A one-page plan version of this guide, ready to print or save as PDF.
A way of sorting the day
When energy is short, a full mental list of everything that might need doing is itself a demand. Five rough categories can do the sorting instead — glance down, decide what belongs where, and act only on the first four:
Needed for my body
- Drinks within reach — a bottle rather than a glass, if it means fewer trips
- Medication, as prescribed, and whatever organises it — a dosette box, a reminder
- Simple food that needs nothing: bread, fruit, something that can be eaten lying down
- Essential hygiene items within reach
- Glasses, hearing aids or other aids, if used
- Tissues
- Basic comfort items — earplugs, eye mask, a hot water bottle, a fan
Needed for communication
- Phone, and a charger within reach — a power bank removes the socket from the equation
- Whatever the easiest communication method is today — messages, voice notes, or nothing until later
- Important contact details written somewhere findable, not only in a phone that can die
Needed for the home
- Anything needed for mobility or access — a walking aid by the bed, a seat for the shower
- Whatever stops small problems becoming big ones — a bin nearby, a way to keep warm or cool
Needed for other people and pets
- Pet essentials — food, water, a way for them to get in and out
- Child-related essentials — food they can reach, snacks, whatever the day's care needs
- Anyone else's needs that genuinely cannot wait
Can wait until later
- Most household tasks
- Non-urgent messages and admin
- Optional plans and invitations
- Anything that exists only because it is normally done
The last category is the quiet workhorse of the list: most things, most days, land there — and being filed there is a decision made once, not a debate reopened every hour.
What counts as essential can vary
There is no universal list, and this page deliberately avoids inventing one. What is essential depends on the day, the household and the person:
- Living alone — the list skews towards access and backup: how food, medication and help would actually reach you, and who to contact if the day collapses entirely
- Parenting — children's needs sit in the first four categories, not the last; the aim becomes the smallest workable version of their day and yours, with snacks and drinks reachable by both
- Having a carer or partner — some essentials can be delegated rather than arranged; the useful thing is saying which ones, which is what the My Support Plan page is for
- Severe and very severe ME/CFS — the list may be almost entirely arranged by someone else, and the essentials are often positioning, food and drink access, and communication aids within reach of the bed
If something on this page is irrelevant to your life, it is not essential. The list is a sorting exercise, not a standard to meet.
Closer, not perfect
The usual move on a low-capacity day is not buying anything or building a system — it is moving things closer. A bag or box that holds the day's basics and travels between bed and sofa; the charger that finally lives by the bed; the snack drawer that does not require standing. Each of these removes a small trip and a small decision, and on a day made of small costs, that is what easier actually looks like.
A lower-capacity day does not require everything to be done. The aim is to make the genuinely necessary things easier to reach or arrange.
This page stays deliberately practical. It does not recommend supplements, diets or health products, and nothing on it is treatment — food, drink and medication access here mean exactly that: access and organisation, nothing more.
My Low-Energy Essentials Plan
The essentials that make a lower-capacity day easier to manage — kept within reach, and arranged in advance where possible. A supporter can fill this in with you, or for you.
Essentials to keep within reach
What genuinely matters today, where I'll be — bed, sofa or chair.
Food & drink access
Phone, charger & communication
Household arrangements
Whatever removes unnecessary trips or decisions — nothing more ambitious than that.
To prepare in advance
When capacity permits, or with help.
Outstanding arrangements
In priority order. Tick each one once it's arranged.
Everything else can wait without guilt — “later” is a decision made once.