If you’re currently on a gap year, you may well be reading this from some far-flung corner of the world as you take a breather from the life-changing travelling and/or work experience. Alternatively, you could be in the final stages of getting ready to head off on an adventure in the new year.

But then again, your gap year intentions might not have yet panned out as intended. While you were still in your last year of school, you had all sorts of grand ideas about the amazing things you’d do. Fast forward to December, and you still don’t have anything sorted out.

If this is the case, perhaps it’s time to get your gap year back on track. First, let’s start by having a think about what’s gone wrong with your planning so far. Very often the causes of a gap year fizzling out are either that your thoughts so far have been too vague, or alternatively too ambitious.

The remedy for both causes of these gap year woes are pretty much the same: keep things simple, and pick one specific thing and stick to it. Now, while embarking on a backpacking odyssey is one great way to spend a gap year, unless you’re willing to improvise all of your itinerary this option does require quite a lot of prior planning.

So, in the spirit of keeping things simple, perhaps the best option for a simple-to-organize yet highly rewarding gap year experience is to decamp to one place–which in practice means a work or volunteering gap year. You’ll be able to come home with a bagful of great memories, stories and skills, but the whole process of making it happen is much easier to achieve.

There are loads of different great gap year working or volunteering opportunities, but here are some ideas to get you thinking:

– Conservation work: there are loads of different organisations that offer conservation volunteering packages for gap years. Just remember to thoroughly check out the credentials of the company you go through before you commit!

– Teaching: You can either go down this route on a volunteer basis, or alternatively get paid for it. Teaching English is one particularly popular way of teaching abroad; check out tefl.com for an overview of where you could go.

– BUNAC: These guys have been helping gap yearers get work in Canada, New Zealand, Australia and other countries for decades. They’ll sort out your visa for you, and then when you arrive help you with the job hunt and search for accommodation.

And one last piece of advice: don’t make the mistake of dithering over what to do if you find yourself torn between two or more options. Remember that if more than one adventure fires your imagination, whichever one you choose you’ll have a great time, so the sooner you get your gap year adventure arranged the sooner you can start having fun!