Two jobs on one trip

Every family trip has two jobs in it, and they are not the same job.

One is deciding what the trip is. Salalah when the hills are green, or Salalah when it is quiet. Beach days or the mountain drive. Whether the grandparents come, and if they do, how gentle the pace has to be. This is the job of shape: what we are making and who it is for.

The other is making it happen. Flights booked before the fares climb. A car big enough for the bags. The hotel confirmed in writing. The reminder that someone's passport runs out in three months. This is the job of dates, lists and keeping everyone in step.

In a large family these tend to fall to different people. One cousin dreams up the plan and another quietly keeps it from collapsing.

In a small family it is one person, and that person nearly always prefers one job to the other. The dreamer reaches the airport with a lovely itinerary and no booking reference. The organiser has every confirmation in a folder for a trip nobody was excited about.

It is tempting to keep doing the half you enjoy and rush the other half as a chore. But the trip is judged on both. A brilliant plan that falls apart at the car hire desk is remembered for the car hire desk.

If you are the one doing both, the fastest way to better trips is not more of what you are already good at. It is improving, a little, at the half you avoid.