Fibromyalgia and Pacing

I have been working to get my home office in order and some of the household so that I could start my new job.  And I have been working on a way to help me have enough energy to work, maintain my household, spend time with my family and basically enjoy life.  I had not heard of this technique until a few weeks ago.  It is called pacing.  I know there is an armband you can buy which is supposed to help make pacing easier, but I am not sure about it.  I have read mixed reviews about it.  Besides I always think there is a cheaper easier way to do things, but with pacing it seems to be time consuming.  For me if it is time consuming then it is also energy consuming.  So, I am trying to find the easiest way to pace my days and not have to deal with as many flares of pain and fatigue. 

Pacing is an energy management strategy where you do less than you max energy allows. You spread your activities throughout each day, week and month, so you do not overdo it.  The first strategy I found was listing all the activities you have for a day, like showering, dressing, make-up, fixing breakfast, eating breakfast, driving kid to school, etc.  And then you check your heart rate before and after each activity and write down in a log and track this for about a week.  And you rest in between each activity.  If you wash dishes for 15 minutes you rest for 10 to 15 minutes.  It took me forever to get ready in the mornings.  And for me the log wasn’t giving me what I wanted, the amount of energy I have to spend during the day. 

The next version of pacing I tried was using Perplexity and Welltory.  I would take a screenshot of my Welltory readings for the morning, and then I would add my list of things I need to accomplish during the day and times they needed to be done.  And have Perplexity come up with a rough schedule of when to do these things.  The problem with this idea was my energy levels were so low and my stress levels so high I couldn’t do anything during the day.  I have stopped figuring out pacing for the moment, and have been focusing on my sleep and reducing my stress. 

I will get back to pacing soon. 

Have you tried pacing?  What obstacles did you run into?

Thanks for reading,

Kerry C.