Hump-Day Hack: The Visual Energy Budget (Why My Planner is a Rainbow)

By Wednesday afternoon, the ‘all over the place’ feeling usually hits its peak.

Between the 12-week recovery from my fracture and the brand-new research into Fibromyalgia and POTS, my brain is often doing the heavy lifting while my body is propped up on the couch. I realized early on that if I just write a black-and-white ‘To-Do’ list, I end up overdoing it and ‘buffering’ for the next two days.

The Hump-Day Hack: The Visual Energy Budget

Even though I run a shop full of both digital resources and physical favorites like shirts and mugs, I am a pen and paper girl at heart. I use my categorized color-coding system to see my energy before I spend it.

Here is how I ‘triage’ my day from the caddy:

• The High-Energy Color (Cleaning Tasks): I use a specific color for home tasks. If I see too much of this color on one day, I know I need to delegate more to my husband and daughters.
• The High-Focus Color (Doctor Appts & Research): This color represents ‘mental spoons.’ I never schedule more than two ‘blue’ tasks in a row because I know the Fibro-fog will roll in.
• The Low-Energy Color (Wins & Reading): This is the color that saves me. Whether it’s finishing my 18th book of the year or finally getting a blog post live, this color is my reward.

Why it works:

The hack is that I don’t even have to ‘read’ my planner to know if I’m headed for a crash. If I open my page and it’s a sea of ‘Cleaning Task’ ink, I know to shut the book and grab my favorite shop mug for a hydration break.

Your Style, Your System

I know a lot of you love the convenience of having your life in your pocket. That’s why my Digital Planner features the exact same categorized layout. You can use the digital highlighters to budget your energy just like I do on paper—without the pen caddy taking up space on your side table!

Budget your energy like it’s gold, because in recovery, it is.