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How do you manage life with Migraine?

March 1st, 2008

Fine, thank you, how do you? Oh, sorry, wrong tape…

How do you manage life with migraines? With many interruptions. With difficulty. Intermittently. With ridiculous persistence and hope. Occasionally, with grace.

But, how? You want the nitty-gritty? It’s a lot like managing anything else. I’ve been coaching people for years in how to manage a small business, how to manage themselves to grow their business and have the life they want. You manage by having systems. By:

1) taking the great long overwhelming list of all the everything that goes into your enterprise and sorting it into categories,

2) listing out the individual tasks in each category,

3) creating the ongoing schedule of the tasks that need to be accomplished at regular intervals,

4) listing the one time, current tasks,

5) prioritizing those tasks and scheduling them,

6) listing any background preparation or materials needed before doing the tasks,

7) listing likely follow-up that will have to be done after the tasks, and

creating checklists.

No matter how difficult or overwhelming something seems, it can be managed if broken down into tasks, and if each of those tasks is further analyzed for preparation and follow-up tasks. This works for a business enterprise; it works just as well for enterprise YOU – the enterprise of your life.

But my head hurts! Yup. Mine too. That’s why when I take to my bed with migraine, my computer or at least a lined pad of paper goes with me. Unless I am too sick to have any light on, or think at all (and that certainly does happen), I lie down thinking, “what do I have to handle, make sure of, not forget, or reschedule?” And as soon as I’ve answered the question, I can give myself over to whatever I need to do to get better. It’s like calling in sick for your life. If I am going to help my (actual) headache get better, I have to be able to let go of as many as possible of the figurative “headaches” called running a life.

I need to have all the medications I need close to hand. I need to make sure people will be fed, whether or not I’m doing the cooking (maybe I’m just asking someone else to handle it). I need to cancel appointments, or have someone else do it for me. I need to remember to call the doctor, or whoever else I really should be calling. If I can’t stay in bed, if buying the groceries or getting the kids somewhere, or going to work simply cannot be avoided, I need a checklist for that too. That’s the absolute minimum checklist. What’s the absolute minimum list of tasks I cannot avoid doing?

When I’m having a migraine, my brain doesn’t work too well. If the pain is bad enough, there’s nothing to do but lie still and try to sleep. If it’s not that bad, I still live in an extended state of “Ummmm…”  If all I need to do is take meds, I still need a list of them or I will forget.

So I try to invent all my checklists ahead of time. Healthy day checklists – including what I need to do daily to stay healthy. Sick day checklists. Preparation lists and schedules, to refill prescriptions, to keep what I need on hand.

How do you take something as unpredictable and disruptive as a life with migraine disease and be systematic about it?  With many interruptions. With difficulty. Intermittently. With ridiculous persistence and hope. Occasionally, with grace.

- Megan Oltman

Today I’ve got a cold, or sinus infection, or migraine brewing, or some combination thereof.   Anybody’s guess.  Taking it slow, checking my lists.  Such is (my) life.

Tags: managing life with migraine, time management
Posted in Managing, Tips & Techniques | Comments (5)

5 Responses to “How do you manage life with Migraine?”

1. Migraine Chick Says:
   March 2nd, 2008 at 9:17 am

   This is a great post. I hope you don’t mind, but I just printed it out. I’m going to try the scheduling tasks idea. I think you’re right about breaking things down!

2. Megan Oltman Says:
   March 2nd, 2008 at 9:24 am

   Print away! I’ll be putting more about this into my newsletter - I think you’re on the list. Good luck and let me know how it goes.
   - Megan

3. themigrainegirl Says:
   March 3rd, 2008 at 9:00 pm

   Hi, Megan:

   I’m so happy you sent me a link to your blog! I’m only one post in but love it already. It’s wonderful to read the musings of a good writer. I deal with migraines all the time (as you must know from looking at my blog) and am going to start my own small business–ha! Looks like I stumbled upon the perfect post for me.

   Thanks.

4. Free My Brain From Migraine Pain » Blog Archive » More Time Management for Migraineurs: Managing the Time we Have Says:
   December 10th, 2008 at 8:05 am

   [...] try this at home.  And at work.  I wrote a post a while back on How do you Manage Life with Migraine?, about managing our time when migraines interrupt us all the time.  Those of you receiving the [...]

5. Free My Brain From Migraine Pain » Blog Archive » Have your Bag Packed for your Next Migraine Says:
   December 10th, 2008 at 8:07 am

   [...] first aid kit stocked and ready.  We talked awhile back about having your lists ready in the post How do you Manage Life with Migraines? so that you don’t have to think about what you need when you are in the midst of migraine and [...]

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