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 --
Na fakulteti sem študiral upravo, kar pomeni, da sem moral napisati veliko seminarskih. Ko normalen študent piše seminarsko, morda razporedi delo tako. Tako da, saj veste -
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
morda začneš bolj počasi, ampak narediš dovolj v prvem tednu, da z nekaj težjimi dnevi kasneje narediš vse, stvari ostanejo mirne.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
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.
In jaz bi to rad naredil tako. To bi bil načrt. Vse bi imel pripravljeno, ampak, ko bi prišla seminarska, bi naredil to.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
And that would happen every single paper.
In to bi se zgodilo čisto vsakič.
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?
A potem je prišla 90-stranska diplomska naloga v zadnjem letniku, delo, na katerem naj bi delal celo leto. In vedel sem, da za tako delo moj običajni način dela ne pride v poštev. To je bil prevelik projekt. Zato sem splaniral in se odločil, da bom moral delati nekako takole. Takole bi potekalo leto. Začel bi počasi in se bolj zagnal v sredini leta in končno prestavil v najvišjo prestavo, bilo bi kot nekakšno stopnišče. Kako težko pa je hoditi po stopnicah? Nič takega, kajne?
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.
A potem se je zgodilo nekaj hecnega. Prvih nekaj mesecev? Prišli so in odšli in nekako nisem mogel delati. Zato sem imel krasen na novo izdelan načrt.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
And then --
In potem -
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
In nato so prišli meseci na sredini leta in pravzaprav nisem napisal nobene besede, in bil sem tu. In nato sta se dva meseca spremenila v enega, ki se je spremenil v dva tedna. In nekega dne sem se zbudil in do roka sem imel še tri dni, napisal nisem niti besede, in tako sem naredil edino, kar sem lahko: napisal sem 90 strani v 72 urah, pisal celo noč ne samo enkrat, ampak dvakrat - ljudje naj ne bi pisali celo noč dva dni zapored - tekel čez kampus, se v počasnem posnetku pognal in oddal v zadnjem trenutku.
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."
Mislil sem, da je to to. A teden dni kasneje sem dobil klic od šole. Rekli so: "Je to Tim Urban?" In rekel sem: "Ja." In rekli so: "Pogovoriti se moramo o tvoji nalogi." In rekel sem: "OK." In rekli so: "Najboljša je od vseh."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(Applause)
(Aplavz)
That did not happen.
To se ni zgodilo.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
It was a very, very bad thesis.
Bila je zelo slaba diplomska naloga.
(Laughter)
(smeh)
I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This guy is amazing!"
Želel sem samo uživati v trenutku, ko ste vsi mislili: "Ta tip je neverjeten!"
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Ne, ne, bilo je zelo slabo. Kakorkoli, zdaj sem pisatelj in bloger. Pišem blog Wait But Why. In pred nekaj leti, sem se odločil, da bom pisal o odlašanju-prokrastinaciji. Moje obnašanje je vedno čudilo tiste okrog mene, ki niso odlašali, in tistim, ki ne odlašajo, sem želel pojasniti, kaj se dogaja v glavi odlašalcev in zakaj smo taki, kot smo. Imel sem hipotezo, da so možgani odlašalcev dejansko drugačni kot možgani drugih ljudi. In da bi to testiral, sem našel MRI laboratorij, v katerem so skenirali moje možgane in možgane nekoga, ki dokazano ni odlašalec, da bi jih lahko primerjal. Prinesel sem jih sem, da bi vam jih pokazal. Želim, da pozorno pogledate, da boste videli, če opazite razliko. Vem, da če niste strokovnjak za možgane, ni tako očitno, a vseeno poglejte, prav? Tu so možgani ne-odlašalca. [Racionalni odločevalec]
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Now ... here's my brain.
Tu pa... tu so moji možgani.
(Laughter)
[Opica instantne zadovoljitve]
(Smeh)
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.
Razlika je. Oba imata v sebi Racionalnega odločevalca, a v možganih odlašalca je tudi Opica instantne zadovoljitve. Kaj to pomeni za odlašalca? Vse je v redu, dokler se ne zgodi tole.
[This is a perfect time to get some work done.] [Nope!]
[Zdaj je odličen čas, da opraviva nekaj dela.] [Ne!]
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.
Racionalni odločevalec bo sprejel racionalno odločitev, da bi naredil nekaj produktivnega, a Opici ta načrt ni všeč, zato prevzame krmilo in reče: "Rajši preberiva celotno stran na Wikipediji o škandalu Nancy Kerrigan/Tonyi Harding, ker sem se pravkar spomnil, da se je to zgodilo.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Then --
Potem -
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Bova šla do hladilnika in pogledala, če je notri kaj drugega kot pred desetimi minutami. Potem bova začela pot po YouTube, ki se začne z videi Richarda Feynmana o magnetih in se konča veliko veliko kasneje z gledanjem intervjujev z mamo Justina Bieberja.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
"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!"
"Vse to bo trajalo nekaj časa, zato danes na urniku ni prostora za delo. Oprosti!
(Sigh)
(Vzdih)
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.
Kaj se torej dogaja tukaj? Opica instantne zadovoljitve se ne zdi kot nekdo, ki bi ga želeli za krmilom. Živi v tem trenutku. Nima spominov na preteklost, ne ve za prihodnost in zanimata ga samo dve stvari: lahkotnost in zabava.
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!
V živalskem svetu to dobro deluje. Če si pes in celotno življenje počneš samo lahkotne in zabavne stvari, si zelo uspešen!
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
In za Opico smo ljudje samo še ena živalska vrsta. Biti moraš naspan, sit in se razmnoževati, kar je v plemenskih časih morda bilo ok. A če niste opazili, mi nismo v plemenskih časih. Smo v napredni civilizaciji in Opica ne ve, kaj je to. Zato imamo v možganih še nekoga, Racionalnega Odločevalca, ki nam daje možnost, da naredimo stvari, ki jih druge živali ne. Lahko si predstavljamo prihodnost. Lahko vidimo celotno sliko. Lahko imamo dolgoročne načrte. In vse to hoče vzeti v zakup. In želi, da počnemo, karkoli je trenutno smiselno. Včasih je smiselno, da počnemo svari, ki so lahkotne in zabavne, kot na primer, ko jeste večerjo ali greste spat ali uživate v zasluženem prostem času. Tu se stvari prekrivajo. Včasih se strinjata. A včasih je veliko bolj smiselno, da počnemo stvari, ki so težje in manj prijetne zaradi velike slike. In takrat pride do konflikta. In za odlašalca se konflikt vsakič konča na določen način, in tako preživi veliko časa v oranžni coni, lahkotnem in zabavnem kraju, ki je popolnoma izven Smiselnega kroga. Pravim mu Temno Igrišče.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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?
Temno Igrišče je kraj, ki ga vsi odlašalci dobro poznate. Tu se dogajajo prostočasne dejavnosti v času, ko se prostočasne dejavnosti ne bi smele dogajati. Ko se zabavaš v Temnem igrišču, to pravzaprav ni zabava, ker si je ne zaslužiš, in zrak je poln krivde, strahu, tesnobe, sovraštva do sebe - vseh teh pozitivnih odlaševalskih čustev. In vprašanje je, v tej situaciji, z opico za krmilom, kako odlašalec sploh pride v modro območje, manj prijeten kraj, kjer pa se zgodijo res pomembne stvari?
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.
Izkaže se, da ima odlašalec angela varuha, ki vedno pazi nanj v najtemnejših trenutkih - imenuje se Panična Pošast.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
Panična Pošast večino časa počiva, a se nenadoma zbudi, ko se skrajni rok preveč približa, ali pa je tu nevarnost javne osramotitve, karierne katastrofe ali kakšne druge grozne posledice. Pomembno je tudi, da je edina, ki se je Opica boji. V mojem življenju je pred kratkim postala zelo pomembna, ker so me ljudje s TED-a kontaktirali pred šestimi meseci in me povabili, naj naredim TED govor.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Now, of course, I said yes. It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past.
Seveda sem privolil. Vedno sem si želel, da bi v preteklosti imel TED govor.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
(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."
(Aplavz) A sredi vsega tega navdušenja je imel Racionalni Odločevalec nekaj drugega v mislih. Rekel je: "Veš, kaj sva pravkar sprejela? Sva dojela, kaj se bo dogajalo nekega dne v prihodnosti? Takoj se morava lotiti dela." In Opica je rekla: "Popolnoma se strinjam, a samo odpriva Google Earth in približajva jug Indije, kakšnih 60 metrov nad tlemi, in se pomikajva do vrha države v dveh urah in pol, da dobiva občutek, kakšna je Indija."
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So that's what we did that day.
In to sva ta dan res storila.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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?
In šest mesecev se je spremenilo v štiri, nato dva in nato enega, in ljudje s TED-a so objavili govornike. In odprl sem spletno stran in tam je bil moj obraz, ki je strmel naravnost vame. In uganite, kdo se je prebudil?
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem.
Panični Pošasti se je zmešalo in nekaj sekund kasneje je celoten sistem v kaosu.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
In Opica - spomnite se, Panične Pošasti se boji - bum, gre na drevo! In končno, Racionalni Odločevalec lahko prevzame krmilo in jaz lahko začnem delati na govoru.
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.
Panična pošast pojasni vse vrste precej norega odlaševalskega obnašanja, kako nekdo kot jaz dva tedna ne more napisati uvodnega stavka, in nato čudežno najde neverjetno delovno vnemo, da je pokonci celo noč in napiše 8 strani. In ta celotna situacija s temi tremi karakterji - to je odlašalčev sistem. Ni lepo, a na koncu deluje. O tem sem se odločil pisati na blogu pred nekaj leti.
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.
In ko sem, me je izredno presenetil odziv. Dobesedno na tisoče e-mailov sem dobil, od različnih ljudi z vsega sveta, ki so počeli različne stvari. Ljudje kot so medicinske sestre, bankirji, slikarji inženirji in veliko in veliko doktorskih študentov.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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?
In vsi so mi pisali, rekoč enako: "Tudi jaz imam ta problem." A kar me je res zadelo, je bil kontrast med lahkotnostjo moje objave in težo teh pisem. Ti ljudje so mi pisali z intenzivno frustracijo, kaj je odlašanje naredilo z njihovimi življenji, kaj jim je naredila ta Opica. Razmislil sem o tem in dejal, no, če odlašalčev sistem deluje, kaj se potem dogaja? Zakaj so vsi ti ljudje v tako slabem stanju?
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.
Izkaže se, da obstajata dve vrsti odlašanja. Vse, o čemer sem govoril danes, primeri, ki sem jih podal, vsi imajo roke. In ko so tu roki, so učinki odlašanja omejeni na kratek čas, saj se vplete Panična Pošast. A tu je še druga vrsta odlašanja, ki se zgodi v situacijah, ko roka ni. Če si torej želite kariere, kjer morate začeti sami - kaj v umetnosti, kaj podjetniškega - tu na začetku ni nobenega roka, ker se sprva nič ne dogaja, ne, dokler ne greš in opraviš težkega dela, da se stvari začnejo premikati. Tu so tudi vse vrste pomembnih stvari izven kariere, ki nimajo nobenih rokov, kot naprimer obisk družine ali telovadba in skrb za zdravje, ali skrb za odnos, ali pa zaključiti z razmerjem, ki ne deluje.
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.
Če je odlašalčev edini mehanizem, da naredi te stvari, Panična pošast, je to težava, ker se v vseh teh situacijah brez roka Panična Pošast ne pojavi. Ni se mu treba zbuditi, zato učinki odlašanja niso omejeni; raztezajo se v večnost. In to je dolgoročna vrsta odlašanja, ki je manj vidna in se o njej manj govori, kot o tisti bolj smešni, ki se pojavi pri zadevah z rokom. Ponavadi se v njej trpi tiho in zasebno. In lahko je vir velike dolgotrajne nesreče in obžalovanj. In pomislil sem, zato mi ti ljudje pišejo in zato so v tako slabem stanju. Ne hitijo z nekim projektom. Zaradi tega dolgotrajnega odlašanja se včasih počutijo kot opazovalec v lastnem življenju. Frustracija ni v tem, da niso mogli doseči svojih sanj, niso jih bili sposobni niti začeti preganjati.
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,
Ko sem bral vsa ta pisma, sem imel malo razodetje - menim, da ne-odlašalci ne obstajajo. Tako je - menim, da ste vsi odlašalci. Morda niste taka zmešnjava kot nekateri izmed nas,
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
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.
in morda imate nekateri zdravo razmerje z roki, a zapomnite si: najbolj zvit trik Opice je, ko rokov ni.
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.
Želim vam pokazati še zadnjo stvar. Temu pravim življenjski koledar. To je en kvadratek za vsak teden 90-letnega življenja. To ni tako veliko kvadratkov, še posebej, ker smo jih kar nekaj porabili. Zato mislim, da moramo dobro pogledati ta koledar. Razmisliti moramo, s čim zares odlašamo, ker vsak odlaša z nečim v življenju. Zavedati se moramo Opice instantne zadovoljitve. To je naloga za vse nas. In zato, ker tu ni tako veliko kvadratkov, moramo s tem začeti danes.
Well, maybe not today, but ...
No, morda ne danes, ampak...
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
You know. Sometime soon.
Saj veste. Enkrat kmalu.
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplavz)