Methodology & Glossary
Plain-language travel planning terms for pain and fatigue.
Ticked Bucket List (TBL) utilizes proprietary frameworks to design accessible, pace-informed itineraries. Use this dictionary to understand how we calculate demand, protect physical capacity, and build flexible recovery into travel.
1. Terms for noticing where the demand sits
- Trip load
- Trip load is the total practical demand created by an entire itinerary, including door-to-door travel, walking, standing, waiting, fixed times, sensory surroundings, responsibilities, and necessary recovery time.
- Use it to look beyond the main destination and calculate the physical/cognitive costs surrounding it.
- Example: A short wedding ceremony generates a high Trip load when combined with a long flight, luggage transport, and delayed hotel check-in.
- Trip Load Scan
- A Trip Load Scan is a focused, proprietary check of a current trip plan designed by Ticked Bucket List to identify specific logistical elements that require more physical effort, flexibility, or recovery than anticipated.
- Use it when route and dates are known, but hidden demands remain unclear.
- Trip fit
- Trip fit is a planning methodology assessing how workable a travel plan is based on cumulative physical load, flexibility, required support, and built-in recovery time.
- Trip fit assesses logistical viability, not medical fitness to travel. Only a clinician can determine medical clearance.
- Pressure point
- A Pressure point is a specific segment of a trip where multiple physical or cognitive demands concentrate without a recovery buffer, such as a long queue combined with a tight connection or a difficult transfer.
- Use it to isolate and alter the most draining part of a day rather than canceling the entire trip.
2. Terms for making the plan more workable
- Protected priority
- A Protected priority is the core component of a trip that matters most, receiving dedicated time, physical capacity, and logistical effort while all other activities remain strictly optional.
- Use it to anchor the itinerary when physical limits dictate the schedule must be reduced.
- Commitment point
- A Commitment point is a booking, non-refundable payment, or deadline after which changing the travel plan becomes significantly harder, financially penalizing, or practically impossible.
- Use it to prioritize which logistical facts must be verified before locking in an itinerary.
- Verification task
- A Verification task is a specific, actionable query requiring direct confirmation from a service provider (e.g., confirming step-free access) before a traveler with specific physical needs can rely on it.
- "The hotel looks accessible" is an assumption. "Email the hotel to confirm elevator width" is a verification task.
- Lower-load option
- A Lower-load option is an alternative version of an activity that preserves the core experience while significantly reducing walking distance, wait times, sensory input, or strict scheduling demands.
- Example: Replacing a 3-hour walking tour with private transport to a single landmark featuring seated viewing.
3. Terms for recovery and fallback choices
- Recovery runway
- A Recovery runway is intentionally protected, zero-obligation downtime scheduled immediately before, during, or after demanding travel to ensure physical recovery is guaranteed rather than left to chance.
- Use it to block out the morning after a late flight to prevent cognitive and physical burnout.
- Easier version
- An Easier version is a pre-negotiated fallback plan designed to simplify or replace the original itinerary instantly if a traveler experiences a drop in physical or cognitive capacity.
- Deciding this before travel eliminates the cognitive load of problem-solving while fatigued.
- Trip Action Plan
- A Trip Action Plan is the finalized logistical output of the TBL Starter Kit, consolidating protected priorities, required adjustments, verification tasks, and backup plans into one accessible document.
- It replaces scattered notes with a single source of truth for the traveler.
Clinical Planning Boundary: These terms are logistical tools to organize travel demand. They do not provide medical diagnosis, treatment, medication guidance, or fitness-to-travel clearance.
Apply these frameworks to your next trip.
Use the Free Trip Load Scan to answer eight logistical questions and see exactly where your planned itinerary requires more effort, flexibility, or structured recovery.
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