Yoyu: how to avoid traveler burnout

Yoyu: how to avoid traveler burnout

Along the way, I'll be writing articles for Atlas & Boots, submitting travel reports to Asian Bride magazine and picking up the odd commission to top up our travel budget. Therefore, I will be carrying a laptop with me throughout the trip.

This is largely fine because it means we can stock up on movies and TV programs for quiet nights and it also gives us a way to stay in touch with family and friends. Of course, with this convenience comes the risk that sticking to a screen at home becomes sticking to a screen on the street.

Like many of my peers, I spend an alarming amount of time in front of a screen, be it a desktop at work, a laptop at home, or a smartphone on the go - and I want to avoid that when I'm out and about. This fear reminded me of a concept I learned from Gotomedia founder Kelly Goto: the concept of Yoyu.

Yoyu is of Japanese origin and although there is no equivalent in the English language, it roughly translates to “the space between things”. Kelly, who frequently rushes from one meeting to the next - sometimes on different continents - was once told by her mother that she didn't have enough Yoyu; she didn't leave enough space between things. It's something that really touched me.

To remind myself and other travelers to be mindful of screen time versus real time, I put together a 5-point plan to keep Yoyu on the go to avoid traveler burnout.

1. Don't fill up your entire wait time

One hundred and fifty. This number has been floating around for a few years, ever since Nokia discovered that the average cell phone user checks their phone 150 times a day. Tech guru Tomi Ahonen tried to validate this finding last year by coming up with a series of not-impossible numbers.

Wait four minutes for the train? Out comes the phone. Long line at lunch? Let's look at Twitter.Friend late for dinner? Open Facebook.

Even in our daily lives, so many of us give up every free minute to our phones. We feel the desire to destroy calm, quiet moments by scrolling, swiping, and tapping into a haze of activity where everything and therefore nothing really, really matters.

On the way the waiting time increases and this desire increases. It's easy to watch movie after movie and fill our Kindles with books on a long-haul flight without really enjoying the downtime. I'm not saying there's anything noble or rewarding about staring at a plane wing for four hours or watching 80 miles of gray asphalt on a bus ride, but filling every moment with activity saps the space between things.

I'll make a conscious effort to put my phone, laptop, and Kindle in a hard-to-reach place, at least on portions of long trips, so I can enjoy just having some time.

2. Batch any housekeeping

In my daily life I have an almost obsessive aversion to idleness. If I have 10 minutes, I do a level of the language app Duolingo or delete a few emails or pay a bill. On the go, this can easily translate into researching a visa, finding a flight, or scanning reviews about a potential residency.

For some people, researching and planning is part of the fun, but doing it in fits and starts will weaken Yoyu. Instead, plan to set aside some time each week—perhaps every day if you need to—to focus on housekeeping.

Yes, it will feel like you're dedicating a larger portion of your time to these tasks, but it will also make you feel less stressed and allow you to enjoy the gaps in all the other days.

3. Don't schedule more than 60% of your schedule

So many of us plan our days for 100% capacity. If all trains run without delay and all our meetings end on time and the gods look down on us, then we can do A, B, C… Z today. We tend to carry this over to our vacation time, which might be fine for a two-week break to Sharm el-Sheikh, but it will wear you out on a long-term trip.

Instead of booking every stop along the way, keep your schedule as loose as possible. This way, when things inevitably go wrong, you won't feel stressed about things falling out of your busy schedule.

4. Treat problems at the source

Most travel experts advocate a relaxed attitude in traffic. So what if your padlock needs to be clamped and turned to an angle of 71.0007 degrees and then pushed open every time you need to do it? That's fine, they'll say. Relax. And what if your SD card doesn't quite work the first two times you plug it into your laptop? It's cool.

And you're having another bout of Delhi Belly? Ride it out.

A laissez-faire approach to annoyances may be in line with the traveler's philosophy, but dealing with the same topic over and over again costs more time in the long run. Get a new lock or SD card, buy some decent medicine or go to the doctor - treating problems at the source will free up your time and eliminate all the "mini-stresses" that can wear you down.

5. Say no

The idealized image of a traveler is one that embraces every opportunity that comes its way. Dutch at dawn? Yes! Cocktails before lunch? Yes! Cliff jumping at night? Yes! An open mind is essential to having a good time out and about, but that doesn't mean you should feel guilty about saying no every now and then.

If you'd rather relax by the pool instead of hiking to Nevis Peak on a Sunday morning, do that. And if you want to stay home and read a book instead of going to a full moon party, that's probably fine too. Don't let colleagues pressure you to do things because people say you should.

Saying no also applies to people at home. I was asked to review a resume while in Egypt and advise on insurance in Iceland, among a whole host of other things that come with being the family consigliere. It's hard to say no, but never doing it will take the Yoyu right out of your trip.

It's important to remember that unless you're one of the very few, very happy full-time travelers, you'll go back to your life and back to admin and screens and scrolling feeds. Travel is the biggest distance between things you're ever likely to get. Don't fill it with the same old shit you make at home.

Mission statement: Atlas & Boots

      .