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Conserving Your Energy

by Pamela B. Harrell, O.T.R., C.H.T.

Prioritizing

Learning to prioritize your activities can greatly help you conserve limited energy stores. This can be one of the most challenging principles to master. Prioritizing requires you to really look at your work activities, household activities, and leisure and recreational activities and determine which ones are the most necessary to do (as well as which are the most pleasurable for you). When assessing your activities in terms of their importance, ask yourself questions such as the following:

• What are my main priorities in life? My job, my household activities, or my family and friends?
• Where is it most important for me to expend my energy?
• How can I get a better balance of work and leisure in my life?
• How can I build more rest and relaxation times into my day to help me restore my energy level?
• Can I simplify my daily tasks so that I have more energy left at the end of the day to do things I enjoy?
• Are there any activities that I don’t really have to do or that someone else can help me with?

Prioritize the most important activities and delegate to others those that are not absolutely necessary. Delegating can be a difficult trait to learn, especially if you have the attitude that you must do everything all by yourself. Try to approach delegating in a positive way by realizing that you are helping to conserve your energy. You may also be helping the people you delegate to by teaching them to accept more responsibility within your household or work environment. By developing a network of family, friends, and neighbors to help complete tasks such as carpooling children to activities, you may be helping other people learn to conserve their energy as well.

Positioning

Examining your body positioning or body mechanics may give you other ideas of how to conserve energy. By analyzing how you position yourself as you go about your day, you can identify ways to do your daily tasks with less energy, thereby protecting your joints from excess strain. There are also devices you can learn to use to reduce your energy expenditure. The following are some examples of ­energy-conserving techniques you can incorporate into your daily routine:

• Sit rather than stand. Sitting requires less energy from your body than standing and reduces stress on joints in your legs. Sitting to get dressed or using a shower stool while showering may help to reduce the amount of energy required for these activities.
• When you must stand to do daily tasks, prop one foot on a step stool or the inside of a lower cabinet to reduce stress and fatigue in your back.
• Use good posture when sitting and standing. Good posture involves keeping your ears in line with your shoulders and your shoulders in line with your hips. Don’t let your head lean too far forward, as this position is very fatiguing for your neck, back, and shoulders.
• Organize the areas where you work so that everything you need is within easy reach. This way you can avoid unnecessary reaching, bending, and stooping. You may need to duplicate items around the house to eliminate multiple trips between bathrooms, bedrooms, and the kitchen. Or organize what you need beforehand and use a cart, lightweight organizer basket, or storage bin to carry items.
• Make work surfaces the proper height to facilitate good posture and reduce the fatigue that results from poor posture. When you’re standing, your work surface should be just at elbow height. When you’re sitting, it should be just below elbow height.
• Use assistive devices to simplify daily activities. Reachers, long-handled sponges and dusters, and jar openers are just a few examples of devices that can help you conserve energy.
• Remember to breathe during activities. Proper breathing can help you maintain energy levels and bring about relaxation.

  There are people who can help you implement these and other changes. Occupational therapists are professionals trained to help people carry out tasks of daily living. For people with arthritis, they can recommend techniques and devices to protect the joints from excess strain. They can also help people alter their work and home environments to make them easier to manage. If you think you may need this sort of help, ask your doctor for a recommendation to an occupational therapist in your area.

  Taking stock

  When you take time to think about how you are approaching your day and realize how much you have to do (and want to do), it can be overwhelming. But when you learn to accept the fact that you have some difficult but manageable challenges ahead of you, you can begin to make changes in your daily routine that will lead you on the path to energy conservation. Keep reminding yourself that you are making worthwhile changes that will ultimately improve your quality of life. By breaking down activities into smaller steps, prioritizing what’s most important to you, and having a plan of attack, you can begin to feel more in control of your limited energy resources. Like the runner training for the big race, you can do a little bit every day to help pace yourself and stay strong in the marathon of life.

  Last Reviewed on June 27, 2012

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  Pamela Harrell is the Assistant Manager at the Vanderbilt Orthopaedic Institute’s clinic in Franklin, Tennessee.

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  Statements and opinions expressed on this Web site are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the publishers or advertisers. The information provided on this Web site should not be construed as medical instruction. Consult appropriate health-care professionals before taking action based on this information.