Credit: SashaW

Without meaning to burden your already huge travel to-do list, today I’ve compiled 101 things to remember to “do” before you leave for your big trip. Read through, see if you’ve forgotten anything, or perhaps add them to your own list. Some of these are purely existential, some are practical, but take it from this traveler—all are important for a happy, healthy, trouble-free trip.

These are listed in no particular order and while they could probably use a sentence or two of explication I’ve left them as they are, open for interpretation and intentionally brief so that you can decide on your own how to use them.

So here they are, 101 important things to do in the months, weeks and days ahead of your travels:

1. Set up an apartment sublet
2. Learn a few words of every language you’ll be exposed to
3. Sign up for frequent flier programs
4. Autopay your bills
5. Make some mini “traveler’s business cards”
6. Secure your medications
7. Learn how to sew a button
8. Stop your mail
9. Get a no-fee travel credit card
10. Buy an international cell phone
11. Re-research your destinations
12. Consider a smaller backpack
13. Copy your passport and save it online
14. Reconfirm your flights
15. Make a daily budget
16. Finalize your visas
17. Connect with friends in foreign countries, tell them you’re coming
18. Reconnect with friends in your town, have dinner
19. Study the Center for Disease Control’s travelers page
20. Subscribe to travel blogs
21. Get travel insurance
22. Send your itinerary to several close friends and family
23. Outfit yourself with travel books (virtual or real)
24. Sign up for volunteer programs
25. Book some (but not all) accommodations
26. Sell your stuff
27. Get comfortable with your camera by taking pictures at home
28. Read an atlas
29. Join travel communities
30. Be a tourist in your hometown, visit a local tourist trap
31. Renew your passport
32. Indulge in looking at travel photography
33. Make a promise to yourself
34. Plan how you’ll document your trip
35. Find out what’s going on where you’re going
36. Find some free activities
37. Spend more time with your pet
38. Have a city picnic
39. Apply for work permits
40. Familiarize yourself with your itinerary (like the back of your hand)
41. Visualize yourself on the road
42. Make lists
43. Reassess your luggage situation
44. Make an inventory
45. Buy a lot of plastic bags
46. Look to well-traveled people
47. Spend more time with your traveling companion
48. Increase your capacity for frustration
49. Buy a three-outlet power strip
50. Buy a travel towel
51. Take a deep breath
52. Start doing yoga
53. Consider a Kindle
54. Organize your life
55. Make sure your tickets match your passport (first, middle and last)
56. Browse travel forums and message boards
57. Put your CDs on an MP3 player
58. Plan for long layovers
59. Outfit yourself
60. Prebook a few tours
61. Join Flickr
62. Eat at foreign food restaurants
63. Quit smoking (now!)
64. Give your travel a purpose
65. List out your favorite Unesco World Heritage sites
66. Ride a (crowded) local bus
67. Know your Luggage Limits
68. Be your very best
69. Listen to your friends
70. Watch lots of travel-related movies
71. Contemplate travel quotes
72. Donate some time and even more money
73. Shop at a local farmers market
74. Appreciate the joy of people watching
75. Eat from a local street cart
76. Wash your laundry by hand once or twice
77. See how you look with a beard
78. Break your sweets habit
79. Walk to the supermarket
80. Lie for an hour in a park
81. Get in the habit of washing your hands
82. Buy a bigger camera memory card
83. Read or subscribe to an international newspaper
84. Stretch
85. Start a vitamin supplement program
86. Attend a Buddhist service
87. Encourage your spirit of adventure
88. Get a travel mascot!
89. Talk to your parents, tell them you love them
90. Buy some new shirts
91. Talk to a stranger
92. Get comfortable with analog entertainment (ie, hiking, running, reading books)
93. Get a handkerchief
94. Practice courage
95. Practice driving a stick-shift
96. Eat something outside of your comfort zone
97. Get a Google account
98. Compile all your (and others’) contact info in one place
99. Let go
100. Stop talking for a second
101. Celebrate!