Preparing for an International Move? Avoid the Overwhelm

 

I’m preparing for an international move and I’m overwhelmed!  There’s no other way to put it.  Here’s what I’ve been working on this week:

• Getting our house in Belgium on the rental market
• Purchasing a new house in Edinburgh
• Getting quotes from movers
• Squeezing in dental appointments etc. so we give ourselves some breathing space on the other end
• Planning my husband’s birthday party (one of those big birthdays with a -0 on the end)
• Getting organised to host approximately 70 people for my son’s end-of-the-rugby-season barbeque
• Starting to sort out the house for the movers who will be here in less than 6 weeks.

That’s on top of a normal workweek at Thriving Abroad, all of the normal family logistics and an attempt to spend as much time as possible with friends here before we leave.  Just thinking about it makes my heart pound!  But that’s what happens when you are preparing for an international move.  The process of getting organised for the move has to be crammed into an already busy schedule, made busier with goodbyes and trying to frantically squeeze in those last few things you want to do or see before you leave your host country.

My inclination when faced with all of this is to abandon my organisation toolkit and go into fire-fighting mode.  My to-do list becomes overwhelming and my strongest instinct is to abandon it and deal with only the things the things that have the most imminent deadlines.  The problem is that I forget about things, I can’t relax because I have so many things going on in my brain as I constantly think about all the things I need to do and overall, I feel more overwhelmed.

So here’s what I’m trying to do at the moment:

1. Fight every instinct I have to go into crisis management mode and keep track of all the things I have to do in a place that is not my head.  Louise and I use Asana to keep track of our projects at Thriving Abroad and I’ve started a personal account too because I like it so much.

2. Consciously prioritise what I am going to do each day and communicate my priorities to other people who are affected by my decisions.

3. Avoid getting railroaded by other people’s priorities.  It’s easy when there is so much going on to allow other people’s priorities to overtake your own

4. Do one thing a day that is just for me, whether it’s exercise, taking an hour to have coffee with a friend, or reading a book for half an hour.  I know the value or having that restorative time but when there’s so much to do, it can be tempting to do nothing besides work

5. Get enough sleep.  I’m a night owl by nature so it’s really easy for me to stay up late and continue to work but I still have to get up early in the morning, so I just end up tired, grumpy and un-productive.

If I’ve learned one thing from the previous times I've been preparing for an international move, it’s that, once the big stuff is done; the job, housing and schools (if you’re moving with kids); the remaining tasks will fill the time left. That is you can always find more and more to do, but in reality the marginal benefit to some of them is small and it really doesn’t matter if they get done now or when we get there.  I also know that making sure I have time to focus on my family, my friends and myself before we leave is something that really does matter.

If you’re preparing for an international move this summer and you’d like some support on the countdown to leaving, we’re running two FREE webinars on preparing to move on June 3^rd and June 10^th.  You can sign up here if you’d like to join us.

Linked to My Global Life Link-Up at Small Planet Studio.com