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How To Stop Procrastinating – 7 Tips
Things are changing pretty dramatically for me at the moment -and i’ve been using that as an excuse to put off all the things I’ve been wanting to do. But today I am calling myself on it – and that my friends in internet land – is the first step. The strange thing is – i’m putting off doing all theses things I love and filling the time with endless hours of Netflix and taking up more little hobbies (I’m currently learning how to speak spanish and speed read). Useful and fun hobbies all the same – but leaving things undone and unfinished has left me feeling negatively about myself and henceforth must stop! This week I have taken action and put the old productivity action plan back into place and I’ve already noticed a massive difference. So without any further ado – here are my top tips to stop procrastinating.
- Get a planner and actually use it daily.
I love to use a physical paper planner with a week to a double page so I can see a snapshot of my week all at once (currently using this sexy Moleskine planner) Also I’m a bit of a stationery geek and love me a good ol’ ergonomic fineliner in a colour that makes me feel good about writing with it. - Make a daily to do list.
Put the name of the day on the top line and write down all the things you want to accomplish that day. You’ll feel better about yourself once you start physically ticking things off the list. Make sure you put things on there that you will realistically be able to accomplish on that day – you don’t want to overwhelm yourself. However, if you miss a few things just move them on to the next day and try to remain focused on what you have achieved rather than what you haven’t. - Set a time to get shit done.
Tell yourself “I’ll just do this for 15 minutes” remove all distractions and go hard at your list for that whole time. Most likely you’ll get into a groove and not want to stop at the end of your allotted time. - Don’t work where you sleep/watch TV.
Okay – so sometimes you don’t really have a choice. But if you’re lying on the couch in full Netflix mode trying to finish writing an article. Chances are you’ll be ever so tempted to have a “little break” that will inevitably turn in to you binge-watching your latest TV show of choice or having a rather lengthy nap. If you’re able to – create yourself a work space and leave the distractions away from that space. I have a no phone on the desk policy for myself. It helps me to stop endlessly scroll instagram and actually focus on the task at hand. - Realise that perfection is impossible.
Don’t put things off until next year when the timing is better ; don’t hold your work back from the world because you think you can do better. Nothing is ever absolutely perfect and as I’ve said time and time again – we are our own harshest critics. No matter what you do with yourself you would definitely progressed from what you were doing when you first started. I look back at my first articles and cringe at some of the things I wrote – but it shows progress and development. You’ll never get any better if you don’t keep on keeping on. Get back on the goddamn horse and be proud of your work and it’s imperfections. It means you’re doing something and you’re brave enough to share it with the world. You can always revisit old ideas once you’ve developed your skills further – but the important thing is to just do it. - Make yourself accountable.
Find your motivator, reward yourself for small victories and celebrate the big ones. If you’re still struggling chat to a friend and get them to check up on your progress from time to time. I use this system for longer term projects to help keep me focused. It’s also helpful to have someone to chat it out with when you get stuck or start to loose your inspiration. Good friends make great ass kickers. - Create a vision board.
Collate pictures and poems and post it notes – anything that inspires you and put it somewhere you look at every day. Keep your vision board of a reminder to why you’re working so hard. It will help keep you motivated and inspired and that my dear friends is half the battle.
Hope you’re all bossing your lives and staying true to your paths.
Big love as always, JW x
Tweet me @jessicaswander or see what I’m up to on instagram @jessicaswanderlust
Another year older – and hopefully wiser
Twenty eight today!
Another year older (and hopefully a little wiser.) It’s been a huge year with many highs and lows. I’ve lost my way and found a new path many times over. Over the past year I feel like I know myself better and appreciate myself so much more. I know who I am – I am happy with who I am – and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
I am a very emotional person and I had always thought of this as a weakness – but it’s not. It’s a strength and one that I am so grateful to be blessed with. Yes I am a cryer – yes I am sensitive – but I wouldn’t and couldn’t have it any other way. My creativity is fuelled by my intense emotions. I’ve done all my best work in times of great happiness and great sadness. I am no stranger to heart break. But for me heartbreak doesn’t just happen in a romantic interest. Heartbreak most often comes in the form of a friendship – someone who I love and care for and give and give and give to as that is my nature – someone who lets me down. I will never change – I never want to. I want to fall in love with new and wonderful friends every day from now until forever. I want to love and nurture them – care for them and support them in their dreams and help them achieve all the wonderful things I know that they can. If those friendships then fall apart – drift away – or go in a new direction I am now okay with that. I just feel lucky to have met such wonderful and exciting people on their own incredible journeys and adventures. I’m so happy to be a part of their journey – a character dancing like a maniac in a story that they will one day tell.
For today I am grateful and so humbled to have so many people from all around the world who have made me feel so special and so loved. I appreciate every letter – comment – photo – everything. I’m feeling the good vibes coming my way and intend on giving all that love back out again to all those beautiful souls I’m blessed to cross paths with in this period of my life.
So thank you to everyone for your kindness and your love today and every day. I am honoured to have such magical people in my life.
Until next time wanderlusters x
Tweet me @jessicaswander or follow me on instagram @jessicaswanderlust
Dreaming my life away
About six months ago I woke up in the middle of the night knowing exactly what I wanted to do with my life. I ripped off my covers and walked naked over to the window of the loft bedroom. I opened the window and sat cross legged staring up at the unusually starry London sky with infinite gratitude – I could feel the cold seeping in to my bones and I’d never felt so happy and so alive. It felt so surreal and like everything had just shifted in to place. Now I have something amazing to work towards – something that drives me and inspires me to do better – to be better. I am ready for the challenge.
Wish me luck wanderlusters x
You never forget your first (traveling) love.
You never forget your first love. That right there is a fact. Those first awkward moments – the butterflies – the first silly arguments – the sweetness and excitement of it all. But that’s not what I want to talk about today.
I want to talk about first traveling loves. Those relationships I find can be equally as important – earth shaking and core shaking.
My first traveling romance began on Haad Rin beach in Koh Phangan on November 23rd 2007 I couldn’t forget that day if I tried. It was my first international adventure as an adult. We had been in Koh Samui for a few days we had our accommodation booked for months in advance. I’d convinced my friend that we could just jump on the ferry and make our way over to Koh Phangan and find some accommodation when we get there (back then you couldn’t book accommodation in koh phangan through a travel agent and all the hotel websites we looked at seemed pretty dodgy). I was so excited bout the idea of doing this – not knowing where we would stay and what we would do seemed all very romantic and exciting.
Once we arrived in koh phangan we trudged around with our backpacks looking for a hotel that didn’t look like someone was going to come and harvest our pre-pickled organs in the night – we eventually settled for a tiny little room above a seven eleven on Haad Rin beach. Not the most tranquil of areas but we were teenagers in search of a good party and wild adventures.
Once we had settled all our bags down we made our way to the beach for a cheap cocktail and some sunshine on our skin. The beach was packed – people were playing volleyball and ping pong on the sand – everyone was young and tanned and having a great time – it was everything we’d hoped for and more. We found a vacant patch of sand and settled our towels down – exhausted and grateful for the cocktails. There were a group of boys on the beach laughing together and taking turns to swim while someone watched the bags. We all got to talking – three of them were English and two of them were Danish. We chatted away and swam and when it was time to leave we arranged to meet up with them again that night.
Steph and I went to go get some food (I lost a bet and had to eat the hottest chilli I’ve ever eaten in my life) got prettied up and went out to experience the legendary Koh Phangan night life. We found the boys at a beach bar drinking buckets of cheap thai rum and coke. We sat on cheap plastic chairs smoking shi sha – laughed and joked together giggling through our language barriers and somewhere along the way we shared a kiss and my heart was a flutter.
We bonded more and more over the next few days and parted ways sweetly in Koh Phangan – knowing that we would see each other again in a few months.
He occupied my brain and my heart and I couldn’t evict him if I tried. He was my first traveling love all those years ago and will forever hold a special place in my wandering gypsy heart.
Fast forward to 2014 and we’re still in contact (as friends) and I even stayed with him on a recent trip to Copenhagen.
Tell me your love stories wanderlusters x
Embrace The Weird – Love The Strange
Crazy times. I feel like a crazy person (not actually crazy). My mind and my body are going at 100 miles ( or 160.9344 kilometres in case you’re interested) an hour – I feel inspired and mental all at the same time. Loosing my marbles and then finding them again (and more) – I don’t know where to start and I love it!
Embracing the weird – loving the strange.
Enjoy the craziness in your lives lovelies
x
Some people are just magic
People will forget what you do but the never forget how you make them feel.
Note to the wanderlusting reader… This is something I wrote a long time ago – I had to remove it from here for personal reasons – but it’s an important piece for me and I really needed to share it. I hope you enjoy this post as much as I enjoyed writing it.
My thoughts have been continuously occupied by someone for months. They most probably have absolutely zero idea about it either. It’s like a high school crush magnified by a zillion billions. I’ve been daydreaming and night dreaming and can’t seem to make it stop. I’m not even certain that I want to. I don’t think it’s healthy to be so completely smitten from a completely unsustainable distance. My heart is aching and breaking and swelling up to the size of the sun all at once.
They have inspired me – asked me about my passions and what makes me tick. Helped me to realise my own potential and re-focus my aim and put myself first. Their dedication to their own passion was inspiring. Their philosophy on life was the most incredible aphrodisiac and their morals just beautiful.
When we first met I originally thought – way out of my league but was quickly slapped across the face by my best friend who said there’s no one out of my league ( but she would say that because she loves me).
What feels so ridiculous about this whole situation is that we really didn’t spent that much time together in the scheme of things. But I guess we always remember the how people make us feel and especially those that make us believe in our own worth.
So thank you – I endeavor to inspire others the way that you’ve inspired me.
Change is as Good as a Holiday
Recently my whole world has been turned upside down. Everything I knew is suddenly gone. it’s been tough – very tough. But through this I’ve learnt that I am stronger than I thought – more resilient – and I deserve happiness.
Some of it shocked me – I had no idea it was coming. Some of it I instigated myself – and it was long overdue. But knowing that something is ending doesn’t ever make it easier to deal with. We have these ideas about who we are and what we are – and those are challenged and criticised not only by the people around us but by ourselves. We can be our own harshest critics – I know I certainly am.
Change can be painful and uncomfortable – the fear of the unknown can be paralysing – what to do next? Where do I go from here? With change – comes opportunity. You can reinvent yourself – find new meaning in the chaos of it all – dream new dreams – chase those dreams – become inspired and motivated all over again.
This has been one of the hardest and most daunting times of my life – but I am grateful. I am grateful for this opportunity to learn and grow – to move forward and to take charge of what I lost control of. I have learnt to put myself first – that fear is normal – that people are not always as good as you hope they are – that I trust myself – and above all else I deserve to be happy.
This period of change certainly isn’t comparable to a holiday at the moment – but I’m sure i’ll look back on this time in my life and see all that has come from it.
Sending love wanderlusters – you’ll be hearing from me again soon. Until then you can tweet me @JessicasWander.
Stargazing – Our Amazing Universe
I don’t think there is a person on earth that doesn’t look up to the night sky in awe. It’s just one of those things. It’s beautiful, haunting, unreachable, enchanting and mind boggling. I know I’ve often spent hours and hours just staring up at the stars and thinking just how mind-boggling it is.
We are on a tiny little planet rotating around what is comparatively a tiny ball of burning gas suspended in nothingness. We look out to billions upon billions of other stars – some of which have their own planets and moons rotating around them. We do live in a very small world. We can travel it all quite easily and see the world at our leisure. We’re all connected by this modern technology and it’s as easy for me to contact someone in Semporna as it is for me to contact someone in Australia. There are people who view my blog that are from countries I’ve never heard of before – but somehow we are all connected. That much I can grasp in my mind – but when we look to the stars we realise just how small this world is.
When we look to the stars and think of the hugeness of the universe it makes me think of the earth as a whole – no countries, no boundaries, no races or religion. We’re just one.
Chew on that thought for a while Wanderlusters. x
I have a home and people are kind
Thank you to everyone for their kindness.
As always, I’d love to hear from you – leave a message in the comments below or tweet with me @jessicaswander
One more reason why travelling changes your life.
I had an “ah-ha moment” a few years back when I was in Bali for one of Eoin Finn’s YES (Yoga Ecology Surf) retreats.
It was the final day of the retreat and I was getting dressed for our last dinner together in one of the bigger houses. I’d already packed up my backpack in preparation to move on to beautiful inland Ubud for the next week or so and I realised just how little I had with me and just how little I actually needed.
Fast forward to November 2013 when I was packing up my bags and getting rid of all my possessions. It was absolutely liberating. I don’t want to waste money on trivial things like more handbags, ornaments, clothes, shoes, jewellery, cosmetics or perfumes. When you really think about it how much do those things actually add to your life? How many hours working did you spend to be able to afford that watch your wearing to make sure you catch your train on time? Now I’m not saying I’ve gone all minimalist and have gotten rid of all my material possessions because I haven’t. I just realised that some of the best things in life are not all that expensive and I’d rather spend my money on a grand adventure than a grand gown that will sit in my closet until I find somewhere to wear it. I’d rather work hard at what I love doing then spend each day commuting in to a job that I don’t enjoy just so I can afford the Claude Maus jacket I’ve been lusting after.
Less is almost always more,
Jessica xx
p.s. I always love to hear from you guys, so please leave a comment below, or tweet with me @jessicaswander
Jessica's Wanderlust 