The Summer Vibe Score (simple, but surprisingly accurate)

The goal of this calculator is not to predict the future. It’s to make your summer feel doable. Most planning tools fail because they treat time, money, and energy as infinite. In real life, the reason a “dream summer” doesn’t happen is usually one of three things:

• Too much packed into too few weeks (time crunch).
• Too many paid activities (budget crunch).
• Plans that ignore your energy and recovery needs (burnout crunch).

So the score measures balance between what you want and what you can realistically support. You give the planner eight inputs: your planning window, weeks available, budget, and five “vibe” sliders (energy/free time, social vibe, outdoors, travel/adventure, growth/learning, and rest/recovery). The algorithm turns those into five internal dimensions:

• Capacity (do you have the energy/time to execute plans?)
• Balance (are you mixing fun with recovery?)
• Adventure (do you want new places/experiences?)
• Connection (is this a social summer or a solo summer?)
• Growth (do you want learning or self‑improvement included?)

Each vibe slider is on a 1–10 scale. Weeks are 2–16 and budget is $0–$6,000 (adjustable in the code). We normalize each input into a 0–1 range. For example: if you choose 10 weeks, that becomes (10 − 2) / (16 − 2) = 8/14 ≈ 0.57. If you choose an energy level of 6/10, that becomes 0.60. This normalization lets us combine different units (weeks and dollars and vibes) into a single score.

Not every summer needs money, but most fun plans have at least some cost (transport, food, tickets, supplies, etc.). We estimate a “comfortable budget” based on your travel/adventure slider and social slider: the higher those are, the more you’re likely to spend. Then we compare that estimated comfortable budget to your actual budget. If your budget is much lower than what your preferences imply, your score drops — not as punishment, but as a helpful signal to adjust expectations (or shift to more low‑cost ideas like parks, free events, picnics, and local adventures).

A plan only works if you can recover. If your energy is low but your adventure and social sliders are high, that’s a classic “overplanning” recipe. The planner reserves a fraction of your weeks for recovery and resets. The lower your energy and the higher your intensity, the more recovery weeks you get. That’s why two people can have the same budget and weeks, but different results: your summer plan should match your season of life.

The final Summer Vibe Score is a weighted blend of: capacity (25%), balance (20%), budget realism (20%), alignment (20%), and momentum (15%). Alignment measures whether your top priorities are supported by your constraints (weeks/budget/energy). Momentum measures whether your plan includes “small joys” that keep you going even if a big trip doesn’t happen.

• 85–100 “Iconic”: Your plan fits your life. You’ll likely follow through.
• 70–84 “Strong”: Great direction; one tweak could make it effortless.
• 50–69 “Okay‑ish”: Your desires and constraints don’t match yet. Simplify or rebalance.
• 0–49 “Chaotic”: You’re trying to do too much with too little time/budget/energy — reduce scope.

The planner math (transparent + editable)

This calculator is intentionally not “AI.” It’s rule‑based math that you can understand. Here’s what it does:

• w = clamp((weeks − 2) / 14, 0, 1)
• b = clamp(budget / 6000, 0, 1)
• e = energy / 10
• s = social / 10
• o = outdoors / 10
• t = travel / 10
• g = learning / 10
• r = relax / 10

We estimate a comfortable spend as: comfort = 400 + 1800·t + 600·s. That means a low‑travel, low‑social summer might feel comfortable around ~$400, while a high‑travel, high‑social summer might feel comfortable closer to ~$2,800–$3,000. Then we compute a realism factor: budgetRealism = clamp(budget / comfort, 0, 1).

Capacity is driven by energy and weeks: capacity = 0.55·e + 0.45·w. Balance measures whether rest exists alongside intensity. We use: intensity = (0.45·t + 0.35·s + 0.20·o), then balance = 1 − |r − (1 − intensity)|. In plain English: if you want a high‑intensity summer, your rest can be lower; if you want a low‑intensity summer, your rest can be higher — but extremes create friction.

Alignment rewards matching your top priorities with your constraints. For example, if you set travel to 9/10 but choose only 2–3 weeks and a tiny budget, alignment will be lower. Momentum rewards “small joys” and outdoors time (because those are easier to execute and often boost mood).

The final score is: score = 100 · (0.25·capacity + 0.20·balance + 0.20·budgetRealism + 0.20·alignment + 0.15·momentum) then rounded to the nearest whole number and clamped 0–100.

Suppose you choose 10 weeks, $1,200 budget, energy 6, social 6, outdoors 7, travel 5, learning 4, relax 6. The score often lands around the mid‑70s to low‑80s: a strong plan with room to make one “big moment” feel easier. If you raise travel to 9 but keep the same budget and weeks, budgetRealism and alignment drop — and your score might fall into the 50s or 60s. That’s your cue to either reduce travel intensity or raise the budget / weeks.

Turn the output into a real summer (in 15 minutes)

A plan is only useful if it becomes actions you can actually do. After you generate your results, use this quick workflow:

Pick one thing that would make you feel, “Yep — this was a good summer.” It can be a trip, a concert, a beach day, a friend reunion, a project, or a simple tradition (like weekly sunsets). Your planner output includes a recommended number of “big moments” based on your energy and weeks.

Small joys are high‑leverage because they’re cheap, frequent, and easy to execute. Think: ice cream walk, library + coffee, outdoor workout, movie night, picnic, free concert, biking, rooftop sunset, late breakfast, or a hobby hour.

Your plan includes “recovery weeks” (or at least recovery days). These aren’t wasted time — they are what prevent your summer from collapsing into stress. Recovery can be quiet weekends, light social plans, or “no agenda” afternoons. If you tend to overcommit, make recovery non‑negotiable.

The planner suggests a budget split across categories (local fun, food & hangouts, travel/adventure, and gear/experiences). If your budget is tight, shift toward free local events and outdoors time. If your budget is larger, avoid spending it all on one huge trip — many people report that multiple medium moments create a “longer” feeling summer than one expensive week.

Sharing makes follow‑through easier. Copy the share text, send it to a friend, or post it. Even better: ask someone to join you for one planned moment. Accountability turns “maybe” into “done.”

Frequently Asked Questions

• Is the score “scientific”?

  It’s not a medical or psychological assessment. It’s a planning score based on realistic constraints: time (weeks), money (budget), and energy (capacity). The value is clarity, not diagnosis.

• What if my budget is $0?

  Totally valid. The planner will shift your ideas toward free or low‑cost activities: parks, community events, nature walks, beach days, library events, potlucks, DIY movie nights, and “local tourism.”

• What if I have high travel goals but low time?

  Choose “micro‑adventures.” A 1–2 day trip can deliver 70% of the refresh of a long trip with less planning. The plan will suggest fewer big moments and more small joys.

• Can I use this for kids/family plans?

  Yes. Interpret “social” as family time and “budget” as total activity spending. The weekly plan output works well for family routines (one big event + two small joys).

• How often should I run it?

  Once at the start of the season, then again when your schedule or budget changes. Many people save two versions: “realistic baseline” and “stretch goal.”