Scheduling is tough with chronic illness. The daily health needs just to maintain a baseline take so much time.

My organizing tendencies mean that I want to make everything efficient and planned out. That is impossible with variable strength.

What I am finding is that having a loose plan is better than no plan. Each week, I plan out what I would ideally accomplish that week. Then, prioritize the list. Throughout the week, as strength allows, I chip away at the list. Due to my plan being bigger than my strength, whatever doesn’t get done moves to the next week.

I’ve mentioned before that I have also learned with these plans that tasks often need to be broken down into smaller parts. For instance, “doing the dishes” on the list doesn’t mean that ALL the dishes need to be done at one time. This has helped me during the weak weeks. Just do what we can do each day and keep expectations realistic.

Scheduling seems like such an easy tip, but it is one of my most difficult things to manage.

How do you handle the variable strength and scheduling?