Time off is increasingly being judged by how efficiently it is used rather than how restorative it feels. New findings show how pressure, guilt and overplanning can follow travelers long after they leave the workplace.
Vacations are meant to interrupt the demands of ordinary life. Yet for many travelers, they now reproduce them: tightly managed schedules, carefully sequenced activities and an expectation that every day should deliver a measurable return.
A MyIQ survey of 13,684 adults across the United States, European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Latin America found that 69% feel pressure to make every day of a vacation “count,” even when doing so means returning home more tired than when they left.
The findings suggest that productivity has become more than a workplace habit. It increasingly shapes how people evaluate leisure, replacing a simple question, whether a trip felt enjoyable or restorative, with a more demanding calculation: how much was seen, how little time was wasted, and whether every opportunity was used properly.
That pressure often begins before departure. 63% of respondents said they spend more time planning a vacation than deciding where they actually want to go. The difference is revealing. Choosing a destination reflects personal preference. Optimizing a trip requires comparing options, organizing each day, and attempting to reduce the possibility of regret.
Once the vacation begins, inactivity can feel harder to justify. 57% said they feel guilty when they spend an afternoon doing nothing during a trip. Nearly half, 48%, reported returning home feeling as though they needed another break.
Together, the results trace a clear progression: pressure to use time efficiently creates discomfort when travelers stop, while the effort to maximize the trip can undermine the recovery that time away is supposed to provide.
The same pattern influences decisions made during the vacation itself. 42% said they had changed their travel plans because they worried they were spending too long in one place. Another 38% said they had chosen activities they were not especially interested in because they felt they should experience them.
These responses suggest that overscheduling is only part of the issue. The deeper shift is the replacement of personal preference with an external idea of what a successful vacation should contain. An activity may be included not because someone genuinely wants to do it, but because leaving it out would make the trip feel incomplete.
Sarah Meyer, Managing Director of MyIQ, said the results show how thoroughly people have learned to treat time as something that must continually demonstrate its value.
“Productivity culture no longer ends when the workday does. It has taught people to see time as an asset that should always produce a result. On vacation, that can turn a quiet afternoon into a source of guilt and a full itinerary into proof that the trip was worthwhile. The risk is that rest becomes another performance metric.”
The findings align with MyIQ’s analysis of how performance-oriented thinking can shape behavior beyond professional life. The issue is not whether travelers prefer active or slow vacations. A full itinerary can be deeply satisfying when it reflects genuine interest. The strain appears when activity is driven by obligation and when doing less is interpreted as receiving less value from the trip.
For many travelers, unstructured time may therefore require deliberate protection. Leaving a morning open or remaining in one place longer than planned can feel less like a natural part of a vacation and more like a decision that needs to be defended.
The survey points to a broader tension in modern leisure: people may be physically away from work while still using the same standards to judge their time. Under those conditions, a vacation can change location without changing mindset.
About MyIQ:
MyIQ was launched in 2024 and is used by over a million individuals worldwide. It is a digital self-knowledge platform that offers more than an IQ score, with over 9 million completed tests across the various test categories: cognitive, personality, and relationships, all with personalised, actionable insights. The platform offers over 25 brain games, more than 150 intelligence puzzles, over 20 hours of expert video content, and 300+ available lessons on emotional intelligence, problem-solving, innovation, confidence-building, and decision-making. Through its IQ test, full-spectrum personality assessment, and relationship insight quiz, MyIQ delivers structured, personalized feedback that helps individuals better understand their inner world and behaviour.
MyIQ was launched in 2024 and is used by over a million individuals worldwide. It is a digital self-knowledge platform that offers more than an IQ score, with over 9 million completed tests across the various test categories: cognitive, personality, and relationships, all with personalised, actionable insights. The platform offers over 25 brain games, more than 150 intelligence puzzles, over 20 hours of expert video content, and 300+ available lessons on emotional intelligence, problem-solving, innovation, confidence-building, and decision-making. Through its IQ test, full-spectrum personality assessment, and relationship insight quiz, MyIQ delivers structured, personalized feedback that helps individuals better understand their inner world and behaviour.