We’re all familiar with the importance of budgeting our money - tracking what we spend, saving for big occasions, and avoiding that expensive overdraft. Our energy deserves the same careful consideration. Just like financial overspending, regularly exceeding our energy capacity leads to serious consequences: burnout, anxiety, and poor decision-making.

This is crucial for neurodivergent people and those managing chronic health conditions. Activities that seem straightforward to others can leave us exhausted. It’s hard both to recognise our own limits and to communicate them clearly to others - especially when we’re already tired.

Just as there are different approaches to financial budgeting, there are various ways to manage your energy budget.

Here are three methods for you to consider:

Spoon Theory

Spoon Theory was created by Christine Miserandino in 2003 to explain the impact of chronic illness to her friend. The story goes that while sitting in a diner, she used a handful of spoons to demonstrate how people with conditions like fibromyalgia have limited energy “units” each day.

How Spoon Theory Works

You start each day with a finite number of “spoons”, representing your energy or capacity. Every activity costs spoons. For example:

  • Getting dressed: 1 spoon 🥄
  • Grocery shopping: 3 spoons 🥄🥄🥄
  • Commuting to work: 4 spoons 🥄🥄🥄🥄
  • Attending a meeting: 2 spoons 🥄🥄
  • Attending an academic conference: an entire cutlery drawer of spoons 🙀

Once you’ve used all your spoons, you can’t do more without “borrowing” from tomorrow’s supply. This means you start the next day overdrawn on your spoon budget. Over time, you build a deficit that can exacerbate your condition.

Spoon Theory helps explain why someone might need rest after an apparently “undemanding” task. It reifies the invisible nature of energy limitations and provides a simple way to communicate needs. For example, “I don’t have the spoons for this.” Or, “I have one spoon left - this had better be good.” Using a visual image like a spoon also diffuses some of the tension around saying “no” to a request.

  • ✅ It’s a friendly and visual method for communicating your needs.
  • ❌ Everyone starts with a different number of spoons, so this isn’t a universal currency.

The Traffic Light System

The Traffic Light System uses (almost) universally understood traffic light colours to assess and communicate energy capacity. Although there are only three choices, it’s more immediately recognisable than spoons.

How the Traffic Light System Works

🟢 Green (Go):

  • High energy and capacity
  • Can handle normal activities and unexpected demands
  • Ready to tackle challenging tasks or social events
  • Operating at full capacity

🟠 Amber (Caution):

  • Moderate energy levels - proceed with care
  • Can handle planned activities but avoid adding extra demands
  • Need to be selective about commitments
  • Warning sign to start conserving energy

🔴 Red (Stop):

  • Low energy/overwhelmed state
  • Essential activities only
  • Need to rest, recharge, or remove stressors
  • Time to implement coping strategies

The system works well for people who need a quick way to assess and communicate capacity. Some use it for daily check-ins, others apply it moment-to-moment as situations change.

You can also use the traffic light system to grade activities in advance. For example:

  • Red activity: this will be exhausting. Don’t schedule anything else that day.
  • Amber activity: this will be demanding. Only schedule light (or Green) activities afterwards.
  • Green activity: this will require minimal energy, or even have a restorative effect.

Most calendar systems support colour-coding. Go through your schedule and flag your commitments with the traffic light system. You can quickly see whether there are too many red activities close together. If possible reschedule or even cancel some of them.

  • ✅ A simple system that’s easy to communicate to everyone quickly.
  • ❌ Only offers three levels, which might be too broad.

The Battery Model

You’ve no doubt watched with horror while your phone’s battery depletes over a long day. Then there’s the relief when you find a charger and it springs into life again. When the battery percentage is worryingly low, we tend to adjust our usage, disabling unnecessary apps and not fiddling too much.

How the Battery Model Works

Unlike the binary approach of tired/not tired, the Battery Model recognises energy as existing on a spectrum:

  • 90-100%: Fully charged and ready for demanding tasks.
  • 70-89%: Good energy levels, can handle most activities comfortably.
  • 50-69%: Moderate energy - need to be more selective about commitments.
  • 30-49%: Running low - time to prioritise essential activities only.
  • 10-29%: Critical levels - urgent need for recharging strategies.
  • 0-9%: Complete depletion - system shutdown likely

Using percentages helps us assess our situation more realistically, rather than just relying on emotional responses: “Arrrgh, I feel rubbish and it’s all pointless”. When you’re poised to read “just one more journal article,” consider whether you definitely have enough in your battery, or are you tempting a system shutdown?

The battery model allows a more nuanced assessment than either spoons or traffic lights. And there’s the built-in reminder that we need to recharge between demanding tasks.

  • ✅ It’s a simple, visual model for accurately assessing your energy levels.
  • ❌ The analogy compares humans to machines, which can perpetuate misconceptions, e.g. “You just need a quick recharge, then you’ll be fine.”

Conclusion

There’s no right way to manage your energy. Other people insisting on their approach is also exhausting 😩 Experiment to find what works for you - it might be a combination of the methods outlined above. Sometimes, different models work in different situations. For example, in some communities, Spoon Theory is widely used and embraced. The simplicity of the Traffic Light System makes it useful in a variety of settings. Maybe the Battery Model is helpful for checking in with yourself.

Whatever you decide to do, remember you’re not a machine. It’s OK to take time for yourself - that’s not selfish, it’s practising and modelling self-care. Inevitably, you’ll have to go overdrawn on your energy occasionally. But budgeting makes that the exception, rather than the norm. Experiment with whatever model makes most sense to you, and take it slowly. Like with finances, even small steps can make a significant difference over time.