Tim Urban paints a scary accurate picture of our procrastination habits in his popular TED Talk “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator” To the point where his portrayal of the procrastinator’s inner workings could almost pass off as another Fantastic Beasts movie, he uses examples of the “instant gratification monkey” and the “panic monster” to describe why and how we procrastinate.
For most procrastinators, the “instant gratification monkey” takes over the steering wheel that’s meant to be handled by the “rational decision-maker,” who, as the name suggests, has a sensible vision for the future. The monkey distracts the procrastinator from working ahead of time, prioritizing fun and easy tasks over harder but more important things to do. It is only when a deadline creeps in quickly that the “panic monster,” otherwise known as the monkey’s mortal enemy, awakes from its dormant state to set the procrastinator back on track and on a last spurt.
Although the procrastinator’s monkey mind can be tamed in such situations where a specific deadline exists, Tim points to the absence of the “panic monster” in situations where there are no deadlines to set off a red alarm - for long-term career or self-development goals that need a sufficient amount of time, like building one’s own start-up or working on personal relationships. The effect of long-term procrastination thus aren’t contained, making the monkey’s antics more difficult to identify and address. Consequences can come in various forms, such as a dream pushed back infinitely or a lifelong regret.
How do we resolve this? Tim Urban tells us to always stay aware of the instant gratification monkey and start today. It’s time for us to revisit the plans that we may have had to put on the back burner for a while. Whether it’s related to health, career, lifelong learning, relationships or any other field, Dreamfora provides you with numerous goals you can choose from, with a suggested list of tasks and helpful habits that are based on expert advice. Use our 1-tap goal feature to customize the goals to cater to your taste, or create an original goal of your own from scratch! At Dreamfora, we dream of the day that each and every one of us finds the courage, drive, and resilience to move closer to our passion projects and dreams.
