Essay Option One: Monkey
Remember that self-care day you promised yourself weeks ago? Or perhaps that time when you chose to chat with your friends instead of completing the worksheet that the substitute handed out? What about the job portfolio you haven’t started yet, out of fear it won’t be marketable enough? Procrastination comes in a variety of ways–all of which share the same characteristic of prolonging or halting one’s progress towards something. Despite how proactive someone may be or claim to be, everyone has undoubtedly delayed something in their life. The thing that author and blogger Tim Urban claims to be behind all of this is the Instant Gratification Monkey. In his TED Talk, Urban stated that the 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” (Urban). So, how can we eliminate this pest that reduces our urgency to complete tasks? The answer is simple: we can’t. However, we can limit its presence in our lives through the right amount of effort and tact.
As the modern era advances, our Instant Gratification Monkeys are gaining even greater access to multiple forms of distraction, prompting procrastination to intensify. The vast majority of people have a device in hand, all of which contain readily available entertainment in just a few clicks. This introduction to social media has invaded our society’s sense of punctuality, not only reducing our attention span but also draining our motivation and the time we allot for productivity. For instance, we hear about many cases where someone, after an hour of work, decides to take a ten-minute brain break on their phone, idly scrolling. Slowly, those ten minutes turn into fifteen, then twenty, and then twice as long as they’ve been working. Perhaps even you have experienced this yourself. During this period, the monkey’s temporary satisfaction outweighs the person’s sense of responsibility, leaving the task at hand neglected and the person in the “Dark Playground” (Urban). The Dark Playground, as Tim Urban describes, is “...filled with guilt, dread, anxiety, self-hatred…” (Urban). All of which stems from the procrastinator feeling as though they did not earn such fun. Now, how could we prevent these feelings from happening in this case? According to Sara Lindberg in “Need Help Staying Focused? Try These 10 Tips,” creating a neat workspace, practicing Pomodoro’s technique, and blocking social media help us focus and prevent the Gratification Monkey from steering us off course.
Whilst procrastination may seem especially prevalent in urban environments, dilemmas caused by technology are not the only ones taking their toll on us. The primary source of procrastination derives from a person’s internal struggles. For example, this includes perfectionism, fear of failure, being overwhelmed, or the fear of missing out. An art major may delay their portrait not because they are distracted, but because they are afraid their work will not meet expectations. Similarly, a perfectionist may put off their work entirely, believing that their effort isn’t worth investing in something that they cannot complete flawlessly. Mindsets like these form a negative cycle that provides us with temporary satisfaction through avoidance, but results in us wasting our potential to figure out the bigger picture. Allowing ourselves to embrace intimidating challenges through baby steps, adopting a healthier perspective, accepting mistakes, or any other method, is how we can diminish fear-based procrastination. Overall, we must approach our work ethic with care and tact, not only to discipline ourselves and our Instant Gratification Monkey, but also to nurture a healthy relationship among ourselves, our work, and our leisure.
Works Cited
S Pangambam. “Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban (Full Transcript).” The Singju Post, 18 Apr. 2016, singjupost.com/inside-the-mind-of-a-master-procrastinator-by-tim-urban-full-transcript/.
Lindberg, Sara. “Need Help Staying Focused? Try These 10 Tips.”
Healthline, Healthline Media, 16 Oct. 2019, www.healthline.com/health/mental-health/how-to-stay-focused#pomodoro-technique.
Jaffe, Eric. “Why Wait? The Science behind Procrastination.”
Association for Psychological Science, vol. 26, no. 4, 29 Mar. 2013, www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/why-wait-the-science-behind-procrastination.
