There were two analogies my OTs (occupational therapists) gave me that helped me think differently about rest and pacing. Especially since I have post exertion malaise (PEM), the idea is to avoid a “crash” if possible because they can take longer to get over and require more drastic rest—that would require doing more restful activities for a longer time until I get back to my baseline.

Her analogies were:

1) Traffic Light: Green equals easier, restorative or resting activities; Yellow equal is activities that require moderate energy; Red equals the activities that take the most energy.

She suggests to try to balance out the different activities and try to sandwich Green Light activities around groups of Yellow Light or Red Light activities so that there’s time to prepare and gather more energy or recover. It’s not perfect, but it helped me classify the different activities and be able to consider if I know I’m going to have a task that’s more draining at work, I can try to build in rest before or after or at least try to follow it up with something that’s not as draining.

And different activities may correspond to different lights depending on the person. We literally sat down and wrote examples for myself. An important thing is that screen time is almost never a purely Green Light activity, which, which is hard for me, because in small doses it can give you a boost, it’s still taxing on the brain. You want things that give you back energy and soothe the nervous system.

2) This is a common one but helps with the “avoiding a crash” idea: We all have an energy budget and you don’t want to get overdrawn. So we all try to spread out our budget throughout the day. Activities that are more draining take money out and activities that are more restorative out money back in.

Or you can reduce the cost of an activity by reducing the load. For example, grocery shopping is hard for me because of the bright lights and noise. Ways to reduce the load are: Wear earbuds, go at an off-peak time, do store pickup for some things and only go in for produce since I prefer to pick it, etc. Or if I’m cooking a meal, if I can sit and do it with music I like on, with help from others or pre-cut vegetables, or spread out the tasks over a few days.

The hardest thing for me wasn’t necessarily what I do, but the pace that I do it if that makes sense?

I actually found it really help to see an OT. It’s not something I thought about but their role is to help people figure out how to get back to their “occupations,” whether that’s work or leisure so their work encompasses coping with fatigue.