Procrastination isn’t lazy. You feel threatened

 

We enter a sympathetic freeze state

Read time: 6 minutes

Here’s our TTT for this week on how to grow your online teaching business.

What is TTT? A Tip, Takeaway, and Task. On Thursday.

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Tip: Procrastination is due to feeling threatened

Procrastination isn’t lazy. It’s because your body is in a threat state.

Dr. Nicole LePera shared this powerful message on Twitter recently, and it became the impetus for this week’s newsletter.

Dr. LePera gives lots of real-world examples and analysis, but we know as teacherpreneurs that procrastination is paralyzing in our universe, too.

We want to gain more students.

We also are working on a course.

Wait, what did I post today?

I got an email saying someone didn’t receive my lead magnet.

“Teacher, I need to cancel classes for a while.”

Then we find ourselves doomsrolling cat memes on Instagram and sending them to our partners.

That one just us?

As Dr. LePera says, then we start blaming ourselves. Why can’t I just finish this course? Make that post? We feel guilty for how long it’s taking us.

Takeaway: We enter the sympathetic freeze state

Dr. LePera says our bodies enter what’s called a “sympathetic freeze state.”

This is kind of like hibernation, where we are not able to push through. Our bodies don’t allow us to keep going because of the perceived threat, so we stay in procrastination mode.

For you, you may have had goals that you’ve put off or delayed for this reason.

Putting things off until the next quarter, the next semester, or next year? Your body might be in the sympathetic freeze state.

The big question is: why are you there? What is the threat your body is perceiving? Many times anxiety comes from knowing there is “a lot” to do, but not knowing how to do it or where to start. This causes even more anxiety.

Anxiety from anxiety, if you will.

To break the cycle, we need to compartmentalize.

Task: Compartmentalize & Execute

How do we get out of the freeze? Dr. LePera can say much more eloquently than we can:

In our teacherpreneur context, compartmentalizing is essential. Without that, we become easily overwhelmed.

This is exactly what we help our teachers with inside our Teacher Accelerator Program.

For example, if you think your marketing is bad and you “need to improve it,” that’s likely going to result in you landing in the “freeze zone.”

Instead, try this:

  1. What one aspect of marketing am I looking to improve?

  2. If I “improved” it, what would that look like?

  3. What are three things I can do to get there?

  4. Which of those three things can I do today?

In a marketing example, that could be as simple as starting a newsletter or as complex as setting up a segmentation funnel.

Whatever the case, compartmentalize this week and make a realistic to-do list.

Procrastination is normal. It happens when we feel threatened. Being aware of that is a big part of overcoming it.

Thanks to Dr. LePera for the inspiration.

 
 
Andrew Woodbury