Recently I went to the ballet. They showed Nutcracker and Mouseking. If you know the story of the nutcracker you might be able to relate to his feeling. He is a prince trapped in a wooden statue. Maybe you feel more like “Aschenbroedel”? A princess trapped in a gray suit who sorts out the beans or the dollars on a spreadsheet.

You are well-traveled and fascinated by traveling outside the shores of your country. You are presumed to have the same bubbly experience as an expat sent on an international assignment to another country. You thought your experience would be like the adventure that you had on your previous vacation trips. Your first day in the foreign land was laden with a lot of exuberance and effervescence. But you had barely spent one month before all your hopes disappeared into the thin air.  Now, the only rhetorical question you keep asking yourself is “Can I get relief from being trapped in this figure, please?” or “Where is that prince in shiny armor that will find a shoe that only fits me? When will I be invited to dance at the ball?”.

There are many moments when you feel overwhelmed and frustrated that you can’t do it all.  And you don’t want to add to the stress of your spouse who’s busy searching job boards and tweaking their resume every time.

Your days are busy. Sometimes you leave work at the end of the week feeling unfulfilled, longing for a sense of purpose.

Sometimes you lie in bed missing your parents, friends, and loved ones so much that you often wonder if this was all a big mistake. In the middle of all these, you receive your line manager’s email that the presentation you made was a wreck.

The longer this goes on you notice that feelings of resentment creep up, toward your partner, your job, your young kids, or even your host country.

This does not have to be your story or case. I want to help you gain control of your life and live with a sense of purpose again. If you are feeling frustrated, crave a sense of purpose, or wish you are doing more to make the most of your life abroad, we have the answer you have been looking for.

Our program addresses, head-on, the biggest challenges that globally mobile individuals face, it is based on methods tested for over a decade with individuals just like you.

We teach you powerful strategies to give you immediate relief to your immediate challenges and help you take over the driver’s seat of your life’s vehicle. All of this, in short, easy-to-apply lessons – right when you need it. It has everything you need to:

● Develop and keep the right mindset to cherish your experience abroad

● Identify your purpose abroad (beyond work or the family)

● Stop letting stress get between you and the ones you care for

● Feel close to loved ones, even if they are thousands of miles (or kilometers) away

Imagine a life where you feel in control and spend your time and energy on things that resonate with your higher self.

● You are taking real steps to reduce the strains of your life abroad

● You have your confidence back

● You feel competent in your intercultural interactions

● You are fueled by a sense of purpose

● You have a community of people who understood you, and whom you could rely on for support

 You can start today and then rise from the physical and mental exhaustion in which circumstances have kept you. Yes, you can rise to a new life of purpose and relevance.

I am not just going to propose some hypothetical ideas, but time-tested, hands-on ideas that would immediately get you back on track. Having lived abroad and moved several times in my life, I had to deal with adapting to a different intercultural climate myself. I have been able to weather even the most complex challenges and it would be my pleasure to take you by the hand and help you navigate this new terrain.

If you want to make some important changes, anywhere from feeling less overwhelmed, finding purpose, or creating better connections with your loved ones from afar, book a meeting with me here. I want to learn more about you and the challenges you are currently facing.

Kind regards,

Angie Weinberger

This time I really wanted to get it right and stop buying “plastic stuff made in China” (because to be honest, these modern brushes always have a catch and then I throw them out in a rage). I also don’t like the vacuum cleaner. It smells. It’s loud. It takes away space. Speaking of space. What would a Jedi do to keep their spaceship or humble house clean? Probably deal with it through energy. Not sure. I’ve never seen Yoda clean or even go to the bathroom. 

So, I bought a broom and a brush of wood. Very old-school. I only needed one rubber ring, but you never just order one rubber ring online and my weekend seemed too precious to roam the hardware stores of Zurich for hours. I ordered a bit more. As you do while you are at it.  A solid wooden broom is just what I need right now in times of energy savings. 

I hope that now I can finally close my home project of unclogging the sink drain. It gives me a sense of accomplishment that I managed to do this alone without any mansplaining in the background. The mansplainer was absent for too long. It needed to be fixed but then in the middle of sifting through smelly rubble the rubber ring broke and this is not something I stock. 

I tried the unclogger. I thought that’s why we have that thing. But that did not work.

I also order the cleaner (hope that one is a bit more environmentally friendly). 

And then I started to take the thing apart. Which not only took me weeks to get started on. It also was a bit hard to open but I managed. I’m a strong woman after all. I used up all my energy to do this on a Saturday or even a weekday. And the smell was horrid. 

Let me also explain to you that in Germany (my home country) I would know what product to buy and I would probably buy something less sustainable just to get on with it. However, here I am. 13 years in Switzerland, and still don’t know the equivalent product. And you probably think now: “But you speak the darn language:” Still, I did not grow up with “INTENSIF Ablaufreiniger flüssig extra stark” …so I did not exactly know what to look for online. Also, back in Germany I always had a cleaning person and would really let them deal with it.

Here’s what I learned.

1 – Never order anything made in China again, ever.

2 – Start to work on home improvement projects right away. Don’t accept a clogged sink for weeks hoping that “they” will get to it.

3 – Make sure you have an idea of how to repair a clogged sink, how to defrost the fridge, or air the heaters (I still don’t know that).

4 – When you start a home project make sure that you understand all the parts that you need for completion so you can finish the project. Because right now I have a slightly dripping sink and my bathroom looks really messy. You probably already hear me talking about process porcelain and how I spend my days mending what is broken as if I was Kylo Ren. 

5 – When you live in a high labor-cost country like Switzerland accept that you have to do more yourself. 

6 – If you get mad or sad about “Aschenputteling” like I used to, there is probably a deeper psychological reason behind it. I often felt sad that I could not just call my dad and ask him to help me with this stuff. I often felt that it was unfair that I had to take care of every.single.thing in my life. Sometimes we just have to get started, even if we have to sift through the dirty, smelly hair that is clogged there in our subconscious. 

So, if you are ready: Work with me in 2023. Let’s start to unclog and move forward. Reply to this email with “Unclogging 2023”.

With love

Angie

PS: Do you know how to “air the heaters” and would you do me a favor and help me out here?

PPS: I’m also intrigued that Finance seems to be catching up on the Human Touch idea and that we might go beyond “Spreadsheet Capitalism” in 2023. 

https://globalpeopletransitions.com/our-ten-commandments-for-the-global-mobility-manager/

By Romée Jager

Do you feel overwhelmed and overloaded before the day has started? You are not alone! It is 7:30 AM, and I started working half an hour ago. Even though it is only the beginning of my working day, I already feel way behind. I am staring at my screen and scrolling through my emails, marking them as unread again and giving them a color code. 

I feel overwhelmed. I don’t know where to start. My solution? Making myself a second cup of coffee. While the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans reaches my nostrils, I think about how to structure my tasks for the day. 

I wonder why we ‘’only’’ have 24 hours in a day, and I start wondering whether I will make it in time for my dinner appointment, as I will probably have to work late again. I feel like my mind is going in a downward spiral, and suddenly I remember something that Angie Weinberger once told me: ‘’it is not that we need more hours in a day; instead, we should prioritize better’’. 

It would be great if somebody could invent the time machine and double the time we have in a day. But let’s face it, as the time machine has not been invented (yet), we need to find ways to boost our productivity by getting more done in the time we have. 

Peak, Through, Recovery

If you enter ‘’Improving Productivity’’ on Google, more than 226 million results pop up, including many articles providing productivity hacks. We have already provided you with Angie’s seven productivity hacks.

However, it is fundamental to consider your biorhythm when implementing those tips. Knowing your chronotype is key.

Instead of just scrolling through our emails and randomly doing some of our tasks, we should carefully reconsider when we do certain tasks in order to increase our productivity. According to Daniel Pink, international best-selling author of six provocative books about business and human behavior, significant changes in performance can be seen depending on the time of day we choose to do certain types of tasks. Therefore, instead of just accomplishing them randomly, we should carefully plan and structure our day. Our day is divided into three periods of productivity that Pink calls: Peak, Through, and Recovery. 

Identify Your Productivity Periods

As you plan your day, you need to consider your different periods of productivity. Do you recognize any of the mentioned productivity periods? When do you have the most energy during the day? During which part of the day are you the most focused? These are all questions that you should start asking yourself. 

Research shows that everybody has their own subjective understanding of chronological time. Edward T. Hall identified that time is a concept greatly influenced by culture. He distinguishes two main types of time perceptions. In some cultures, the people have a polychronic time perception, which ‘allows’ them to do several things simultaneously, whereas, in monochronic cultures, people prefer to do one task at a time. 

It is critical to understand your preferences. For example, try identifying the different productivity levels you have during the day and plan your tasks accordingly. Personally, my peak time is during the morning until just before lunch; therefore, this is the best time for me to do some highly focused work. As I am mono-focused, this is the time for me to turn off my Skype/Zoom/Slack notifications and get some work done. 

After lunch, my productivity drops, and I see myself scrolling through my emails again. As I already had three cups of coffee, I really can’t solve that ‘low’ with yet another cup. Instead, this is the time for me to start on the administrative tasks and routine activities. During my ‘’Through’’ period, I feel that the ‘’Recovery’’ is coming, and I move to more creative and insightful tasks again. 

How to Get Started

Maintaining a Have-Done Diary could help recognize how you use your daily time and understand when you are better focused. When you have identified your different productivity periods, the next step is to plan your tasks accordingly. After a while, you can see your productivity skyrocketing and your pile of work getting thinner. Try these two methods to improve your productivity.

Consequently, after you go through the steps of the Have-Done Diary and Productivity Level Periods Analysis, you can peacefully shut down your work computer and feel satisfied. You can even plan your tasks for tomorrow already. You can now be at ease and attend dinner parties with your loved ones. You might even sing along with the radio while driving home because you got things done! So you come home, and your mind is where it needs to be, present in the moment. 

If you want to learn more about timing and our hidden patterns, we recommend you this book ‘’When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing’’ by Daniel Pink. 

Do you find it challenging to identify your productivity periods? Or do you feel that you need to reset yourself again? Then our RockMeRetreat from 17 to 23 November 2022 is for you! 

During the RockMeRetreat, we will work on boosting your productivity. Hopefully, once you come back from this week, you will feel refreshed and inspired again and ready to tackle whatever challenges arise. Does this sound interesting to you? 

Sign up here to be invited! Angie will be happy to set up a meeting with you to discuss your participation.

About the Author

Romée Jager is the Intercultural Consultant at Global People Transitions. She loves traveling and is passionate about exploring new cultures. Romée has an MA in Intercultural Management and considers herself an interculturalist. She has been working in a Dutch governmental youth panel for over seven years, where her aim was to give the youth a voice in the Dutch political system. She believes in continuous learning and is passionate about doing research. She wrote her master thesis about Defensive Nationalism, is currently a research assistant, and is interested in furthering her research by pursuing a Ph.D. in social sciences.

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Paul Jarvis is one of my favorite creators. I read his “Sunday Dispatches”. I loved his online course Chimpessentials, which taught me almost everything you are seeing on the Global People Club Sandwich and which also encouraged me to continue writing to you on a weekly basis by email in the age of social media.

I ordered several of his art books already. The latest book “Company of One” was a special delight. Okay, I might be crushing a bit on Paul J. He has an amazing voice too.  However, you really should read the book and follow him. Paul is one of the creators who runs a business from an island in Canada and is very successful with it.

I finally got confirmation that all I had done over the last 10 years as an entrepreneur was not completely wrong. No, instead of founding a “scalable startup” I had  a “company of one”. And I believe that scaling is possible in my business. However, if I want to continue to stay aligned with my mission of bringing the human touch back into Global Mobility, I cannot scale, automate and robotize everything.

“Au contraire…” (you need to say this with a glass of Rosé in your hand), I really believe that Paul Jarvis hit the nail right in. There are companies who can and should stay small because otherwise they might lose their special “umpf”. And you know what I noticed? This is not a question of what kind of business you have right now. It’s more about where you are heading. If you are dreaming about leading a digital nomad life where you can live in the Italian countryside near a vineyard, spend the summer on Long Island, the winter in Kashmir, and a lot more time in between with your elderly family members, then my friend you need to start to take action now.

When I decided to go fully digital in 2018 I knew that I would need to take turns and that this will not happen from one day to another. What I hadn’t anticipated was that I actually am quite old-school and that I prefer human interaction over online interaction. 

I also noticed that the more I work online, the more I feel a need to write stuff on post-it notes and use paper to organize myself. For example, I used a Kindle a few years ago. This year during my vacation, I had it with me, but I preferred to read paper books. I journal in a diary and I only use my laptops for calls and managing my business. I’m taking handwritten notes on an Ipad, as this way I seem to better work with the right side of my brain.

However, the main idea to have a digital business that I could run from anywhere has been magnified by the corona crisis. Still, the main reason that keeps me in one city right now is my personal and professional network and that a basic income needs to be made every month. 

I think Paul is right. Obviously, it depends on your business model and if you are a creator, an artist, or a programmer.  I love the creative part of my business, but over the last few years I also always had to have enough “billable” time to make a living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. 

My friends in corporate are all wealthier now than I am and I have doubted myself a lot. I’m still not sure how I will manage to survive during my retirement. You might think now that I’m exaggerating and maybe you think that it can’t be that difficult with all my contacts and all the income streams that I have created. You might be right. 

However, I live in a very security-oriented environment and I also come from a family which was poor after the second world war so I have to practice to shake off this insecurity-poverty-story.

For me, the best way to get out of that spiral is through continuous education and ongoing learning. I notice that I am growing when I am implementing new technology or improving programs or just seeing faster progress with my clients because I could show them a hack. I buy into organic growth because it allows me to maintain my quality standards. In the corporate world, I often see a lot of back-and-forth and low-quality products. This is not what I want to create with my team.

As I’ve been following Paul’s work for a while I have been asking myself the “enough” question a lot. You probably heard me say this before, but my relationship with money completely changed when I became an entrepreneur. I would say that I need only 60% of the monthly income that I needed when I was employed. The main reason, aside from lowering my base costs, is that I feel a lot more satisfied with my life since I started my business. Helping you directly makes me happy. I love my work. I don’t need shoes, handbags, suits, or other material stuff to feel happy. I just am.

Paul Jarvis asks three questions:

• How much is enough?
• How will I know when I got there?
• What will change if I do?

He explains how he maintains a minimalist lifestyle and how this helps him to save and reinvest while also allowing him to take extended offline periods over the summer and winter. I’m working on getting better at taking these long breaks as well.

I translated this into ongoing questions on what I would like to achieve financially in my business and when we are there it will help to have a buffer as well. My minimum income is 60k CHF gross. This allows me to survive, not necessarily thrive and the minimum turnover is around 140k CHF. You might need to calculate this for yourself, but interestingly enough the minimum salary is exactly what has been determined as a substance for people living in Switzerland. 

I usually say that you should have 100k CHF in the bank before starting a business full-time. At the time I started mine, I needed this buffer to get through the first few years. Later on, I would find regular income mainly through consulting projects, interim mandates, and classroom lectures or workshops. 

Now, these are usually on-site so they won’t fit a long-term digital nomad strategy. So for me, the last question is easily answered: Once I have enough income to stop working on-site on consulting projects and I have a buffer I will be able to move around more in the world.

I want you to start thinking like a CEO. If you are thinking about starting a company of one, I would suggest that we have a coaching conversation. Let’s have a chat to see where you are at right now. Book me via Calendly. 

References

Jarvis, P. (2019): Company of One.

Despite what is happening in the world, I have been keeping myself really busy. Honestly, getting stuff done gives me deep satisfaction, and having a lot of great client conversations raises my energy level to the max. So, I personally feel that I work on my mission to bring the Human Touch back into Global Mobility and my team is helping me along.

However, many of you work in corporations and don’t have the luxury that I have where I can choose how I spend my time and with whom I am talking. Many of you still feel the pressure of having a boss or someone to report to and their demands sometimes drive you crazy.

However, being “busy” is not the same as being “effective” so I wanted to share a method that has helped me over the last few years to feel a sense of accomplishment over the holidays. You probably will notice that this year the annual Christmas rush and madness will be different. Not only because we work from home a lot more. 

Our common anxiety and fatigue level is a lot higher this year than in the past and working towards the year-end might even seem less stressful this year because your adrenaline has been high the whole year. 

I wanted to list a few topics that I am observing in projects and coaching conversations and give you a method on how you can deal with them in a playful way. This is also an activity where you can involve your family because “Family Success is a Team Sport”.

1 – Oil the Perpetual Machine

What I am observing inside corporations and what increasingly frustrates me is the lack of accountability and constant waste of resources and time. It reminds me of Jean Tingeluy’s artwork “Heureka” at my favorite spot in Zurich. Often it seems that many functions and positions are just there to maintain a well-oiled machine, but the value they add to the clients or companies they serve is minimal. 

2 – Reduce the Data Squash

We also use a lot of time correcting or searching for data because the original source does not contain the data or the data is flawed. We have to rely on our brains to remember specific scenarios so we can cover all exceptional circumstances. We hire more consultants to help us administer a workflow tool that does not deliver the data we need instead of training the data entry specialist in the Philippines or in India so that the data is entered correctly. We implement three levels of controls instead of helping the first handler of the data to deliver a zero-error quality report.

3 – Mend the Process Porcelain

Do you often chase someone because they forgot to take action on an item they were supposed to deliver so you can continue your process? You might be correcting processes and mending broken process porcelain because the decision-makers do not understand the process and just run around like a headless chicken. Sometimes you might feel like a mother at work trying to collect the toys that the children left lying around all over the floor. You pick them up so that nobody trips, but you are also not really noticed while you do your work quietly in the background. (My image here is that of the mended mask of Kylo Ren, an old Japanese tradition being showcased in a lovely way in Starwars.) 

4 – Feed the Digitalization Babies

Many digital processes still are in the baby’s shoes so they often need someone to check them and make sure that they are completed. I have been in arguments with my bank because they don’t offer a draft function so that I can enter payments right when I receive the invoice and execute them later when I have enough funds in the account. My payments regularly get stuck because of cash flow issues. Then I need to build an administration around the digital process. And the funny thing is that here they always blame the customer. They hardly ever say: “This is an interesting idea and if we can help you with that we will consider it.” Still, I encourage you to feed the digitalization babies by giving them input, and food, and teaching them. It could easily be that nobody has ever thought of what you are telling them and that your input helps another genius to improve what is broken.

5 – Piece together the Lego Spaceship

The more digitally you work the more you miss the link between tools and systems (the rubber ring). Often you work with many different tools and providers, and then it is your responsibility to link them all and like LEGO build your spaceship from scratch. You might need to build a street or highway around a tool so that before you can build a linked system or even automate a process. It’s worthwhile bringing more minds to the table to discuss solutions and workarounds.

At the end of the day, we often feel exhausted and still, we feel we have not achieved anything meaningful. The secret to feeling good about your productivity, therefore, is in the system and how you visualize your contribution. One good method is a physical Kanban board. The Kanban board had a revival with “Agile”. I remember that I wrote an assignment back in Tassie in 1995 about Total Quality Management and came across Kanban then.

Another one is a simple shared team task list in a Google Sheet or XLS.

The 25 Priorities Kanban Board

In our team, we have developed a visualization method (The 25 Priorities Kanban Board) to help us prioritize work. I am a big fan of planning and consistency, so this method helps me keep track of my priorities and get stuff done.

You need 

• A stack of colorful post-it notes.
• A few big pens.
• A Poster of A1 size (I use my flipchart). 

Here is how it goes:

• Five Pink Post-It Notes (Work Projects) – Here, you write down your five most important work projects to complete.
• Five Green Post-It Notes (Home Improvement) – Write down five projects you wish to complete at home. 
• Five Yellow Post-It Notes (People) – Write down five people you wish to connect with.  
• Five Orange Post-It Notes (Love Tasks) – Write down five requests of your partner or children that you would like to fulfill.
• Five White Post-It Notes (Self-Care) – Here, you write down five wishes that you will grant yourself.

You probably notice that you should focus on different life aspects too, and not just work projects.