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 --
大學的時候, 我主修政治學, 這表示我必須要寫很多論文。 一般學生在寫論文時, 大概會做像這樣的進度表。 你們也知道嘛...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
一開始慢慢來, 但第一週能完成夠多進度, 後來工作量重了一點, 但事情總會順利完成。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
我也想要這樣子做。 計畫本來就應該像這樣。 我會把一切通通計畫好, 結果呢,等到真的該寫的時候, 我的計畫會變成這樣。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And that would happen every single paper.
每一次寫論文都是這樣。
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?
但終於輪到了我 90 頁的畢業論文, 這論文照理應該花一年的時間寫。 我知道面對這種論文, 不能用平常的工作方式來做。 因為這實在是太大的工程了。 所以我好好地計畫了一下, 決定要這樣安排。 這一年大概要長這樣。 所以剛開始做一點就好, 中間幾個月增加一點進度, 最後,我會火力全開, 就跟樓梯一樣嘛。 走樓梯是有多難勒? 輕而易舉,對吧?
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.
可是,好笑的事情發生了。 前面幾個月, 突然就飛走了, 我根本做不了什麼。 所以我就修改成超棒的新進度表。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
And then --
然後...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
然後中間的月份也飛走了, 我真的也沒擠出幾個字, 所以就變成這樣。 然後兩個月變成一個月, 之後剩兩週。 有天我醒來, 發現只剩三天就要交論文了, 我還是連一個字都沒生出來, 所以我能做的只有一件事: 我用 72 小時生出 90 頁的論文, 不只熬夜了一天,是連續兩天── 人真的不能連熬兩天夜── 完成後我衝到校園, 慢動作往前撲, 正好在最後一刻趕上。
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."
我以為這樣就結束了。 但一週後,我接到電話, 是學校打來的。 他們說:「請問你是提姆.厄本嗎?」 我說:「對。」 他們說:「我們得談談你的論文。」 我說:「好。」 他們說: 「我們從沒見過這麼棒的論文。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(Applause)
(掌聲)
That did not happen.
並沒有發生這種事。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
It was a very, very bad thesis.
我寫得超級無敵爛。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This guy is amazing!"
我只是想要享受一下你們心想: 「這傢伙太厲害了吧!」那瞬間。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
並沒有發生這種事,我寫得很糟。 總之,我現在是個部落客, 部落格名稱是「等一下但是為什麼」。 幾年前,我決定開始寫拖拖拉拉的事。 我身邊不會拖拖拉拉的朋友 總對我的行為感到非常不解, 所以我想解釋給全世界 所有不會拖拖拉拉的人 看我們愛拖的人腦袋裡在想什麼, 以及我們為何如此。 現在呢,我有個假設, 那就是拖延者的大腦 其實跟其它人不一樣。 為了證實這點, 我找到一個核磁共振實驗室, 同意讓我掃描自己的大腦, 以及一位不會拖延者的大腦, 然後比較兩者的差異。 我今天特地把掃描結果帶來給你們看。 請仔細看看有沒有不一樣。 如果你們不是專家的話, 可能沒有那麼容易看出來, 不過就稍微看一下好嗎? 這是不會拖延者的大腦。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Now ... here's my brain.
然後呢... 這是我的大腦。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
果然不一樣吧。 兩個大腦裡都有理性決策者, 但拖延者的大腦 同時還有一隻及時行樂猴。 這對拖延者來說是什麼意思? 在這種狀況發生前,一切都沒事。
[This is a perfect time to get some work done.] [Nope!]
[現在是該做事的最好時機喔。] [才不是!]
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.
所以理性決策者會做出理性決定 該做點事情了, 但猴子並不喜歡這決定, 所以就搶過方向盤, 然後說:「不然我們看完維基百科上 花式滑冰選手南西克里根 和坦雅哈丁的整篇醜聞報導吧, 因為我剛剛想到有這件事。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Then --
然後...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
然後我們再去看一下冰箱, 看看跟十分鐘前有什麼不一樣。 再來去看看 YouTube 上的一連串影片, 就從理察.費曼談論磁鐵開始, 一路看看看看看, 最後看到小賈斯丁他媽的訪問影片。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
"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!"
「這一切都需要花點時間, 所以今天沒有辦法做正事了。 拍謝啦!」
(Sigh)
(嘆)
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.
所以到底發生什麼事? 你應該不會希望及時行樂猴 控制方向盤。 他只活在當下。 他沒有過去的記憶, 不曉得未來會怎樣, 他只在乎兩件事: 輕鬆、有趣。
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!
在動物的世界裡,這樣做完全行得通。 如果你是隻狗, 一輩子只做輕鬆有趣的事,不做別的, 那你就成功了啊!
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
對猴子來說, 人類只是另一種動物物種。 只要睡飽、吃好,繁殖下一代就行了, 這在以前部落時代還可以。 不過,如果你沒注意到的話, 我們時代已經不一樣了。 我們處在先進文明的世界, 但猴子不知道這是什麼情況, 所以我們腦中才有另一個 理性決策者存在, 他讓我們有能力 做其它動物做不到的事。 我們可以想像未來; 可以綜觀大局; 可以做長遠規劃。 他想要把這些都納入考慮, 所以他只要我們做 當下合理的事情就好。 有時候,做輕鬆有趣的事情很合理, 像是吃晚餐或是上床睡覺, 或是享受應得的休閒時光。 這就是為什麼有中間重疊的部分。 有時候他們意見會達成一致。 但其它時候,做比較難的事情 或是比較不好玩的事合理許多, 這是為了大局著想。 這就是發生衝突的時候了。 對拖延者來說, 衝突幾乎每次都會以同樣的方式作結, 讓他有很多時間待在橘色這區, 既輕鬆又好玩的地方, 可是完全在合理區之外, 我稱之為暗黑遊樂場。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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?
暗黑遊樂場這個地方 是所有拖延者都心有戚戚焉的。 這是不該悠哉時, 卻做悠哉的事情時,會出現的地方。 暗黑遊樂場的玩樂並非真的玩樂, 因為完全不是努力賺來的, 而且空氣中瀰漫著內疚、 擔心、焦慮、自我厭惡── 所有這些拖延的良好感受。 問題是,在這種情況下, 由猴子掌舵時, 拖延者要怎麼過到藍色這個 比較不好玩,但重要事情發生的地方?
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.
嗯,原來拖延者有個守護天使, 在最黑暗的時候, 永遠照看他、守護他的人── 這個人就叫做恐慌怪獸。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
恐慌怪獸大多時候都在休眠, 但等到交期接近時會突然醒來, 或是快要遇到公開出糗、 事業危機或其它恐怖結果時驚醒。 更重要的是,他是猴子 唯一會懼怕的東西。 他最近跟我的生活息息相關, 因為 TED 的人大概半年前聯絡我, 邀請我來 TED 演講。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
Now, of course, I said yes. It's always been a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past.
當然,我說好。 「以前」做 TED 演講 一直都是我的夢想。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
(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."
(掌聲) 興奮之餘, 理性決策者似乎心事重重。 他說:「我們知道剛剛答應了什麼嗎? 我們知道未來某一天會發生什麼事嗎? 我們需要坐下來, 現在就著手進行這件事。」 然後猴子說:「完全同意, 不過我們先打開 Google Earth, 縮放到印度底部大概地平面上兩百呎, 然後花兩個半小時, 一直看到印度頂部, 這樣才能好好了解一下整個印度。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So that's what we did that day.
所以我們那天就做了這件事。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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?
六個月變成四個月, 又變成兩個月,然後一個月, TED 的人決定公佈講者名單。 我打開網站後,看到我自己的臉, 就在我正前方。 這時候,猜猜看誰醒了?
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole system's in mayhem.
恐慌怪獸開始發瘋, 幾秒鐘之後,整個系統一片混亂。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
然後,還記得猴子怕死恐慌怪獸了嗎? 砰!他跑到樹上了! 最後, 最後,理性決策者可以搶過方向盤, 我也可以開始準備這演講。
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.
恐慌怪獸解釋了 各種瘋狂的拖延行為, 例如像我這樣的人怎麼會花兩週的時間 就是無法寫出文章開頭的幾句話, 然後神奇地發現自己 驚人的職業道德, 並熬夜寫出八頁的文章。 這三種角色存在的整個情況, 就是拖延者的系統。 是不漂亮,但終究是能發揮作用的。 這就是我幾年前決定寫部落格的事情。
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.
寫了之後,讀者的回應讓我很驚訝。 真的有幾千封電子郵件進來, 世界各地的千百種人寫信給我, 他們來自各行各業, 其中有護士、銀行家、畫家、工程師, 還有超多、超多的博士生。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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?
大家都說一樣的事: 「我也有這個問題。」 但我驚訝的是,我寫得很輕鬆的文章 以及收到的沉重信件形成強烈對比。 這些人都非常挫折, 覺得拖延對生活有很大影響, 對猴子的行為感到挫敗。 我想了想之後說: 嗯,要是拖延者的系統有用, 那怎麼會發生這種情況? 為什麼這些人還是灰頭土臉?
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.
原來啊,拖延有兩種。 我今天所講的、剛剛所舉的例子 都是有交期的。 有交期的時候, 拖延的效果就會被控制在短期, 因為恐慌怪獸會出面。 但還有另一種拖延, 就是沒有交期的情況。 所以如果你想要自己創業── 想往藝術發展、創立公司── 這些事剛開始是沒有交期的, 因為什麼事都沒有發生, 除非是已經開始著手, 努力了一陣子, 有衝勁繼續往下做的時候。 除了事業以外, 也有各種重要的事情 是沒有期限的, 像是跟家人相聚 或是運動、照顧身體、 經營人際或戀愛關係, 或是終結一段沒有進展的關係。
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.
如果拖延者做這些難事的唯一機制 是恐慌怪獸,那問題就來了, 因為以上這些事情都沒有交期, 所以恐慌怪獸根本不會出現。 他沒有理由醒來, 所以拖延的影響並沒有被控制住, 而是一直無限延後。 這種長期的拖延 較難查覺, 且跟比較好笑的短期拖延相比 也較少人談論, 所以受苦的情況比較低調、私密。 也會延伸出 長期的不快樂以及悔恨。 所以我想,這就是這些人 寫信給我的關係, 也是為什麼他們這麼悽慘。 並不是他們一直積累著某些計畫不做, 只是長期拖延讓他們 有時感覺就像旁觀者, 從旁觀看著自己的人生。 挫折的並不是他們無法完成夢想, 而是根本無法踏出逐夢的第一步。
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,
所以我看這些信件時, 突然有種領悟── 那就是不拖延的人根本不存在。 沒錯,我覺得你們全都是拖延者。 或許你沒有像我們某些人 症狀那麼嚴重...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
或許有些人跟交期相處得比較好, 但是請記得:猴子最陰險的招數 就是沒有交期的時候。
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.
我想要再給你們看最後一個東西。 我稱這個為生命日曆。 每個格子代表一星期,總共 90 歲的生命。 其實真正的格子並沒有這麼多, 特別是我們已經用掉很多格了。 所以我認為,大家都需要 認真仔細地看著這個日曆。 我們需要思考真正在拖延的是什麼, 因為每個人都拖延著不同的事情。 我們需要意識到及時行樂猴的存在。 這是所有人的任務。 因為現在人生方格已經不多了, 所以這個任務應該今天就開始。
Well, maybe not today, but ...
呃,或許不用今天就開始啦,不過...
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
You know. Sometime soon.
你懂的, 很快啦。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)