[Music]
so I’d like to take a quick poll if
that’s all right so I’m just gonna put
out a few scenarios and if one of them
applies to you just raise your hand have
any of you ever taken a quick study
break that ended up lasting like two or
three hours it’s some of us yeah have
you ever left some clothes or some
dishes dirty because you told yourself
that you’ll get to it later
some of us yes all right have you ever
been standing in front of the fridge no
no no one has a fridge anymore
Wow okay no have you ever been standing
in front of the fridge with the door
open and you’re looking for something to
eat
but nothing looks good so you close the
door come back half an hour later and
you know that no one’s put anything in
there but you open the door again you’re
just hoping something’s magically
changed you’re just there waiting yeah
some of you right so I do the same thing
just with my life but here’s the deal
I’m not alone in that a lot of us are
just sort of standing with the fridge
door open letting out the cold you see
we have this problem as a country and as
a society we love doing anything besides
what we’re supposed to be doing in fact
it’s such a popular pastime we even have
a special word for it
procrastination essentially that’s doing
something or nothing to avoid or delay
doing whatever you’re supposed to be
doing now if that concept doesn’t really
make sense first of all congratulations
you get a lot more done than I do and
second of all I’m a bit of a first-hand
expert on the subject I apik Rast a
master you could say so strap in I’ll
clear up a few things so the cross the
nation exists in what are essentially
just three phases one stalling and we
can talk about the other two later
because right now
we don’t need to talk about what
procrastination is but rather why we do
it but before we get there I hear you
you’re saying okay but Carter we’ve all
heard talks like this before
and okay you’d be right you’d be
justified to say that according to
numerous sources Google and YouTube
there have been at least seven different
TED talks on or about procrastination
sorry eight but I’ve been wanting to do
a talk like this for a month so I mean
I’ve been working on this speech for
five days
I’m joking that I’m kidding it’s been
three moving on in fact on the official
TED guide to public speaking on page 15
there’s even a section called
procrastination omor which you can take
to of course mean hey please stop
procrastinating but you can also take to
mean hey please stop writing speeches
about procrastinating we’re we’re good
we have enough but we know that we can’t
because it’s still a problem a big one
we’re living in this world of of
thirty-second news clips and five-minute
YouTube videos and for a lot of us it’s
really easy to get sucked into that
right and when every part of our culture
supports us staying there I it’s not
like we want to leave and because it’s
just a lot easier to click on your 30
second video of baby kangaroos then like
do your calculus homework or write your
thesis or call your brother Carter back
and wish him a happy birthday I don’t
know but that poq Rast inators realm
let’s call it it it’s sort of like Paris
or the scented candle section on target
off of 56th Street you know just once
you go you poof you want to go back
anyways back onto the main point why do
we do this
and I promise that we’re gonna get there
but first let’s look at this chart
according to a broad survey conducted in
1978 about 5% of Americans admitted to
procrastinating today that number is up
to 26% which is fascinating for Tories
really one procrastinations becoming an
exponentially bigger problem for reasons
that I promise we are going to talk
about but to 26% of Americans admit to
procrastinating which means that about
70% of Americans are liars
which I guess is better than it was in
the 70s because come on it’s not like
procrastinating is a new trend for as
long as we’ve had things to do we’ve
been avoiding doing them even some of
the greatest men and women throughout
history have been terrible
procrastinators Leonardo da Vinci for
example was known to run off and doodle
or try and fly and was once even
threatened with bankruptcy if he didn’t
finish one of his pieces of art he’d
been commissioned to do 12 years earlier
the Dali Lama was reportedly quite the
slacker in school and with studies and
actually Abraham Lincoln even has a
great quote on procrastination which you
might have heard it goes give me six
hours to cut down a tree and I’m gonna
spend the first for playing Tetris so
it’s not just a you problem you’re not
alone in your inability to get up and
mow the lawn some of the greatest
individuals throughout time have shared
that trait and don’t get me wrong I’m
not saying it’s a good thing something
you need to be great I’m just
illustrating that it’s not a new problem
nor is it a small one because to me it
still feels like we treat
procrastination just as a nuisance like
it’s this minor inconvenience you know
we all say oh well sure maybe I
procrastinate and I shouldn’t do that
and life would be easier if I didn’t but
hey it’s no big deal and you know what
actually you’re right it’s no big deal
it’s a huge deal it’s an epidemic
procrastination is an addiction and I
got hooked I got thrown into that world
I’m 16 I’m 16 years old and I’ve already
spent four thousand hours playing video
games that don’t matter
hundreds of hours watching TV shows
movies that don’t matter
hours and hours doing nothing that
matters hours and hours and they say it
takes about ten thousand
to be an expert at something so in
theory I’m like halfway to being an
expert but instead I’m not I want us to
understand that procrastination is a
problem and it hurts people it can ruin
GPAs careers it can ruin relationships
we’re stuck do you see that we’re stuck
between feeling the press of deadlines
and feeling like dead weight because the
cumulative stress of the things we told
ourselves would have been done half an
hour ago becomes too much to bear we’re
freezing up in the wake of the
realization that we’ve been telling
ourselves just give me five minutes for
the last five years we’re freezing up
we’ve been standing with the fridge door
open for far too long and that cold is
seeping into every single corner of our
lives it’s a problem a big one so why do
we do it it’s becoming increasingly
important to talk about why we would do
this to ourselves a lot of times it’s
just because we’re scared we’re scared
that what if I start and what I end with
isn’t as good as I wanted it to be what
if I have to make a decision I don’t
want to what if I fall short nobody
wants to fail so how can you fail if you
don’t do it at all right and that line
of thinking it might not make sense
right now but in the heat of the moment
when it’s 11 p.m. and you’re desperately
trying to write your speech for TEDx
youth Lincoln it makes a lot of sense to
click yes I’m still watching this
documentary about the Great Barrier Reef
stop pressuring me that’s just an
example other times it’s just because
we’re a bit overconfident with ourselves
tell me tell me if this situation sounds
at all familiar no yes mom I know I just
got an extension on that I’m gonna get
that done no no no I know I’m just gonna
do it tomorrow it’s no big deal hey no I
know I know I know
look knowing isn’t doing that’s what my
mom’s always said and I think that
there’s a lot that we can learn from
that
knowing isn’t doing and sometimes we
procrastinate just because it’s more
interesting I think a lot of us would
offer to play Tetris then cut down a
tree now here’s where things start to
change
right because at this point I’ve
diagnosed the problem and the symptoms
are apparent so now I just prescribe the
cure and we’re done yeah about that
yeah there isn’t one at least there’s
not just one because I can’t claim that
there’s a miracle pill you can take
every morning to just magically stop
wasting time times the natural resource
and it’s going to keep moving whether or
not you want it to so maybe in reality
we can’t eliminate procrastination but
we can prevent it as best we can we have
to start as individuals and as a culture
taking strides to live more actively and
to recognize that knowing is not doing
take that first step
procrastination is a problem and it’s
going to continue to exist until we stop
letting it let’s start understanding
that if we live in this world of
thirty-second news clips and a 5 minute
YouTube videos we’re not living in much
of a world at all let’s stop asking what
now and start asking what’s next thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
you
so I’d like to take a quick poll if
that’s all right so I’m just gonna put
out a few scenarios and if one of them
applies to you just raise your hand have
any of you ever taken a quick study
break that ended up lasting like two or
three hours it’s some of us yeah have
you ever left some clothes or some
dishes dirty because you told yourself
that you’ll get to it later
some of us yes all right have you ever
been standing in front of the fridge no
no no one has a fridge anymore
Wow okay no have you ever been standing
in front of the fridge with the door
open and you’re looking for something to
eat
but nothing looks good so you close the
door come back half an hour later and
you know that no one’s put anything in
there but you open the door again you’re
just hoping something’s magically
changed you’re just there waiting yeah
some of you right so I do the same thing
just with my life but here’s the deal
I’m not alone in that a lot of us are
just sort of standing with the fridge
door open letting out the cold you see
we have this problem as a country and as
a society we love doing anything besides
what we’re supposed to be doing in fact
it’s such a popular pastime we even have
a special word for it
procrastination essentially that’s doing
something or nothing to avoid or delay
doing whatever you’re supposed to be
doing now if that concept doesn’t really
make sense first of all congratulations
you get a lot more done than I do and
second of all I’m a bit of a first-hand
expert on the subject I apik Rast a
master you could say so strap in I’ll
clear up a few things so the cross the
nation exists in what are essentially
just three phases one stalling and we
can talk about the other two later
because right now
we don’t need to talk about what
procrastination is but rather why we do
it but before we get there I hear you
you’re saying okay but Carter we’ve all
heard talks like this before
and okay you’d be right you’d be
justified to say that according to
numerous sources Google and YouTube
there have been at least seven different
TED talks on or about procrastination
sorry eight but I’ve been wanting to do
a talk like this for a month so I mean
I’ve been working on this speech for
five days
I’m joking that I’m kidding it’s been
three moving on in fact on the official
TED guide to public speaking on page 15
there’s even a section called
procrastination omor which you can take
to of course mean hey please stop
procrastinating but you can also take to
mean hey please stop writing speeches
about procrastinating we’re we’re good
we have enough but we know that we can’t
because it’s still a problem a big one
we’re living in this world of of
thirty-second news clips and five-minute
YouTube videos and for a lot of us it’s
really easy to get sucked into that
right and when every part of our culture
supports us staying there I it’s not
like we want to leave and because it’s
just a lot easier to click on your 30
second video of baby kangaroos then like
do your calculus homework or write your
thesis or call your brother Carter back
and wish him a happy birthday I don’t
know but that poq Rast inators realm
let’s call it it it’s sort of like Paris
or the scented candle section on target
off of 56th Street you know just once
you go you poof you want to go back
anyways back onto the main point why do
we do this
and I promise that we’re gonna get there
but first let’s look at this chart
according to a broad survey conducted in
1978 about 5% of Americans admitted to
procrastinating today that number is up
to 26% which is fascinating for Tories
really one procrastinations becoming an
exponentially bigger problem for reasons
that I promise we are going to talk
about but to 26% of Americans admit to
procrastinating which means that about
70% of Americans are liars
which I guess is better than it was in
the 70s because come on it’s not like
procrastinating is a new trend for as
long as we’ve had things to do we’ve
been avoiding doing them even some of
the greatest men and women throughout
history have been terrible
procrastinators Leonardo da Vinci for
example was known to run off and doodle
or try and fly and was once even
threatened with bankruptcy if he didn’t
finish one of his pieces of art he’d
been commissioned to do 12 years earlier
the Dali Lama was reportedly quite the
slacker in school and with studies and
actually Abraham Lincoln even has a
great quote on procrastination which you
might have heard it goes give me six
hours to cut down a tree and I’m gonna
spend the first for playing Tetris so
it’s not just a you problem you’re not
alone in your inability to get up and
mow the lawn some of the greatest
individuals throughout time have shared
that trait and don’t get me wrong I’m
not saying it’s a good thing something
you need to be great I’m just
illustrating that it’s not a new problem
nor is it a small one because to me it
still feels like we treat
procrastination just as a nuisance like
it’s this minor inconvenience you know
we all say oh well sure maybe I
procrastinate and I shouldn’t do that
and life would be easier if I didn’t but
hey it’s no big deal and you know what
actually you’re right it’s no big deal
it’s a huge deal it’s an epidemic
procrastination is an addiction and I
got hooked I got thrown into that world
I’m 16 I’m 16 years old and I’ve already
spent four thousand hours playing video
games that don’t matter
hundreds of hours watching TV shows
movies that don’t matter
hours and hours doing nothing that
matters hours and hours and they say it
takes about ten thousand
to be an expert at something so in
theory I’m like halfway to being an
expert but instead I’m not I want us to
understand that procrastination is a
problem and it hurts people it can ruin
GPAs careers it can ruin relationships
we’re stuck do you see that we’re stuck
between feeling the press of deadlines
and feeling like dead weight because the
cumulative stress of the things we told
ourselves would have been done half an
hour ago becomes too much to bear we’re
freezing up in the wake of the
realization that we’ve been telling
ourselves just give me five minutes for
the last five years we’re freezing up
we’ve been standing with the fridge door
open for far too long and that cold is
seeping into every single corner of our
lives it’s a problem a big one so why do
we do it it’s becoming increasingly
important to talk about why we would do
this to ourselves a lot of times it’s
just because we’re scared we’re scared
that what if I start and what I end with
isn’t as good as I wanted it to be what
if I have to make a decision I don’t
want to what if I fall short nobody
wants to fail so how can you fail if you
don’t do it at all right and that line
of thinking it might not make sense
right now but in the heat of the moment
when it’s 11 p.m. and you’re desperately
trying to write your speech for TEDx
youth Lincoln it makes a lot of sense to
click yes I’m still watching this
documentary about the Great Barrier Reef
stop pressuring me that’s just an
example other times it’s just because
we’re a bit overconfident with ourselves
tell me tell me if this situation sounds
at all familiar no yes mom I know I just
got an extension on that I’m gonna get
that done no no no I know I’m just gonna
do it tomorrow it’s no big deal hey no I
know I know I know
look knowing isn’t doing that’s what my
mom’s always said and I think that
there’s a lot that we can learn from
that
knowing isn’t doing and sometimes we
procrastinate just because it’s more
interesting I think a lot of us would
offer to play Tetris then cut down a
tree now here’s where things start to
change
right because at this point I’ve
diagnosed the problem and the symptoms
are apparent so now I just prescribe the
cure and we’re done yeah about that
yeah there isn’t one at least there’s
not just one because I can’t claim that
there’s a miracle pill you can take
every morning to just magically stop
wasting time times the natural resource
and it’s going to keep moving whether or
not you want it to so maybe in reality
we can’t eliminate procrastination but
we can prevent it as best we can we have
to start as individuals and as a culture
taking strides to live more actively and
to recognize that knowing is not doing
take that first step
procrastination is a problem and it’s
going to continue to exist until we stop
letting it let’s start understanding
that if we live in this world of
thirty-second news clips and a 5 minute
YouTube videos we’re not living in much
of a world at all let’s stop asking what
now and start asking what’s next thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
you
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