The Optimization Conundrum
Walking tours. Credit card points. Travel apps. Skip-the-line tickets. Multiple museums a day. Free hotel breakfasts. Photos at iconic locations. Gold member status. Making the most out of every, single, moment.
Not a second for actual leisure.
In the US, it’s rather ingrained to be efficient and productive. Given the fact that most of us have very little time off from work each year, it’s not surprising that this hyper-efficiency spills over into our vacation time. I used to pack my vacation days with so many activities that I was stressed most of the time. While I still enjoy utilizing points for travel, I learned that trying to constantly optimize my points was creating more of a burden than a benefit.
Also, as someone who benefits from having quiet time and space each day, I wasn’t really doing myself any favors. While I do recall the act of eating yummy food and the pictures I hastily took to “capture the moment”, I don’t recall feeling particularly calm. Instead, I felt stressed during most of my travels before my 30s. I had so few vacation days that I constantly felt the need to maximize every second and make every dollar stretch.
My European friends were often taking multiple weeks off and coming back to work thoroughly refreshed. Even if they didn’t make a high salary, they always took a few weeks off a year and went on a proper vacation. I used to see people lounging for hours at cafes, not a worry in sight, and wondered why they wouldn’t want to make the most of their time experiencing as much as possible. Turns out, they were making the most of their time; I was just too caught up in optimizing my vacation to see it.
Nowadays, I could really care less about cramming in as much as possible in a trip. Whether it’s a long weekend, or a longer vacation, I carve out days in advance where I plan to bring a book and spend hours reading in a quiet place. Better yet, I plan out what cafes, parks, libraries, and bookstores would be the most enjoyable and bring a specific book to match the ambiance. I have fond memories of reading Jenny Odell’s How to Do Nothing: Resisting the Attention Economy on an isolated beach in Cambodia. I’ve spent multiple afternoons lounging at Tokyo cafes reading Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko. I can happily say that my time was, indeed, well spent.