Lived experience
The vacation I needed a vacation from
August 24, 2026 · 4 min read
Short version
- A vacation is a project wearing a swimsuit.
- Decision fatigue does not take time off when you do.
- A standing template turns every trip into a rerun, not a rebuild.
The project with a beach in it
I came home from a week in the sun more exhausted than when I left. Not from the trip — from the six weeks of project management that came before it.
Flights compared across eleven tabs, hotels researched like a thesis. An itinerary optimized, re-optimized, then abandoned anyway.
By departure day I had not booked a holiday; I had shipped a product.
Everyone told me the anticipation is half the fun. For my brain, anticipation was half the workload — the fun never stood a chance.
And the trip itself kept the streak going. Every day opened with the question I dread most: so, what are we doing today?
Rest that needs a project manager
The problem was never the destination. It was that a vacation stacks every ADHD weakness into one event and calls it relaxation.
- Open-ended choices with no wrong answers — my least favorite genre.
- Sequencing: book this before that, pack this after that.
- Time estimates for airports that my brain treats as fiction.
- Constant small decisions, each one nibbling the battery.
Every choice on a trip is one I cannot automate, delegate, or run on autopilot. It is a week of manual mode, in flip-flops.
Novelty is fuel, but novelty plus unlimited choice is a fire.
The template that fixed travel
After one trip too many, I built a standing trip template and refused to ever plan from scratch again. It is one note on my phone, boring and immortal.
- Same booking order every time: transport, bed, one anchor activity, done.
- One planned thing per day maximum — everything else is optional garnish.
- A permanent packing list and a day-before timeline, reused forever.
- A deliberately boring first evening: arrive, eat nearby, sleep.
The template does not make the trip exciting. It makes the trip possible without a pre-trip collapse.
Coming home actually rested
The first templated trip felt almost suspicious. Nothing exploded, nothing got decided at midnight, and I returned with energy left over — a souvenir I had never brought home before.
I still tweak the template after every trip. It gets quieter and smarter each time, like a good travel companion.
Travel still costs me more than it costs other people. The difference is that now the cost is priced in, not discovered at the gate.
Do this now
