More Ideas for Logging

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By Bruce Campbell

We believe that health logs are so useful that we've devoted two previous articles to them:

Also, we have a separate page with many logs you can print or download.

This article focuses on three additional ideas for record keeping.

1) Use Color

If you fear getting overwhelmed with logging data, you might consider replacing words with color.

A number of people in our program have done so, adapting a system called the Rainbow Chart, which was developed by Oregon therapist Hannah Voetberg. The chart offers a quick visual way to rate how you're doing.

A variant of this scheme has been adopted by one person who writes, "I was too foggy to write everything everyday, and sometimes too foggy to write anything. But colors I could do." Each day, she rated herself by marking a calendar with a color to represent her health status for the day.

By looking at her calendar, she finds patterns and takes corrective action. For example, looking at her calendar helped her to see the cumulative effects of several car trips. "My need for more rest was screaming at me on my calendar. It was yellow and orange everywhere." With that success, she went on to track food on her calendar as well, after many failed attempts.

Another person used color codes on her calendar to mark good and bad days, saying "I find this kind of visible feedback motivating." She also put colored dots on the calendar to show the days she experienced unusual stress, which correlated with the ups and downs of her symptoms.

She explained that making the information visible in that way proved to her that mental and emotional exertion had effects on her symptoms.

2) Use Logs for Schedule Planning

To determine a realistic schedule that she could sustain, one person in our program kept detailed records. She wrote down when she went to bed at night and when she got up in the morning. Throughout the day, she noted how long she spent on each period of activity and rest.

Then, to determine a schedule she could repeat consistently, she divided the totals for two weeks by 14, which gave her an average of how much sleep and rest she needed each day, and how much activity her body could tolerate.

She explained that "I made myself a timetable of activity and rest for the overall week, planning it in more detail, hour by hour, each evening for the following day, and I still do this. Initially, I used timers a lot, for activity as well as rest, to help me keep to my schedule. Nowadays, I mainly only use a timer to prevent me from sleeping too long when I rest during the day."

Her planning was part of a comprehensive pacing program that led to a 50% improvement in her activity level in two years. For more, see her article Third Time's a Charm: How I Learned to Pace Myself.

3) Use Logs to Test Hypotheses

Several people in our program have made creative use of a sleep logging system from the book No More Sleepless Nights by Peter Hauri and Shirley Linde. These people have adapted Hauri and Linde's system to investigate ME/CFS and FM in general, focusing on what makes their symptoms worse and what helps to minimize their symptoms.

The sleep tracking system has two parts. The first, a "sleep log," is a daily record of facts about sleep: when you went to bed, how long it took to fall asleep, time spent awake during the night and the time woke in the morning.

The second part (the "day log") contains your hypotheses, up to four factors that you think may help or hinder sleep. Examples might include evening consumption of caffeine, television or computer use at night, use of sleep medications, and stressful events.

At the end of a week, you compare the data in your sleep log with the factors in your day log. If there is a connection (e.g. you slept well when you used sleeping pill), then you have confirmation of a hypothesis.

If there isn't a connection (e.g. you can't see any relationship between watching TV and falling asleep), then you may conclude that you can ignore a hypothesis.

One person in our program adapted this system by adding two columns to her daily log, one for factors that help control symptoms and the other for factors that make symptoms worse.

For one day, she saw that the combination of a longer than usual walk and a visit to Walmart had left her very tired and mentally foggy. Another day, she found that meditation during a rest cleared her mind better than just resting alone.

Another person wanted to go to bed at 10 o'clock, but consistently ended up getting in bed an hour later, because it took an hour to get ready for bed. Then she heard about the idea of a wind down period before bed and starting allowing an hour for reducing her activity level and preparing for bed.

That system has worked. She reports that she has replaced telling herself "it's bedtime" at 11 with telling herself "it's time to get ready for bed" at 10.

4) Combine a Log with a Daily Plan & Goal-Setting

A third approach is to combine into a single document a set of weekly goals, a day-by-day plan and a log.

One person who does this begins by writing down his goals for the week. He then creates a set of daily schedules, dividing each day into blocks of time and listing activities for each block: work, rest, exercise, chores, etc.

Each day's schedule includes boxes he can check as he completes various tasks and space he uses for comments. In this way, logging is built into the document. He also provides himself with a place to record his consistency. (See a sample.)

He says the time he invests in the system is worth it for a number of reasons. First, his form lays out in detail what he needs to do to stay within his limits and thus minimize his symptoms.

Second, because everything is written out, the system is something he can follow even when brain fogged. Third, the form helps him work toward important goals. He says that his system has enabled him to pace himself about 85% of the time.

Three Logging Principles

In whatever logging you do, whether you use existing forms such as those on our Logs, Forms and Worksheets page or ones you create, we suggest you keep three ideas in mind.

1) Keep It Simple

You are more likely to fill out your log if you make it easy to use. A good rule of thumb is that a log should take no more than a few minutes a day to complete.

2) Have a Goal

Use logging to help you answer questions that are important to you. Whether you use an existing form or develop your own system, make sure your records help you understand your situation.

3) Review Regularly

Insight occurs when you study your logs. Record on a daily basis and spend time on a regular basis, for example every week or two, studying your logs to look for patterns and connections.