My Partner and I Give Each Other Jobs When We Travel and Swear by It

In the weeks leading up to a recent trip abroad with my fiancé, one thing consumed my thoughts: navigation.

The idea of traversing our way through maze-like subway systems and confusing streets under the sweltering European sun with our luggage in tow weighed heavily on me.

My worries weren’t unfounded. On one trip to New York City, we got lost in the subway. Both of us tried to navigate at the same time, checking our phones and darting between platforms, which only confused us more.

Eventually, I let him take over. Once I did so, we got where we needed to go and the rest of the trip went off without a hitch.

So before heading on our overseas vacation, we agreed on a new strategy: He would handle getting us around, and I’d manage just about everything else.

This simple strategy plays to our strengths

With our new plan in place, we were able to set clear expectations before we even reached our destination.

Though I’m decent at using Google Maps, my partner has always been the better navigator. So, he’d help us get from Point A to Point B throughout the trip.

Instead of stressing over bus maps and schedules, I focused on planning the other details of our vacation, which I excel at and thoroughly enjoy doing.

By taking this on as my “job,” he didn’t have to worry about things like securing dinner reservations, figuring out where we’d stay, or finding local activities.

We both took on parts of the mental load in a way that played to our strengths, but we stayed willing to help each other out.

So when something did go wrong — like the morning the Uber I ordered to take us to the train station never showed — he stepped in and found the number of a local taxi that could pick us up instead.

This strategy makes it easier to relax on vacation

Because we assumed our roles and had this understanding, our trip abroad went smoothly and we didn’t have any arguments.

I wasn’t too surprised, as my partner and I have always believed in a fair division of labor, even when it’s as simple as one of us cooking dinner while the other washes the dishes. It was nice to apply this concept to a vacation.

For every trip hereafter, we plan to continue this arrangement.

By dividing responsibilities beforehand, we can relax on vacation — after all, when so much time and money go into planning a trip, no one wants to spend it arguing about trivial matters.