I planned vacations like a project manager for years.
Color-coded spreadsheets. Timed restaurant reservations. Museum tickets booked six months out. A Google Doc with seventeen tabs.
I called it "being prepared." What it actually was, was bringing my regular brain along for the ride and calling it a vacation.
A few trips ago, I started doing something different. And it changed everything.
One anchor event per day.
One thing we've booked. One thing that's ours. The thing that gives the day a center of gravity.
Maybe it's a cooking class in the morning. Maybe it's a river cruise in the evening. Maybe it's a long, beautiful lunch that we've reserved in advance because it's the kind of place that sells out.
One thing. That's it.
Then: two or three flexible options nearby. Things we might do if we feel like it. Places we could wander if the mood strikes. Options, not obligations.
The rest? Unscheduled.
This is where the trip actually happens.
The bookshop you stumble into because the door is beautiful. The street musician you stop to listen to for twenty minutes. The café where you sit so long you see the same waiter refill your water four times and he starts to feel like a friend.
Whimsy is where the stories are born.
Running errands in a prettier city is not a vacation. A vacation is wandering. Noticing. Saying yes to the thing you didn't plan.
Try the one anchor method on your next trip. You'll come home more rested than you've been in years — and with better stories. ✨
