Most people living with chronic pain find they have limited productive time in the day, due to pain or fatigue or both.  Becoming conscious of the choices we make about what to do with that time can be very helpful.  For a nice analogy, see The Spoon Theory.

Break up your 24-hour day into wedges for the time periods your different activities require.  There may be wedges for sleeping, working on a job, meeting with friends, talking on the phone, doing housework, watching TV, and so on.

            Now work on a pie that you would find more acceptable, given your pain level and what you are learning.  Ask yourself the following questions and write down your answers:

1.       How many hours of my day are devoted to meeting others’ needs?

2.      Do all of these activities really need my involvement? 

3.      What activities can I share with or assign to the person or persons who are currently requiring my time? 

4.      What activities that I am not currently pursuing would I like to add to (or put back into) my routine?

5.      What steps can I take to make my present pie into a more acceptable pie?