拖延症人群的内心世界

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 --

上大学那会儿，我是学政务专业的，意味着我得写很多论文。当一名普通的学生写论文时，他们也许会像这样，把任务分摊开。所以，你明白

00:14

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.

开始可能有点慢，但是一个星期过后已经写了不少，接下来有时写的更多一些，最后一切搞定，事情不会搞砸。

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.

我也想这样。至少我的计划是这样。我准备好开始，然而，事实上，到写论文的时候，我是这么做的。

And that would happen every single paper.

而且每次写论文都这样。

00:39

But then came my 90-page senior thesis, a paper you're supposed to spend a year on. 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. How hard could it be to walk up the stairs? No big deal, right?

最后到了写90页毕业论文的时候，本应该花一年时间去写的论文。我知道对于这样一篇论文来说，我平常的做法行不通。毕业论文是个大项目。于是我计划好，决定这么去做。一年的工作就这么安排。起初少干点儿，中间几个月持续干多一点儿，最后高速档全力以赴就像小台阶一样。爬台阶能有多难？没什么大不了的，对吧？

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.

但是接下来，有趣的事发生了。起初那几个月？来了又走，我基本没干什么。于是就有了这个很棒的修改计划。

01:23

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. 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.

中间几个月竟然就这么过去了，我基本上没写几个字，所以变成了这样。然后从还有两个月到还有一个月，再到只剩两星期。然后有一天我突然意识到离截止期只剩三天了，而我还一个字都没写呢，于是我做了我唯一能做的事：我花了72小时写出90页，通宵整整两天赶工人不应该连续熬两个通宵全速穿过校园，慢动作潜入，赶在截止期之前交了论文。

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."

我以为一切就这么结束了。结果一个星期之后我接到一通电话，是学校打来的。他们问：“你是蒂姆·尔班吗？” 我说，“没错”。他们说：“我们得和你谈一下论文的事儿。” 我回答，”好“ 对方接着说, "这是我们看过最棒的一篇论文。“

That did not happen.

那并未发生。

It was a very, very bad thesis.

这篇论文写得非常非常烂。

I just wanted to enjoy that one moment when all of you thought, "This guy is amazing!"

我只是想享受一下这个时刻，当你们全部以为， “这家伙太牛了！“

02:40

No, no, it was very, very bad. Anyway, today I'm a writer-blogger guy. I write the blog Wait But Why. 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 world what goes on in the heads of procrastinators, and why we are the way we are. 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. 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.

不是这样的，那篇论文超级烂。不管怎么样，我现在是个博文作者。我为“打破砂锅问到底”写博文。几年前我决定写一篇关于拖延的文章。我的拖延行为总是让我身边那些不拖延的人感到困惑，所以我想向不拖延的人解释一下拖延者脑袋里到底是怎么想的，还有为什么我们这些拖延者会这样。我的假设是拖延者的大脑和不拖延者的大脑是不同的。为了证明这一点，我找到一个核磁共振实验室让我可以扫描自己的大脑和一个经证实不是拖延者的大脑，然后我就可以对比这两种大脑。今天我把它们都带来了。我希望大家能认真比较这二者之间是否有什么差别。我知道大家不是受过训练的脑科专家，看起来可能不明显，但是让我们来看一下，好吗？这是一个不拖延者的大脑。

Now ... here's my brain.

现在，这是我的大脑。

03:43

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? Well, it means everything's fine until this happens.

这二者之间有一个区别。两种大脑里头都有一个理性的决策制定者，但是拖延者的大脑里，还有一只叫即时满足的猴子。对拖延者来说这意味着什么呢？它意味着在这件事发生之前一切都挺好的。

[This is a perfect time to get some work done.] [Nope!]

[现在是开始干活的最佳时机.] [才不是呢!]

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.

于是当理性的决策制定者做出理性的决策，想做一些富有成效的事时，猴子不想这么做，于是他开始掌控方向盘，而且他说：“实际上，让我们来读一下维基百科上关于南茜·克里根/汤妮·雅哈丁的丑闻案吧，因为我刚想起来这件事。

Then --

然后

04:19

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.

然后让我们走到冰箱，翻翻看这10分钟以来有没什么新东西。之后，让我们继续在视频网站上浏览，从理查德·费曼谈磁性的视频开始看，一直看到对贾斯汀·比伯老妈的采访看到地老天荒。

04:37

"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!"

“这一切都花时间, 所以我们今天的日程安排没办法抽空干活。很抱歉！“

(Sigh)

（叹气）

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.

这是怎么回事呢？即时满足猴子似乎不是那个你想让他操控方向盘的人。他完全活在当下。他没有过去的记忆，没有对未来的认识，他只关心两件事：简单和快乐。

05:04

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!

在动物世界里，这样没问题。如果你是一条狗，你简单、快乐地度过这一生，就已经是巨大的成功！

05:15

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. 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. 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. 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 sense to be doing things that are harder and less pleasant, for the sake of the big picture. And that's when we have a conflict. 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.

而对于猴子来说，人类是另外一种动物。你睡好、吃饱、繁殖下一代，这么做在部落时代或许没问题。但是，假如你还没注意到，我们现在不是生活在部落时代。我们处于一个先进的文明，而猴子根本不懂那是什么。这就是为什么我们脑袋里还有另外一个家伙，理性的决策制定者，他让我们有能力去做其他动物无法做到的事情。我们可以预见未来。我们可以顾全大局。我们可以做长期打算。而且他想把这些都考虑进去。他想让我们做任何值得现在去做的事儿。有时做简单快乐的事是有意义的，比如吃饭、睡觉或者享受应得的休闲时光。这就是为什么即时满足猴子和理性的决策制定者之间有重合。有时他们意见一致。但是有时，更有意义的是去做那些比较难而且不那么让人享受的事情，这是出于全局的考虑。此时二者之间会产生冲突。对于拖延者来说，每次冲突都以这种方式结束，就是他在橙色区域花费了大量时间，这是那个简单又快乐，但是又没有意义的那个区域。我把这片区域称为黑暗的操场。

06:31

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. 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?

黑暗的操场是一个所有拖延者都很了解的地方。这里是在本来不应该休闲的时候的休闲娱乐的活动场所。在黑暗的操场得到的快乐其实并不是快乐，因为它完全是不劳而获的，这会带来内疚、恐惧、焦虑、自我憎恨这是所有拖延者的感受。而且问题是，在这种情况下，由猴子掌控着方向盘，怎么能让拖延者把自己带去蓝色区域那边呢，那边虽然没那么舒适，但是有很多重要的事情要做。

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.

其实拖延者有个守护天使，总是看不起他并且看守着他，在那些最黑暗的时刻它被称为恐慌怪兽。