🏃‍♀️ How to Feel More Energized | Internetly Vol. 72

Hi there, 

Greetings from Jericoacoara! 

Jeri is a fishing village at the itty-bitty top of Brazil. It’s a slight tourist trap, with high-end resorts, sprawling restaurants, and “Eu ❤️ Jeri” slogans everywhere. However, Jeri is also one of the most magical places on earth. 

Jeri is on the edge of the Jericoacoara National Park, a sprawling landscape of sand dunes and blue lagoons. The town has no street lights, ambulances, or need for shoes. It’s one big sandbox, lit up by the stars or sun, depending on the time of day. 

There is no 9-to-5 here, either. I work for two-hour chunks throughout the day, peppered with beach swims, yoga, and reading. On a scale of 1-10, I’m a 9 happiness wise —  my time and energy has never felt this expansive. 

Besides being exposed to Vitamin C and the sun not setting at 4:30 PM, there's a simple explanation for this elation. 

According to author Laura Vanderkam, the key to time management isn't "doing less" — it's engagement. Adding enjoyable activities to our calendars gives us a sense of control over our time, leading to increased life satisfaction, happiness, and restored energy levels. 

Turns out my scheduled swim and reading time had more benefits than meets the eye. So, if you’re feeling tight on time, try scheduling energizing activities into your routine — the gym, a stroll, a call with a friend, etc. 

Basically, activities where you're not saying to yourself "please God let this be over already" (me @ anything tax related). 

It might seem counterintuitive to do “more” when you’re stretched thin, but even the simplest activity can shift your inner narrative from one of "life is a slog" to "life is play." 

The best part is you don't have to be in a beach town to feel this method's benefits. 🤗

✍️ Quick Writing Tip 

Cheers to a new section of Internetly! 🥂

Based on last week’s poll, many of you are curious on how to become a better writer. This section will provide one power-packed tip to up your writing game and hone in on your craft. 

Here’s our first tip: 

Experiment with ChatGPT to find synonyms. 

You can tell ChatGPT exactly the word you’re looking for, instead of just typing “synonym for sad” on Google. ChatGPT is more intuitive and comes up with much better suggestions, as Nat Eliason demonstrates.

🥒 Content Diet

📚 Tomorrow, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin — Loved this book. I devoured 400 + pages in three days. It follows Sadie and Sam, two video game designers with a complicated relationship as they create new virtual worlds. This is a story you’ll be ruminating on long after you’re done reading it. 

💰How to Get Rich by Felix Dennis - Kitschy title, solid content. Entrepreneur Felix Dennis reveals his no-bullshit knowledge on what it takes to get rich in today’s world.  

And now, a new way to reframe your procrastination: 

✍🏼 Freelancing Journey

This Week: How to Fail Vacation Planning as a Freelancer 

A few weeks ago, I shared how excited I was to go offline for ten days in February. I’m sad to report that I have failed in my vacation planning and will, in fact, still be working. 

What happened? 

Simply put, a lack of preparation. Although I’d told my clients two months in advance, I didn’t do much else. I shrugged and thought, “Yeah, I’ll figure it out.” I did not figure it out. 

The vacation rolled around and I panicked, realizing I still had so much to do and couldn’t possibly hand in three assignments early before going offline. What I should’ve done was: 

Instead, I dilly-dallied and taught myself a valuable lesson. Freelancing, amiright? If you're not organized, everything can fall apart. 

Thanks for reading!

If someone sent you this newsletter and you found it valuable you can sign up here. 

As always, let me know if there's anything I can help you with.

Stay Creative, 

Alice 💌

P.S - You might see some changes to Internetly soon. I've joined Jay Clouse's Creator Lab, and one of my goals is to grow this thing. We’ll see how the growth tactics influence Internetly’s vibe (without ruining its integrity).