HOW TIM’S PANIC MONSTER FIXED PROCRASTINATION

The Panic Monster isn't the same monster that lives under your bed, just so you know.

Tim Urban

Imagine a curious kid trapped in an adult's body with an insatiable appetite for knowledge and a superhuman ability to procrastinate. That's Tim Urban in a nutshell.

He is the writer behind “Wait But Why” which is a blog that tackles everything from the intricacies of rocket science to the mysteries of procrastination. But his real talent is taking concepts you most likely face daily, and breaking them down with stick figures like giving a lesson to a 1st grader.

Of course, now we can tell Chat GPT to explain things to us like we’re a 1st grader, but it can’t quite make Tim Urban stick figures yet. But this guy who seems to have it all figured out; a blog with 600k subs, did a Ted Talk, wrote a book, draws fun lil stick figures; has one gargantuan problem.

He doesn’t do work. Well, he does, he just struggles to do it. You may have it too. The good news, is there is a cure. 

Don’t worry, it doesn’t require any useless pills or magical vaccines, but it does require your attention.



So let’s do some experimenting, shall we? 

The Two Brains

There are two brains. The procrastinator brain. And the non procrastinator brain. Simple. 

The non procrastinator brain is rational. They have goals for you. They have long term plans. They take some hits now, but can see the bigger picture in life and where you want to go.

It’s like the captain of a ship, steering you in the right direction and making sure you stay on course. 

Now the procrastinator brain is the same. Same captain of the ship, steering the right way. But he has a little sidekick, which is a monkey. This representing your monkey mind.

The non procastinator is telling you to keep the ship on course, pay attention, and focus, but the monkey isn’t really interested in that. He shuts that part of the brain up and wants you to do other things instead. 

The Panic Monster

The Panic Monster is the internal thing we all have that will hit us when things are due the day before.

The monkey is fine with doing nothing. Until the panic monster comes in, because that assignment or thing for work or whatever it is has to be done tonight. So it becomes pure chaos, and this is when procrastinators tend to pull an all-nighter or head to Chat GPT to cut that time into a third. Can’t blame you.

The problem is, there are many things in life where the Panic Monster can’t reach us, and he remains dormant.

Because there isn’t a deadline. Going to the gym. Starting that business. Searching for love.

Is there a deadline on those things? Does our boss need it in by tomorrow morning? The answer should be no. So Tim leads us to a scary conclusion. We all procrastinate. You may be good with deadlines.

But when it comes to thing with no time frame, we simply suck at starting, because we feel we have forever to go.

So what are we to do?

The Life Calendar

Tim Urban gives us a life calendar. 4,680 boxes.

That represents the weeks you have, if you live to 90 years old. Of course with Bryan Johnson around, we hope to be living to a cool 120, but let’s assume you’re living an unimpressive 90 years.

Unless you’re a newborn reading this (if so, you have good taste in newsletters little one), you have used up a lot of those boxes already. Maybe less than half. Maybe a third. Maybe less. Maybe more.

The point is there are not a lot of boxes. But how does this help us? Well, now we have a deadline. And a serious DEADline at that, since at the last tick of the box, we… well, die.

So glance back at this email whenever. Perhaps print this bad boy out, hang it on your wall.

Every time you think about not starting today, and holding off that choice that has no deadline, look at the boxes that are left. Realize there is a time limit, and it is certainly not forever.

Our goal is not to send you into an existential crisis but to remind you that everyone thinks they’re going to do things later.

But as long as the Panic Monster lays asleep, shit isn’t going to move.

So let the Panic Monster lose, and thank us when you achieve more in a year than most people do in a lifetime.

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