Essay on Inside The Mind Of A Master Procrastinator by Tim Urban

Tim Urban is the author of the popular internet blog Wait But Why and the mastermind behind one of the most widely-viewed TED Talks to-date. In his speech entitled Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator, Urban discusses a blog post he wrote in 2013 about the way people who are procrastinators think. His inspiration for the post, he says, was that, “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,” (2:59-3:10).

Tim Urban’s skillful use of ethos and pathos within his speech help him identify with his audience and effectively support his argument, however, his logos could use improvement. 

Urban establishes his ethos in several ways throughout his speech. Before he begins introducing his topic, Urban opens with an anecdote about his personal experience as a procrastinator. He explains how when he was in college, he had to write a ninety-page senior thesis that was supposed to be a year-long project (0:43-45). Urban describes how he waited three days until the deadline and then stayed up for seventy-two hours straight and wrote the whole essay all at once, managing to turn it in just before the due date (1:47-2:07). Urban’s use of this story at the very beginning of his speech to acquaint his audience with procrastination and himself goes a long way in establishing his ethos. Not only is his story enjoyable to listen to, but by identifying his own struggle, Urban makes himself both relatable to his audience and a source of authority on his chosen topic: procrastination.

At the end of his speech, Urban again solidifies his ethos by identifying with the procrastinator. He makes the claim that deep down, everyone is putting off something in life, not just the people that openly struggle with procrastination. He tells his audience that getting started on whatever it is that they have yet to begin “[is] a job that should probably start today. Well, maybe not today, but, you know, sometime soon,” (13:34-41). Again, Urban is solidifying his experiences in the realm of procrastination by book-ending his speech with statements that establish his expertise in being a ‘Master Procrastinator,’ thus convincing his audience that they should listen to what he has to say.

Endearing himself to the audience by highlighting his own tendency to put things off for an extended amount of time is not the only appeal that Urban uses to convince his audience of his point of view on procrastination. He also often utilizes the rhetorical appeal of pathos to emotionally connect with his listeners. 

One example of the way Urban does this is when he talks about the roller-coaster of emotions that procrastinators such as himself go through when faced with an upcoming deadline. When describing what happens in what he calls the ‘Dark Playground,’ or the span of time in which procrastinators know they should be doing something but are not, Urban elicits sympathy from his audience for those that suffer from procrastination, saying, “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,” (6:47-58). This argument brings to mind a powerful memory for those listeners that procrastinate often and helps the non-procrastinators in the audience understand and sympathize with the issue at hand.

However, Urban does not relegate the use of pathos in his speech toward only the procrastinators in the audience. At the end of his speech, his appeal to pathos in the form of a call to action is particularly powerful. His main point before concluding the TED Talk is that deep down, everyone is a procrastinator at heart, which piques his audience’s curiosity. He illustrates this point by showing a calendar of boxes, each box representing one week in the average lifespan of a person (12:12-40). Urban points out, “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,” (12:46-13:08). This appeal to emotion instills a sense of urgency in his audience and inspires them to stop procrastinating on whatever it is that they have been putting off. It is especially powerful because it ties in both sides of Urban’s audience to his argument.

Although Urban artfully employs the rhetorical appeals of ethos and pathos within his speech to establish his authority on and endear his audience to the problem of procrastination, he could improve upon his use of logos. Throughout the entirety of his presentation, Urban never once cites any outside sources. Rather, he relies on his own personal experiences to form his arguments about how the mind of a procrastinator works. This narrows his scope considerably, as Urban is not really illustrating how procrastinators in general think, but how he himself thinks.

Additionally, Urban does not make use of any credible visual data, such as charts or statistics, but instead uses cartoons that he drew himself to illustrate and support his arguments. While the cartoon drawings are on-theme with the style of his blog, his argument could have benefitted from referencing formally researched outside figures in addition to the cartoons, which would have lent the validity that seems to be missing from the logos of his argument while still keeping the light tone of his speech.

I believe that Tim Urban would be a good convocation speaker because of his stage presence and the way he skillfully discusses serious topics in a way that is lighthearted without being nonchalant or flippant. His presentation style is intriguing and relatable and would resonate with the student body of Liberty University. He also has a wide range of topics that he discusses in his blog, which means that he could speak on any one of a number of subjects, not necessarily procrastination specifically.

At the end of the day, Urban makes excellent use of ethos and pathos, and he identifies with his audience in a way that is both meaningful and endearing. Although I believe he could have been more convincing if he had used concrete sources to support the logos of his argument, I do understand why he chose the rhetorical genre that he did and I think that in this situation, it works.