I have a confession to make. I used to be a Travel Drill Sergeant.
My itineraries were works of art. They were color-coded. They had 15-minute intervals. They accounted for transit times, bathroom breaks, and optimal caloric intake.
I would march my friends through Rome like we were invading it. "Come on, people! We have 12 minutes at the Trevi Fountain, then we need to be at the Pantheon by 10:45 AM or we miss our reservation window! Move, move, move!"
We saw everything. We took photos of every monument. We ticked every box.
And we were absolutely miserable.
By Day 3, my friends hated me. By Day 4, I hated myself. We were exhausted, blistered, and running on espresso and resentment. We came home needing a vacation from our vacation.
If this sounds familiar, you might be suffering from Chronic Overscheduling Syndrome. Here is why we do it, and why we need to stop.
The FOMO Trap
We overschedule because we are terrified of missing out.
You spent $800 on a flight. You took precious days off work. The pressure to "make the most of it" is crushing. You feel like if you don't see the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, and Versailles in 48 hours, you have failed as a tourist.
But here is the hard truth: You cannot see everything.
You could live in London for ten years and not see everything. Trying to cram an entire country’s culture into a 5-day trip is like trying to binge-watch The Office on 2x speed. You’ll get through the episodes, but you won't laugh at any of the jokes.
The "One Anchor" Rule
After ruining enough trips with my military-grade spreadsheets, I adopted a new rule: The One Anchor.
For every day of the trip, you pick one non-negotiable thing.
- Tuesday: We are going to the Colosseum.
- Wednesday: We have a dinner reservation at that nice spot.
That’s it. That is the schedule.
The rest of the day? It’s blank space. It’s padding. It’s "let’s see what happens."
This does two things. First, it removes the stress of being late. You can’t be late if you have nowhere to be. Second, it leaves room for the magic to happen.
The Magic Happens in the Margins
Think about your favorite travel memories.
I bet they aren't the times you were standing in a 2-hour line for a museum because a guidebook told you to.
Your best memories are the accidents. It’s the time it started pouring rain in Tokyo so you ducked into a tiny izakaya and spent three hours drinking sake with a local who didn't speak English. It’s the time you got lost in Barcelona and stumbled upon a street festival.
These moments can’t be scheduled. They only happen when you have Wandering Time.
If your itinerary is packed from 8 AM to 10 PM, you have stripped all the serendipity out of your trip. You are just executing a to-do list in a different time zone.
Respect the Physical Limits
Also, let’s be real about our bodies.
We are not professional athletes. We are people who sit in office chairs for 40 hours a week. Walking 25,000 steps a day on cobblestones is a shock to the system.
If you plan a 7 AM hike for the morning after a night out in Berlin, you are setting yourself up for failure. You need to budget for the "Hangover Buffer." You need to budget for the "Jet Lag Nap."
A tired traveler is a cranky traveler. And a cranky traveler starts fights about stupid things, like whose turn it is to hold the Google Maps navigation.
Be Okay With Doing Nothing
The ultimate flex in travel is being confident enough to do absolutely nothing.
To sit in a cafe in Paris for two hours nursing a single cappuccino and people-watching. To spend an afternoon napping in a hammock in Costa Rica. To wake up without an alarm clock.
That isn't "wasting time." That is literally the point of a vacation.
So next time you open up your itinerary app, do yourself a favor. Look at that packed Tuesday schedule. Find the thing you care about the least.
And delete it.
Your feet (and your friends) will thank you.