Source Entry 3-Christi Chan

Part 1- MLA Citation

– Sirois, Fuschia. Here’s the Real Reason You Procrastinate. 1672678279. www.ted.com, https://www.ted.com/talks/fuschia_sirois_here_s_the_real_reason_you_procrastinate. 

Part 2- Summary

The TED Talk “Here’s the real reason you procrastinate” by Fuschia Sirois is about the reasons why we procrastinate and the misunderstandings of procrastination. Sirois talks about the “common myths” around it such as poor time-management and laziness. Sirois argues that procrastination is caused more from managing emotions than from poor productivity skills.    People delay tasks to avoid uncomfortable feelings, like anxiety or fear of failure. This temporarily boosts their mood, but it often leads to negative consequences. Sirois highlights that chronic procrastination can harm both mental and physical health, due to increasing stress and lowering well-being. Fuschia Sirois concludes her TED Talk on procrastination by encouraging self-compassion to break the procrastination cycle. She recommended self-compassion to help people feel more capable of overcoming difficult tasks rather than avoiding them.

Part 3- Rhetorical Analysis

            The genre of this source is TED Talk. Fuschia Sirois’s TED Talk shows how she expresses her message using ethos, pathos, and logos to communicate her ideas with the crowd. The speaker’s audience were people who struggle with procrastination. The tone was very reassuring and informative. Sirois appeals her audience with ethos by her academic background and research expertise. She introduces her credentials by highlighting her role as a researcher in psychology. Her expertise in psychology shows her audience she can be trusted as source for procrastination. In her TED Talk, Fuschia Sirois to make her audience feel more comfortable and relatable, she includes everyday scenarios where people often find themselves procrastinating such as work-related, chores, studying and more. Sirois connects with her audience using pathos by realizing the frustration, shame, and guilt people feel when they procrastinate. She showed that procrastination is a reaction to stress instead of a personal failure. Her tone was very reassuring and showing listeners that they’re not alone, helping to decrease their self-doubt. Sirois’s message helped her audience see procrastination in a more positive way. Sirois uses logos to appeal the audience by stating research-based explanations, supported by psychology studies. She states solutions to manage procrastinate, like “being self-compassionate and how it’s a self-coping mechanism” or even “reframing a task.” She explains that “procrastination is a way to cope with negative emotions, not a sign of laziness.” Her approach not only informs but also inspired listeners to better understand and manage their behavior. Sirois is credible because she’s highlighted her role as a researcher in psychology. The genre gave the listeners a more visual but also gave a compassionate person that cares, making the audience engaged.

Part 4-Notable Quotables

• “In fact,the research suggests that almost one in four people procrastinate on a daily basis”. (Sirois, 0:22,0:24)
• “You see when we make we’re more prone to use procrastination as a way to get relief from that.Now people will make emotional mountains out of molehills, mainly because we’re just not very good at predicting our future emotional states.” (Sirois, 10:34-10:44)
• “The research shows that being forgiving and compassionate in response to procrastination is actually effective for reducing procrastination and boosting people’s motivation to improve themselves and reach their goals.” (Sirois, 14:12-14:21)