Ask anyone who knows me about my biggest flaw and they’ll tell you it’s that I’m too impatient. They’re right: I’m an all-or-nothing, now-or-never kind of person. I constantly feel like I’m simultaneously working five steps ahead, chasing my tail and running out of time, which is a difficult state to exist in. At least once a week someone tells me to take my foot off the pedal, slow down and pace myself. But when you’re the kind of Type-A personality that craves efficiency, action and routine, what does that even look like?

It’s something a lot of us struggle with. “For a long time, we’ve learned to ignore feelings of fatigue and keep pushing through,” explains Amy Arthur, author of Pace Yourself: How To Have Energy In An Exhausting World. “We tend to understand that physical activity will drain us, so we accept feeling tired after an hour in the gym, but we don’t necessarily think about how a two-hour meeting or a therapy session might drain us too.”

For Arthur, the practice of ‘pacing’ has been revolutionary in helping her to “thrive, not just survive”. But just what is it, and how do you start?

What is pacing?

Pacing is all about managing your energy. As Arthur puts it, it’s not just about resting enough, though that is important. “The key is really understanding your energy, where it comes from, when and why it depletes and how we can properly replenish it,” she says. Put simply, it’s a way of living while being mindful of your body’s energy levels and without feeling constantly exhausted.

Pacing also involves an important mentality switch. Instead of thinking about our day-to-day activities in terms of how long they take us, we should consider how our body is feeling and how our energy is impacted by what we’re doing. “Once we start to be aware of these changes in energy and feelings of fatigue, we can actually start to plan our days and our lives around what gives us energy and what enables us to use our energy in the ways that make sense,” Arthur says. In turn, the idea is to stop giving energy to things that take up a lot of capacity but don’t give us much in return.

Why is pacing important?

When reports of burnout among UK workers have almost doubled over the past year, hitting record levels, it’s not hard to see why an alternative approach to modern life has become so necessary. On top of that, one in eight adults say they feel tired all the time and 81% admit they do not feel as though they get enough sleep.

But for Arthur herself, pacing is something she began implementing at age 15 when she was diagnosed with chronic fatigue syndrome. “When you have a condition that affects your energy levels, pacing looks different because you have less to start off with and you have to be stricter about where it goes,” she explains.

Pacing may help you feel more in control to do what’s important to you, but ultimately it’s about deciding that your long-term health and happiness is more important than living life at a fast pace.

How to start pacing

Take note of your ‘vital pace’

This, Arthur explains, is made up of only essential activities, such as working, cooking and taking care of yourself. When everything feels like a priority, it’s important to think long and hard about what truly matters. Ask yourself: if I didn’t do this for two weeks, what would happen? If it’s essential to your health, wellbeing, safety or financial security, it can stay. Anything else has to go – temporarily at least.

If possible, Arthur recommends spending two weeks operating at this vital pace, figuring out what works for you and which areas need to be addressed. If you find yourself coping well, you can begin to ‘pace up’ – slowly adding activities such as hobbies, socialising and higher intensity exercise to your weekly schedule while still remaining mindful of how they impact your energy.

Keep a pacing diary

Arthur suggests that the easiest way to monitor your activities and how they affect your energy is through a diary. “You can do it in real time or at the end of every day,” she says. “Write down the activities you’re doing and the impact they have on your energy – physical, emotional and mental,” she says. “If you start noticing that the thought of driving to the gym, working out, getting showered and coming home is causing you stress, you can point to it as an area for improvement. At the same time, if a morning walk sets you up for a great day, you know to prioritise it in your routine. This way you see exactly how much energy you’re expending and where.”

Think of routine changes as a ‘free trial’

If you do discover areas of your life that are draining you, it might be tempting to try and overhaul your routine completely by cutting everything out. But Arthur believes in adjusting your pace in small ways to maximise the impact.

“Imagine these adaptations as a free trial that you can experiment with but cancel at any time if it doesn’t work for you,” she says. “For example, if you start your morning with a really sugary bowl of cereal and a really sugary coffee, your energy levels will spike and then dramatically drop. So, as a free trial, you could switch it out for a savoury or low-sugar alternative and simply see how it goes. It’s a great way of experimenting with a new habit or lifestyle without putting pressure on it to ‘fix’ your current situation. It has to work for your life and your routine in order to stay.”

Pace Yourself: How to have energy in an exhausting world by Amy Arthur will be published on 28 December by Bonnier Books (£14.99)

Images: Getty