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 --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.
在大學，我讀的是政府專業。也就是說，我需要寫很多的論文。一般的學生寫論文時，他們可能會這樣安排：
你可能開頭會慢一點，但第一週有這些已經足夠。後期再一點點的增加，最後任務完成，非常的有條理。
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. And that would happen
every single paper. But then came my 90-page senior thesis, a paper you're supposed to spend a
year on.
我也想這麼做，所以一開始也是這麼計劃的。我做了完美的安排，但後來，實際上論文任務一直出現，我就只
能這樣了。我的每一篇論文都是這種情況，直到我長達 90 頁的畢業論文任務，這篇論文理應花一年的時間來
做。
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.
我也知道這樣的工作，我先前的工作方式是行不通的，這個項目太大，所以我制定了計劃。決定按照這樣的方
式工作，這樣來安排我這一年。(看圖)開頭我會輕鬆一點，中期任務逐漸增加，到最後，我再全力衝刺一下。
How hard could it be to walk up the stairs? No big deal, right? 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.
整體是這種階梯式安排，一層一層走樓梯有多難?所以沒什麼大不了的，是吧? 但後來，好笑的事情出現了，
頭幾個月時光匆匆而逝，我還沒有來得及動工，所以我們明智的調整了計劃。
And then --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.
然後，中間的幾個月也過去了，我還是一個字也沒有動，眨眼就到了這裡，然後兩個月變成了一個月，再變成
了 2 周。
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.
一天我醒來，發現離交稿日期只剩 3 天了，但我還一個字都沒寫。我別無選擇，只能在接下來的 72 小時裡，
連續通宵兩個晚上趕論文 —— 一般人不應連續通宵兩個晚上。90 頁趕出來後，我飛速衝過校園，像電影中
的特寫慢鏡頭一樣，恰好在截止日期前的最後一刻交上。
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." That did not happen.
我以為事情就這麼完了，但一週後，我接到一個電話，是學校打來的。他們說：“你是 Tim Urban 嗎?”我說：
“是。”他們說：“我們要說一說你的畢業論文。”我說：“好啊。”他們說：“這是我見過最棒的論文。”……
當然不可能。
It was a very, very bad thesis. I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This
guy is amazing!" No, no, it was very, very bad. Anyway, today I'm a writer-blogger guy. I write the
blog Wait But Why.
論文非常非常的差勁。我只想享受下你們對我的崇拜，想聽你們說：“這老兄太厲害了。”沒有，其實寫的非
常差勁。不管怎樣，我現在成為了一個博客寫手，經營著“wait but why”這個博客。
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 worldwhat goes on in the heads of procrastinators, and why we are the way we are.
幾年前，我決定寫寫拖延這件事。我的行為方式總讓身邊非拖延者感到不能理解。我很想對世界上非拖延者的
人解釋一下，我們拖延症患者的腦子是什麼樣的，為什麼我們會拖延。
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.
首先我假設，拖延症患者的大腦實際上和其他人的大腦不一樣。為了驗證這一點，我找了家核磁共振實驗室，
給我和另一個確定是非拖延症的人，進行了腦部掃描，我好將二者進行對比，今天我帶到現場，給大家展示一
下。
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. Now ... here's my brain.
我希望大家仔細觀察，看能不能注意到差異。我知道大家並非專業的大腦專家，較難看出他們的差異，但大家
不妨先看一眼，如何?這張是非拖延者的大腦，這張是我的大腦。
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?
兩張是有一點不同，兩個大腦都有一個理性決策人，但在拖延症患者的大腦裡，還有一個及時行樂的猴子。那
這對拖延症患者來說意味著什麼呢？
Well, it means everything's fine until this happens. [This is a perfect time to get some work done.]
[Nope!] 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.
這意味著平時沒什麼異樣，但一旦發生了以下的情況，理性的決策人做出理性的決策，要去做一些實際的工作，
但猴子不喜歡這個計劃，所以他搶過方向盤，說道： “說實話，我們還是去維基百科上查一查 NKTH 的醜聞吧。”
因為我剛想起來還發生過這件事。
Then --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.
然後我們會去翻冰箱，看看和十分鐘前相比有沒有什麼新的東西。然後我們去 youtobe 看一連串的視頻，從
Richard Feynman 談論磁鐵開始，一直到很久很久之後看到一個 Justin Bieber 媽媽的訪談才結束。
"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!" 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.
以上這些事情都得花時間，所以我們今天沒有時間再來工作了。所以，到底發生了什麼?這個及時行樂的猴子
並非你，希望是控制方向的人，他完全生活在當下，沒有過去的記憶，也沒有未來的概念。他只關注兩件事情：
簡單和開心。
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! 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.
在動物界，這兩點完全沒有問題。如果你是一條狗，一輩子只追求一些簡單和快樂的事，那就是巨大的成功了。
但對猴子來說，人類是另外一個物種，你得正常睡眠、規律飲食、繁衍後代。在原始部落時代，這也沒太大問
題。
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.
但你注意到沒有，現在並非原始部落時代，我們生活在一個現代文明社會中，而猴子完全不能理解這是什麼意
思，這也是為什麼我們大腦中會有另外一個，理性的決策者，他使人類有能力做到其他動物無法做到的事情。
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.
我們能設想未來，可以從大局出發，制定長期計劃，他可以把所有這些事考慮在內。希望讓我們做出最合理的
事情。
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 senseto be doing things that are harder and less
pleasant, for the sake of the big picture. And that's when we have a conflict.
有時，做一些簡單開心的事情是很合理的，比如吃飯睡覺、享受贏得的休閒時光，所以二者也有重疊的部分。
有時二者是一致的，但有些時候，從長遠的角度來看，一些更困難不開心的事情，才是合理的事情，所以就出
現了衝突。
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
對拖延症患者來說，每次這種衝突到最後的結果都一樣，都讓他在這片橙色區域裡耗費大量時間，這裡很簡單
很開心，但完全不在合理圈的範圍內，我將這個區域稱為黑暗操場。
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.
這個黑暗操場，所有的拖延者患者都應該很熟悉，在這裡發生了許多，本不應該在此時進行的休閒活動。你在
黑暗操場獲得的樂趣，實際並不有趣，因為這並非你應得的。這裡的空氣充滿了內疚、恐懼、焦慮和自我憎恨
——這些都是拖延症患者常有的情緒。
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? 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.
所以問題是，在猴子掌握方向盤的情況下，拖延症患者如何進入這邊的藍色區域呢?這裡雖然沒有這麼舒適，
但進行的事情都非常重要。原來，拖延症患者都有一個守護天使，一個在他黑暗時刻，一直注視和關注他的人，
這個人稱為驚慌怪獸。
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.
驚慌怪獸大部分時間都處於休眠狀態，但當臨近截止日期或有當眾出醜的危險時，或出現職業災難或者其他恐
怖情況時，他就會突然醒來，並且最重要的是，他是猴子唯一害怕的東西。
Now, he became very relevant in my life pretty recently, because the people of TED reached out to
me about six months agoand invited me to do a TED Talk.Now, of course, I said yes. It's always been
a dream of mine to have done a TED Talk in the past. But in the middle of all this excitement, the
Rational Decision-Maker seemed to have something else on his mind.
最近他也經常出現在我的生活中，因為 6 個月前，TED 的人找到我，邀請我做 TED 的演講，我當然同意了。
我一直有個夢想，希望可以“曾經”做過一次 TED 演講。但在興奮之餘，理性決策人似乎另有看法。
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." So that's what we did that day.
他說： “我們清楚剛才答應了什麼嗎?我們知道未來哪一天會發生什麼事情嗎?我們應該坐下來馬上開始工作。”
猴子說：“完全同意你的看法，但我們先打開 google 地圖，在印度的最南邊放大，然後花兩個半小時的時間
從大約 200 英尺的高度，慢慢往上滑，直到印度的最北邊，這樣可以更好地瞭解印度這個國家。”所以那一天
我們就這麼做了。
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? So the Panic Monster starts losing his mind, and a few seconds later, the whole
system's in mayhem.
很快 6 個月變成了 4 個月，然後 2 個月，然後 1 個月，TED 工作人員發佈了演講者的照片，我打開網址，看
到自己的臉，我的雙眼直勾勾的看著我，大家猜猜這個時候誰醒了。驚慌怪獸像發瘋了一樣，幾秒種後，整個
系統全亂套了。
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.
這時候猴子——還記得嗎，他是最害怕驚慌怪獸的，一溜煙竄到了樹上!終於，理性決策者重新掌回了方向盤，
我也終於可以為這個演講開始工作了。
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.
所以，驚慌怪獸解釋了拖延症患者的很多奇葩行為，比如像我，有時候整整兩週，都沒法寫出論文的第一句話，
會突然奇蹟般的找到職業操守，通宵整晚，把 8 頁論文都給寫了出來。
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.
以上三個角色的整體情況，就是拖延症患者的系統，雖然並不美好，但最終也有效果。這是我幾年前決定在博
客上和大家分享的內容。
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.
寫成之後，大家的反應很讓我驚訝，我收到了上千封的郵件，寄信人來自世界各地，從事各行各業的不同朋友，
有護士、銀行家、畫家、工程師，還有很多很多的博士生。
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.
他們都在寫同一句話：“我也有這個問題。”但真正讓我感到觸動的，是我博客的輕描淡寫，和郵件的沉重文風
之間的強烈對比。這些讀者以非常沮喪的語言，告訴我拖延對他們的生活造成了哪些影響，告訴我猴子對他們
都做了些什麼。
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? 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.
我思考了一下，問道，既然拖延症患者的系統是有效果的，那到底哪不對呢？為什麼這些人都置身黑暗之中呢？
原來，拖延分為兩種，我今天所說的拖延和所舉的例子，都是有截止日期的。
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.
一旦有了截止日期，拖延的影響會被限制在一定時期內，因為後期驚慌怪獸會出現，但還有第二種拖延，這種
拖延是沒有截止日期的。
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.
所以如果你想在一些領域內自學成才——比如學個藝術或者創個業——這些事情開始都是沒有截止日期的，
因為開始不會有什麼變化，直到你拼盡全力，辛勤投入，才會有一點起色，你才能看到進展。
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.
除了工作之外，還有很多其他重要的事情，也是沒有截止日期的，比如看望家人、鍛鍊身體、保持健康、維繫
感情，或者從一段不合適的感情中抽身。
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.
如果說拖延症患者處理這些困難的唯一機制，是驚慌怪獸的話，那就有問題了，因為在這些沒有截止日期的情
況下，驚慌怪獸是不會現身的，沒有喚醒他的條件，所以這一類拖延的後果是沒有限制的，他們會不斷地肆意
延伸。
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.
和有截止日期的好笑的短期拖延相比，這種長時期的拖延，更不易被人察覺，也更少被談論到，他常常在無聲
無息中折磨著人們，可以說是大部分長期抑鬱和悔恨的根源。
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.
我想，這也是為什麼這些人會寫信，為什麼狀態這麼差的原因吧。他們並非在為某個項目臨時抱佛腳，這種長
期拖延使他們有時感覺，自己只是生活的旁觀者，讓他們沮喪的不是他們沒有實現夢想，而是他們甚至還沒有
開始追尋夢想。
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, 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.
我讀著這些來信，忽然有一種頓悟——我覺得非拖延者是不存在的，沒錯，我認為你們所有人都是拖延者，當
然你們可能不像，我們有些人這麼混亂。你們有些人可能與截止日期保持著良性的關係。但記住：猴子最狡猾
的伎倆，發生在沒有截止日期的時候。
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.
最後我想給大家看一個東西，我稱之為“生命日曆”。這裡的每一個格子都代表 90 年生命中的一週，格子數並
不是很多，尤其我們已經用掉了許多。我想我們需要好好花時間，認真看看這個日曆。
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.
我們需要想一下，我們真正在拖延的是什麼，因為每個人在生命中都有拖延一些東西，我們需要警惕及時行樂
的猴子，這是我們所有人的任務。
And because there's not that many boxes on there, it's a job that should probably start today.
Well, maybe not today, but ...You know. Sometime soon. Thank you.
因為這裡的格子數並不多，所以或許我們今天就應該行動起來，或許不一定是今天，而是儘快。謝謝。
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