The TED talk by Tim Urban

The TED talk by Tim Urban

The TED talk by Tim Urban focuses on the topic of procrastination. Procrastination has been a major stumbling block to the completion of tasks for people all over, the size of task not-withstanding. It stems from the inept ability to focus on a task, instead resorting to postponing its completion to the latest times possible, which is usually too late. It is identified as an issue in one’s mindset, rather lack of certain traits such as will power, and not necessarily a condition, though certain underlying medical conditions may lead to it. The destructive power of procrastination, however, lies not in its ability to hinder the completion of tasks, but in the fact that most who exhibit it live in the denial of its existence. Most people that procrastinate are unaware of their doing so, instead making up flimsy excuses on why the task could not be completed at the time. The lack of knowledge of the existence of it, therefore, is its most devastating trait. This is what Tim Urban aims to portray through his speech on TED talk. The speaker works to sensitize the audience on the very real nature of procrastination, and how easily it manifests in one’s thoughts, eventually resulting in incomplete tasks. He takes the audience through the exact thought process that most people who have ever procrastinated go through, to prove that most, if not all, of his audience have procrastinated at some point in their lives.

Tim Urban, from the onset, works to appeal to the empathetic side of his audience, trying to get them to identify with his words as much as possible, making it easier to convince them. Tim does this by presenting a largely familiar situation to the audience, one that most ought to have gone through at some point. He gives the example of a school assignment, with the familiar assigned date and the due date. The time between the due date and assigned date is the large window within which the student ought to complete the assignment. The workload may be divided into portions or speed tracked within a short period, depending on the ability of the student. Tim goes on to illustrate how, despite full knowledge of the merits of starting and finishing the task early, most people  tend to postpone a large portion of the work to the last days of the window provided for completion. He shows how, at the beginning, so little of the work is done, while in the final days before submission, a large bulk of the work is done at a go to beat the deadline. By doing this, Tim provides the audience with a situation that most have likely gone through, having to complete and submit a week-long assignment at the last possible day or last possible hour, hence the audience relates to it to a large extent. They, therefore, identify with the topic at a more personal level, making them realize the realness of the issue of procrastination.

The speaker also seeks to present his information as credible to the audience. He does this, first of all, by presenting the situation stated above which is largely relatable to anyone. The credibility of his speech on procrastination depended largely on how relatable his information on it would be. Take, for instance, if he had opted, instead, for a story on how a top manager in a company, say, a C.E.O procrastinated his tasks leading to losses for the company. This is still a valid example, but not nearly relatable by all in the audience and, therefore, the credibility of the concept of procrastination would be put to doubt. The use of actual figures and representations also contributes greatly to the credibility of an argument. Tim, in this case, presents his point on the delayed completion of assignments using a graph illustration. The table presents, using bars, the amount of work completed against the time after which it was assigned, leading to the due date. Though a seemingly secondary prop, the use of a graph is much more effective compared to just speaking the facts out. The graph cements the audience’s faith on the speaker’s research prior to the speech, to the point of drawing up simple illustration of the concept for easier understanding by the audience. The fact that research has previously been done on the subject matter goes a long way in convincing the audience on its existence. The added advantage of the data presented been largely relatable by the audience adds to its credibility, as the research was done on an existent event, and not a theoretical one thought up. The speaker also gives figures of the number of people believed to have encountered a task that they procrastinated on, all the while quoting the source of his data to dispel any doubt on the credibility of his sources. Cementing the credibility of the speech works to increase the trust of the audience. Increased trust in the information being given to them ensures the audience remains attentive throughout the speech, and also works to convince them of the point of view of the speaker, that procrastination is, indeed, existent.

The speaker also tests the logic of the audience in his speech. Once again, the graph of the work against number of days from its assigning will be looked at. As stated earlier, the graph grows rapidly with increase in the number of days, peaking in the very final day, suggesting most people usually rush to do the assignments on the final day. The graph, while achieving the purpose of effectively demonstrating procrastination, also appeals to the logic of the audience. The uneven nature of the graph is apparent, and logic would suggest that the graph should achieve a steady slope, whether downwards or upwards. This is to mean that the amount of work done during the given duration should be somewhat evenly distributed between the days, not jammed into a single day or two. The audience consequently would realize that procrastination, while giving a relatively stress-free time on the initial days when one procrastinates, only increases the levels of stress tenfold in the final days before submission. The logic that procrastinating rests one on some days is, therefore, thrown out the window as the workload would just be shifted forwards, putting  just as much stress on the user as if he would have opted to distribute the work between the days. Appealing to the logic of the audience works to convince them of the plausibility of the concept being presented to the. In this case,the logical conclusion is bound to convince the audience of the adverse effects of procrastinating, which, I believe it achieved effectively.

Tim manages to utilize all aspects of rhetoric, ethos, pathos, logos, to effectively put his point across. The most successful, in this case, was the use of logos, as he tested the logic of the audience, guiding them to their own conclusion in line with his own reasoning, as opposed to forcing the concept down their throats. Overall, his speech was effective in convincing the audience of the existence of procrastination, how everyone has done it at some time, and how adverse its effects are if not dealt with properly.

References

TEDTalk. (2016, April 6). Inside the mind of a master procrastinator | Tim Urban. Retrieved July 11, 2020, from Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=arj7oStGLkU