Finding the balance between a plan and an itinerary
Use the best bits from both a plan and an itinerary for the best day out with your kids.
Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash
You probably know the type of person who needs to have an exact plan to leave the house. There are precise schedules, times, and itineraries. This person also tends to over-pack because they are overthinking. Maybe you are this person?
Adventuring requires finding a balance between being prepared and letting things happen.
Allow yourself to plan the broader points, pack lightly, then improvise along the way.
Having a strict itinerary not only stresses you out but also everyone around you.
It’s important to work toward relaxing a bit. Otherwise, all your efforts here become lost because it’s easy to get stressed out. Surprisingly, it takes work to relax. It might seem backward to say that, but for many of us, it’s true, at least until you develop your skills to relax.
Relaxing is a practice.
It’s easy to get stressed out over details. It’s much harder to let things go.
What if you are the type of person to have or make an itinerary?
Let’s plan a trip to your favorite museum. Write down what your perfect day would be, everything you imagine.
A day at the Academy of Science
9:00 AM — everyone in the car
10:00 AM — arrive at the museum, grab passes to the planetarium
10:15 AM — in line for the rainforest exhibit
10:45 AM — through the rainforest and into the Aquarium
11:30 AM — lunch
12:00 PM — earthquake exhibit
12:30 PM — planetarium show
1:30 PM — African hall
2:00 PM — find floor seating for 2:30 penguin feeding
2:30 PM — penguin feeding
3:00 PM — in the car
4:00 PM — home, make dinner.
Maybe all of our itineraries don’t get this detailed, but for many of us, our plans can be just as intense, written or not.
Let’s look at a more relaxed approach to the same day, open for a chance at adventure
9:00 AM — everyone in the car
10:00 AM — Academy of Science
• try to get tickets to the planetarium show
11:30 AM — lunch
3:00 PM — in the car
4:00 PM — home, make dinner.
This itinerary just hits the essential pieces, sets a reminder (but not a requirement), and has a much more relaxed approach to the day for everyone. The longer the to-do list, the less likely you are to finish, and more likely you will stress out doing so.
Cody Tolmasoff is an author and publisher for Adventuring.in. He is a recovering programmer and a San Francisco native, raising two daughters, and regularly finding new adventures around the SF Bay Area. Find him on Twitter @codyo, and read his most recent title Adventures in Getting Out on Amazon, filled with advice on successfully getting your family out for day trip adventures.