Understanding the Spoon Theory: How to Simplify Your Life and Conserve Your Energy as a Chronic Illness Warrior
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Disclaimers : This is not medical advice or information and based on personal experience living with chronic illnesses. This site contains product affiliate links. We may receive a commission if you make a purchase after clicking on one of these links.
One thing that I’m constantly reminding my community is that energy is the most valuable resource we have. We never know what symptoms we might face from one day to the next, so using our energy wisely when we have it is SO important! I’ll also refer to this as conserving your spoons, which we’ll get into a little later on!
I want to make sure you have alllllll the life hacks you need when it comes to saving your spoons and using the energy you have on any given day to its full potential. Once you get really good at this, you’ll learn how to design your life so that it’s more fulfilling and amazing!
So in this blog, I’ll be sharing exactly how you can start saving your spoons and living your best life by…
Tracking your routines, tasks, and responsibilities
Assign an energy level to each task
Look for ways to adjust your tasks in a way that saves you energy
Put these changes into action so you can start noticing a difference
Remember that when we’re talking about energy, both mental, emotional AND physical energy are included. Spoons can represent mental energy like having to make a decision or remember where something is, emotional energy like spending time socializing, or physical energy like cooking a meal or driving to an appointment.
Looking for ways to save spoons in my own life was a necessity. I couldn’t imagine staying in survival mode any longer than I had to, especially after my second chronic illness diagnosis. So when I realized how much energy I was spending on things like, making sure my pets had food and litter, cooking breakfast for myself, and remembering to take my meds, I noticed I didn’t have much energy left for the fun stuff.
I started thinking of ways to get the important things done using automations and simple routines that support me on low energy days. As a total planning and organization nerd, this was such a no-brainer once I realized I could use my strengths in this area of my life!
Now that I’m used to creating repeatable systems around the things I do in my day to day life, coming up with new ways to conserve spoons is easier too. Not only that, but I don’t feel guilty about doing “nothing” on flare days or cancelling plans when symptoms pop up.
Ready to learn how to do this for yourself? Let’s dive in!
What is the Spoon Theory?
In the chronic illness universe, you’ll definitely hear about the Spoon Theory often! It was created by Christine Miserandino, a writer and chronic illness warrior, to depict how limited energy is for someone with chronic illness. In her theory, she explains that you have a handful of spoons each day and each one of them represents a unit of energy. As you go throughout the day, you’ll “spend” spoons on your tasks, slowly depleting your spoon allowance.
A healthy person has an unlimited number of spoons, but when you’re chronically ill, you probably have a predetermined amount of energy when you wake up each morning. Which is exactly why it’s so important to optimize as many tasks as you can so you’re not using any more spoons than you have to!
How to Save Your Spoons + Maximize Your Energy
There are 4 steps to saving your energy so you can use your limited spoons for things that really light you up! This is the exact method we teach in Chronically Fulfilled Life and has helped our community use their energy in more meaningful ways (instead of just staying in survival mode).
Step 1: Track
When you do a Spoons Saver Audit, the first thing you want to do is write down EVERYTHING that comes to mind when you think about the tasks you do on a daily, weekly, monthly, and annual basis. There’s no task too small, so don’t question whether or not you should put it on the list! What’s great about this is that once you have all your tasks in one place, you can always come back to it and come up with ways to conserve.
Step 2: Analyze
Here’s the part where you get to look at your list and decide how many units of energy each task requires. I suggest using a scale of 1-5:
1 = LITTLE TO NO ENERGY
2 = LITTLE ENERGY
3 = MODERATE ENERGY
4 = LOTS OF ENERGY
5 = A LOT OF ENERGY!!!!
The second half of analyzing your tasks is writing out WHY you’re doing each task, the pros and cons, and the benefits. Some of them are going to be obvious, like you don’t need to explain the benefits of eating breakfast, but some of the tasks will start to stand out as you do this exercise. What you might notice is that some tasks can be automated or even completely removed!
Step 3: Adjust
Now’s your chance to get creative and find ways to do the tasks on your list using less energy. Here are some examples:
Have your household essentials set up on auto-ship
Subscribe to a meal kit delivery service for easy dinners
Set reminders in your phone for family and friends’ birthdays
Create an easy way to remember your doctor + medical information
This step is one of the most fun, because you get to come up with ways to make your life easier and simpler! Don’t worry about making adjustments to every task all at once. We always recommend starting with your level 5 tasks and working your way down from there.
Step 4: Action
It’s time to make changes in and start to feel the impact that saving your spoons has on your life. When you make a habit of looking for ways to save your spoons, either on tasks you HAVE to do, you free up sooo much more energy to do the things you WANT to do!
If you’re ready to dive into saving your spoons using the method I use myself, and teach people in our signature program, grab our totally free Spoons Saver Audit resource and get instant access to the full workbook and template! Of course we also have a video (with captions) showing you exactly how to use this incredible resource so you can save energy before you even start to use it!
