrive otte sider. Og hele denne situation med de tre skabninger - det er overspringshandlerens system. Det er ikke kønt, men i sidste ende fungerer det. Det besluttede jeg mig for at skrive om på bloggen for et par år siden.
Now, 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. 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.
Da jeg skrev det, blev jeg overrasket af responsen på det. Jeg modtog tusindvis af mails fra alle mulige mennesker i hele verden med vidt forskellige jobs. Det var sygeplejersker, bankmænd, malere, ingeniører og massevis af Ph.D-studerende.
When 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.
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De skrev allesammen det samme: "Det problem har jeg også." Men det, der slog mig var kontrasten mellem den lette tone og tyngden i disse mails. Disse personer skrev i dyb frustration om hvad overspringshandlinger havde gjort ved deres liv og hvad Aben havde gjort ved dem. Jeg tænkte over det og sagde: hvis overspringshandlerens system virker, hvad er der så galt? Hvorfor er alle disse mennesker sådan et mørkt sted?
And 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. 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? Why are all of these people in such a dark place?
Det viser sig, at der er to typer overspringshandlinger. Dem jeg har talt om i dag, de eksempler, jeg har givet, havde alle en deadline. Og når der er en deadline, kan effekten af overspringshandlingen styres på kort sigt fordi Panikmonsteret er involveret. Men der er en anden type overspringshandling der finder sted, når der ikke er en deadline. Så hvis du ville gøre karriere som selvstændig inden for kunst eller som entreprenør så er der ingen umiddelbare deadlines fordi intet sker før du går ud og lægger en reel indsats for at skabe momentum. Der er også vigtige ting uden for ens karriere, der ikke involverer deadlines, som at besøge sin familie eller at træne og holde sig sund, arbejde på sit forhold eller at komme ud af et forhold der ikke fungerer.
Well, 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. 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. 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. 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.
Hvis overspringshandlerens eneste mekanisme til at få gjort alt dette er Panikmonsteret, er det et problem fordi Panikmonsteret ikke dukker op i disse situationer uden deadline. Der er intet at vågne for, så effekterne af overspringshandlingen kan ikke styres; de fortsætter i uendelighed. Og det er denne type langsigtede overspringshandlinger som er mindre synlige og som sjældnere taler om end den sjove, kortsigtede, deadline-baserede type. Man lider typisk under den alene i stilhed. Det kan være kilden til langvarig ulykkelighed og fortrydelser. Og jeg tænkte, at det var derfor alle disse personer skrev og at det er derfor, de er et så dårligt sted. Det er ikke fordi de maser på for et projekt. Det er overspringshandlingerne der til tider får dem til at føle sig som tilskuere i deres eget liv. Frustrationen ligger ikke i, at de ikke kunne nå deres drømme; det er, at de ikke var i stand til at begynde at jagte dem.
Now 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. 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. It's usually suffered quietly and privately. And it can be the source of a huge amount of long-term unhappiness, and regrets. 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. It's that long-term procrastination has made them feel like a spectator, at times, in their own lives. The frustration is not that they couldn't achieve their dreams; it's that they weren't even able to start chasing them.
Så da jeg læste disse mails fik jeg en lille åbenbaring - Jeg tror ikke, der findes mennesker der ikke overspringshandler. Præcis! Jeg tror, at alle jer er overspringshandlere. I er måske ikke allesammen et rod, som nogle af os andre,
So I read these emails and I had a little bit of an epiphany -- that I don't think non-procrastinators exist. That's right -- I think all of you are procrastinators. Now, you might not all be a mess, like some of us,
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og nogle af jer har muligvis et sundt forhold til deadlines, men husk: Abens snedigste trick er når der ingen deadline er.
and some of you may have a healthy relationship with deadlines, but remember: the Monkey's sneakiest trick is when the deadlines aren't there.
Jeg vil vise jer en sidste ting. Jeg kalder det her en Livskalender. Der er en kasse for hver uge i et 90 år langt liv. Det er ikke mange kasser, især ikke fordi vi allerede har brugt nogle af dem. Så jeg tror, vi er nødt til at kigge grundigt på kalenderen. Vi skal overveje, hvad det er vi springer over, fordi alle springer over noget i livet. Vi skal være opmærksomme på Øjeblikkelig Nydelses-aben. Det er en opgave for os allesammen. Og fordi der ikke er så mange kasser, bør vi nok begynde den opgave i dag.
Now, I want to show you one last thing. I call this a Life Calendar. That's one box for every week of a 90-year life. That's not that many boxes, especially since we've already used a bunch of those. So I think we need to all take a long, hard look at that calendar. We need to think about what we're really procrastinating on, because everyone is procrastinating on something in life. We need to stay aware of the Instant Gratification Monkey. That's a job for all of us. And because there's not that many boxes on there, it's a job that should probably start today.
Altså, måske ikke i dag...
Well, maybe not today, but ...
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(Laughter)
men... Snart.
You know. Sometime soon.
Tak.
Thank you.
(Bifald)
(Applause)