Practice with Tim Urban’s Inside the Mind of a Procrastinator

Tim Urban's TED Talk is an excellent example of using humor and stories to interest the audience and convey the message. Two key rhetorical strategies stand out: entertaining and believable stories along with the use of humor.

First of all, Urban uses humor constantly and deliberately. Initially, he brings humor into the conversation and jokes about being a procrastinator. For example, he draws examples of how he spends his working hours through diagrams that make the audience laugh. This humor serves multiple purposes: it grabs the audience's attention, adds fun to the speech, and demystifies any possible barriers between Urban and his fans. In that sense, Urban honestly shares his procrastination issues, and instead of judging the audience, he makes them feel that they are not the only ones who are delayed (TED, 2016). This empathetic approach makes his subsequent insights more palatable and impactful.

The humor is most valuable because it turns a rather dull subject, namely the cognitive processes that underlie procrastination, into something exciting and easy to remember. When Urban describes the "Instant Gratification Monkey" and the "Panic Monster," he simplifies abstract psychological concepts into easily understandable characters and figures (TED, 2016). It not only makes the audience happy but also helps them to grasp the information and memorize it. Thus, humor is not solely to entertain; it is a teaching aid that aids understanding and memorization.

Secondly, Urban often shares personal stories that make his speech more trustworthy and realistic. He talks about his personal stories of procrastination, like his senior thesis, which he crammed into 90 pages the night before the deadline (TED, 2016). These anecdotes make Urban seem more like a fellow sufferer than a professional who has never had it rough. This approach helps establish rapport with the audience since the majority can relate to his narration. Urban establishes credibility by sharing his failure stories and disasters, emphasizing that he has experienced failure.