Long-term physical fatigue, such as from Lyme disease or fibromyalgia, can diminish your abilities substantially.
It can become difficult to do even basic things like showering and emptying the dishwasher, much less running errands or doing housework.
Yet in some situations it is hard to get around the necessity of doing these things.
Here are some tips for accomplishing things despite having fatigue, drawn from strategies one might use for a traditionally fatiguing task: a marathon.
1) Don't be daunted by the challenge beforehand.
Before a fatiguing task, like running a marathon - or going grocery shopping - don't think about the upcoming fatigue.
Instead, think, "I will be able to handle the situation in the moment," if that is indeed the case (that is, if you have trained adequately or if your energy is enough to complete the task safely).
Energy is lost on anticipating future fatigue.
2) Distract yourself from what you are doing.
While in the midst of the challenge, thinking about it can cue your brain into the fact that perhaps you should be feeling tired, and your body might kick in and provide the expected fatigue.
While running a marathon, you don't want to think, "This race is so fatiguing; I am feeling so tired.
" Instead, you want to think about the present or distract yourself by looking around or being oblivious to what you are doing.
Likewise, while doing something that is challenging due to fatigue, try not to notice what you are doing.
Perhaps you can slip by without your fatigue response realizing what's going on.
3) Start out by thinking you will do only a little.
If it's hard to get yourself to start a long run on a day when you feel tired, you can say, "I'll just start out and see how I feel," and then maybe once you get started, you'll be able to finish the entire run.
Similarly, if you have trouble starting on a daunting task, you can say, "I'll just do this for five minutes" or "I'll just put away three things," and then maybe once you're in motion, it will not take much additional energy to finish the task.
This strategy also works for exercise: Get dressed for exercise and plan to sit at your exercise location (gym, outside), but once you're there, see if you feel like doing anything.
4) Have company for moral support and accountability.
Long runs can be much less daunting when done with a partner or a running group.
Running with someone else can motivate you to run faster or farther, and the other people can help to distract you from how your body feels.
They can help to motivate you to keep running even when you want to stop.
The company of others, whether or not they are materially helping with one's own task, can help to make a task easier by providing moral support, distraction, and importantly, staying on task.
Some people have running buddies; why not have buddies for things you find daunting, whether traveling for a doctor's appointment or doing the laundry? 5) Rest and recover afterward.
There is usually an area after marathons where runners can recover and get fluids and food and perhaps free massages.
For days to weeks after the race, people recover by not running for a few days and then taking it easy for a while.
When you finish doing something that is fatiguing for you, you also deserve a rest, even if what you did would not be fatiguing to most people.
So break out the refreshments, do something enjoyable, or carve out some dedicated rest time.
Resting after exertion helps you to recover physically and emotionally so that later, you can do the whole process again.