Tracking Energy in a Bullet Journal for Chronic Pain and Illness

I want to spend the next couple of weeks discussing the energy drain that comes with chronic pain and illness and what can be done with it...realistically.

There's a lot I want to achieve in the next 5 years. I've talked about what is coming up for me in the future. Well, in the long term I am going to write a Bill to submit to Congress that established Rights for Patients with Rare Diseases and the Doctor's that treat them.

I see several things going wrong with today's healthcare that simply does not address or applies to my disease or the other classified 7,000 rare diseases identified. I want to protect myself and others.

I can't just go out and write a bill. I need to put together an advocacy group first. I need to establish a presence to run an influential advocacy group. I need to get published on the topic of handling chronic pain. I need to work on and make this blog successful to be ready to write my book. Oh, and a yoga teaching certification and health coach certification wouldn't hurt either.

Ok, that's a lot to do. It's ambitious AF.

Step 1: Get my Energy Levels Up

I totally have my large goal on the mirror: Bill for Rare Disease Patients

Underneath I have: Get Energy Levels Up

Then I list the ways I know of that do actually help my energy levels:

Eating Paleo - Eating Clean
Drinking the Proper Amount of Water
Taking all my Supplements (I forget sometimes)
Getting Daily Exercise
Keep Moving During the Day
Go to Bed on Time*
Waking Up at a Consistent Time*
Getting Proper Sleep*

*I will go into how I'm going to achieve the sleep goals in another post.

How do I know what raises my energy levels?

I turn to my bullet journal.

Tracking Energy in a Bullet Journal for Chronic Pain and Illness

I have tracked my emotions, sleep, productivity, and activity for over a year now.

In 2017, I bullet journaled with tracking in mind but the main enjoyment I got out of it was drawing and how beautiful I could make my spreads and collections. 

While beautiful, they got tedious to fill out and keep up with.  I didn't even fill in the last half of October's pain and activity levels.

Also, it's hard to see and interpret.

In 2018, with my goal of Simplicity, I wanted to be able to see everything in one glance.

Sleep - Emotions - Productivity - Activities - Pain, all in one glance.

This really made it clear that the days I meet my water goals, eating goals, and activity goals...I'm more productive and clear my to-do list. The simple set up also doesn't exhaust me, so I'm more likely to stick with it.

Making time to do my journal helps too.

If you are thinking about including a pain and activity tracker this is a good one to start with:

It's a simple chart, next to the level, just write in what you did that day. This is also great to show your doctor. It proves you are being proactive in fighting your pain as well as what sets it off. 

If you are unsure about your pain level, check out this chart (it's also a great collection to have in your bujo).

What do you want to track in your bullet journal? Don't have a bullet journal yet? Check out this post.