This is one of the most watched TED talks of 2016. What makes Tim Urban so engaging?

To start with, his speech is about one simple subject: procrastination and how to beat it. From there, he gives us a great opener. He contrasts two mock-charts : one that analyzes his flow of work when he procrastinates, and one that analyzes his flow of work when he does not. What’s cool about this is it allows him to use his PowerPoint slides as punch lines to his jokes . And there are a lot of jokes. Little, pithy, observational-humor-type jokes. These self-directed bon mots keep his material light, and engaging.

This does not mean he skips out on philosophy and data . A good TED talk should be well researched, and very thoughtful. Mr. Urban has thought (and read) a lot about his subject, and he comes up with some interesting conclusions, specifically on the topic of long-term vs. short-term procrastinating.

Finally, what makes this Ted Talk so delightful, is Mr. Urban’s use of gesture, and pacing . If you are going to craft a lot of jokes in your speech, you need to know how to deliver them . Notice the way he emphasizes content words (nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs) in his punch lines , and pauses at the ends of his jokes to give his audience time to laugh. All this craft makes his call to action well earned.

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