Pacing

How do you use activity pacing? 

Activity pacing involves different stages. It might be helpful to work through the following stages and try out some of the ‘techniques’ or ideas that work better for you: 

 

Stage 1. Think about the activities you do right now. Do you mainly over-do activities, do you avoid activities or do you have a boom-bust pattern of activities. How do different types of activities (physical, mental, emotional, housework, relaxation) affect your symptoms? 

 

Stage 2. Think about what you can do as a ‘minimum’ level of activity. This is the amount of an activity that you can achieve at the moment, for example, how far you can manage to walk without triggering a flare up of pain/symptoms. You may also want to consider when you last did a specific activity, like walk to the bus stop or hoover the floor and how often you can do activities like this. It is important to accept how you are right now and how your condition is affecting you. This will help you find a ‘minimum’ level that you can then build on in future. 

 

Stage 3. Adjust your activities so they are more manageable. You may need to break down tasks, spread out activities over the day/week, switch between activities/positions or schedule in breaks/rests (rests do not necessarily mean lying down/sleeping). Here is an example of how to break up a task: 

If you do 30 minutes of housework, but then have to lie down for a few hours, try doing 15 minutes of housework, taking a 15-30 minute break (perhaps by sitting, changing your position or doing a different activity), and then continuing for another 15 minutes. This way you will have still achieved the same total amount of housework, but you will not have over-done things and ruined your whole day. 

 

Stage 4. Plan activities and set realistic and meaningful goals. It is important that you prioritise time to do activities that are important to you such as hobbies, or seeing friends/family.  

Sometimes you might need to be assertive and say ‘no’ to other people if they are placing demands on you that you currently cannot manage. Alternatively, you might need to ask for help, or give jobs to those around you so that you do not over-do things. 

 

Stage 5. Aim towards having similar levels of activities across most days. This will include doing some activity on a ‘bad’ day and not doing too much on a ‘good’ day. This will improve your sense of control in managing your arthritis, rather than the arthritis dictating how much activity you can do each day. 

 

Stage 6. Have a flexible approach to pacing. Sometimes the benefits of over-doing a certain activity will outweigh the negatives, for example if you have a big family event to attend that you know you will enjoy despite it being tiring. Have an open-minded and flexible approach to pacing. Think about your ‘minimum’ levels of activity. Have they changed from when you first started pacing your activities? 

 

Stage 7. Aim to progress your activities over time. This can include trying new or different activities, or regaining a balance of different types of activities (for example, both ‘have to’ activities and ‘want to’ activities). Try to find a balance between activity and relaxation (relaxation does not specifically mean rest/sleep). If you are able, try to do some activities for longer or more regularly. Try adding new things to do. Depending on the activity this might take weeks or months and each increase should be small. Over time you will be able to do more than you could before, and you are less likely to trigger a flare-up of symptoms.