Saturday 7 May 2011

Life: it's a balancing act (include activity sheet)

This week in the decision to help streamline my time (see here for how I'm changing review styles), I did the following. I call it my 'This is me' sheet. It looks something like this.


Hopefully it is straight forward. Here's what I did


  1. Write down what your limitations are (it might be illness, or health, or work or whatever) I created a list of my health limitations, how they affect me etc. 
  2. Write down a list of everything affected by the limitations: For me this was every aspect of life (both chores and hobbies)
  3. Draw a smiley face to the right (for fun!) Colour it in - I didn't do it because I didn't think about it.
  4. Read the paragraph about pacing/organising activities - Some things will stress you out big time, others not so much. Or you may get tired/have pain depending what you do. If you're healthy, but have other ties like children/caring for family, think about it in terms relevant for your situation. 
  5. Start drawing more faces! Have one section for areas requiring more effort, and another for ones with less effort. The funny semi-circle determines how stressed/tired/whatever you get. The top ones are ones which I find physically demanding. The low effort ones have the semi circle much closer to the bottom, and I can do them for a long time before needing to stop. 
  6. Put it into practice: try and organise your day so it's not too heavy on work tasks/stressful tasks. This isn't always practical, but try and do it as far as you can. It's not easy being strict about things, but getting the balance of pacing right can make a huge different in  your life. 
Disclaimer: all of this is my own view, I have zero qualifications in health (other than being a patient), I'm not responsible for any injury that will result from following my This Is Me activity sheet. 

Any questions, just ask! 

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