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.

And this entire situation, with the three characters -- this is the procrastinator's system.

It's not pretty, but in the end, it works.

And this is what I decided to write about on the blog just a couple of years ago.

Now, 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.

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.

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. 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.

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 is happening, not until you've gone out and done the hard work to get momentum, get things going.

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.

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.

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.

And I thought, you konw, that's why these 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.

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.

Now, I want to show you one last thing.

I call this a Life Calendar,

 that's one box for every week of a ninety-year life.

That's not that many boxes, especially since we've already used a bunch of those.

I think we need to all take a long, hard look at that calendar.

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.

And because there're not that many boxes on there, it's a job that you should probably start today.

Well, maybe not today, but... You know. Sometime soon. Thank you.