Pacing budget: An energy budget for how much today can take.
Each morning Autonomic reads your HRV, resting heart rate and sleep, then gives you a budget in hours and minutes that spends down as you move. It warns you before the ceiling, not after. Built for long COVID, ME/CFS and POTS.
Every install starts with 14 days of Pro, free
“I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.”
“It’s already helping me manage my health and gather data to show providers.”
“Only app that isn’t for athlete training and specific to dysautonomia.”
The questions pacing answers, every day.
Pacing used to mean guessing and counting. These are the answers the budget gives you instead.
A budget, a pace, and a warning before the wall.
- 1MorningYour readings set today’s budget. A rough night means a smaller one, and that is the point. A day that went over narrows the next one too.
- 2As you moveSteps, workouts, time upright and minutes above your own exertion line all spend it down. A minute of moderate effort costs one minute.
- 3Before the ceilingA pace marker walks along the bar through the day. When you are ahead of it, you hear about it while there is still time to ease off.
See exactly what cost you today.
Not a mystery number. Every minute is traced back to something you did, and every row opens to show its own arithmetic. Rest buys some back, up to a quarter of what the day cost.
Heart rate minutes are priced by how far above your own line they sat, so hovering at your edge never counts like a sprint. Standing still is estimated from heart rate, and the row says so.
Pacing without buying another band.
Visible is the best known pacing app. Here is the honest difference.
| Feature |  Autonomic |  Visible |
|---|---|---|
| What you need to wear | The Apple Watch, Garmin, chest strap or phone you already have | Their own band, $79.70 |
| Your daily budget | Hours and minutes of effort, fitted to you | Requires their band |
| Price | $49.99 a year, with a free journal | $179.88 a year, plus the band |
| Where your data lives | On your phone. We never see it. | Their database, linked to you |
| Export your data | Everything, anytime | Daily scores, not continuous heart rate |
I’ve been through a dozen apps trying to manage my POTS and PEM. I can say without a doubt Autonomic is the BEST one I’ve tried.
Am I overdoing it? A nudge before the wall.
Five alerts, each one yours to switch off, and all of them paced harder than the budget they describe: three a day at most, never two within 45 minutes, nothing before you wake, and none on a day the crash warning has already spoken.
No alert ever invites you to spend what is left.
- OverWhen today has gone past its budget, it says by how much: “Over by 25m of your pacing budget.”
- Nearly spentAt 85% of the budget, while the rest of the day can still be planned around it.
- Heart rateA stretch above your own exertion line, named in beats: “Heart rate above 95 bpm for 28m.”
- Ahead of paceWhen the day has spent far more of its budget than the hours so far should have, with plenty of day still to go.
- The morning afterAfter a day that went over, a note before noon, so the next day can start gently.
What pacing is, and why the budget is in minutes.
- Measured in
- Effort minutes
- Set by
- HRV, resting HR, sleep
- Judged on
- The two days after
- Rest buys back
- Up to a quarter
Pacing means staying inside your energy envelope: the amount of physical, mental and emotional effort you can spend in a day without setting off a crash1. For people with ME/CFS and long COVID, and for many with POTS, it is the single most important skill in recovery, and the hardest one to do by feel.
The reason it is hard has a name. Post-exertional malaise (PEM) is a crash that arrives late, often 12 to 48 hours after the effort that caused it2. You feel more or less fine during the walk or the busy afternoon, and the bill comes on Thursday. By the time your body tells you that you overdid it, you overdid it two days ago.
Why a number helps
Counting spoons, watching a heart rate monitor and keeping a diary all work3, and they are exhausting on the days you have the least to spare. The pacing budget does the counting for you, from data your phone and watch are already collecting, and turns it into one figure you can plan around: how much of today is left.
Why minutes, not a score
“3h 35m left” is something you can hold against a shower, a school run or a phone call. A percentage or a points score asks you to translate first. So everything you read is in time, and a minute of moderate effort costs one minute. Harder effort costs more, and the price rises with how far your heart rate sits above your own exertion line, not a textbook zone built for somebody healthy.
How it learns you
- From day one. You get a budget on your first morning, started from your daily score and marked as learning until it has enough of your history.
- Judged two days later. Each day is checked against the two days after it, because that is when a crash shows up, and the budget adjusts to what you genuinely absorbed.
- Honest about evidence. A quiet week never shrinks your budget, because a day you held back says nothing about your ceiling. Only a dip lowers it.
- Quiet on bad days. When your score is sliding or the day looks like a crash, it shows no number at all. A small budget on a bad day still reads like permission.
Sources
Checked November 2026- Myalgic encephalomyelitis (or encephalopathy)/chronic fatigue syndrome: diagnosis and management (NG206) National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. NICE guideline, 2021. Energy management: staying within your energy envelope.
- Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness Institute of Medicine. The National Academies Press, 2015. Post-exertional malaise, and why the crash comes later.
- Effect of using a structured pacing protocol on post-exertional symptom exacerbation and health status in a longitudinal cohort with the post-COVID-19 syndrome Parker M, Sawant HB, Flannery T, et al. Journal of Medical Virology 95(1):e28373, 2023. Structured pacing in long COVID.
Will I pay for this tomorrow? It keeps score.
Every finished day is graded against what the budget published that morning, then held up against the two days that followed. The sheet shows how often the estimate has held, so you can decide how much to trust it.
- 1Learning, then fittedEarly days wear a “Learning” label and a softer figure, until there is enough of you to fit.
- 2A finished day speaks in the past tenseLook back at any day and see what it cost, where it went, and whether it held.
- 3In your reportsYour pacing history goes into the doctor summary and every export, with the ceiling explained as yours, not a limit.
Today’s budget, without opening the app.
One budget feeds every surface, so your phone, your home screen and your wrist never disagree.
Pacing questions, answered
What is a pacing budget?+
A daily estimate of how much effort your body can absorb today without paying for it later, shown in hours and minutes. It is set each morning from your own readings, spends down as you move, and is checked against how the next two days actually went.
How is my budget calculated?+
Your morning HRV, resting heart rate and sleep set the envelope, narrowed after a day that went over. Steps, time upright, minutes your heart rate spends above your own exertion line and anything you log spend it. Legs up and breathwork buy some back. Over time it fits itself to what your history shows you can absorb.
Do I need a smartwatch for the pacing budget?+
No, but it helps. Steps come from your phone through Apple Health or Health Connect, and anything you log counts. Heart rate from a watch, ring or strap lets it price effort properly. With less to go on, the budget still appears and says in plain words that the estimate is thinner.
Why does my budget sometimes show no number?+
On a day your score is sliding, after a crash, or when your markers point to strain, the budget deliberately publishes no number. A small budget on a bad day still reads like an invitation to spend it, and on those days rest is the answer.
Do pacing alerts work with the app closed?+
Yes, once Health is connected. On Android the app checks in the background, roughly every 15 minutes at best. On iPhone, Apple Health reads nothing while the phone is locked, so an alert usually lands shortly after you next unlock it. You choose which of the five alerts you want.
Is the pacing budget free?+
It is part of Autonomic Pro, $7.99 a month or $49.99 a year. Every install starts with 14 days of Pro, so you can try it with no card. The journal and unlimited HRV readings stay free either way.
Is the budget an activity limit from my doctor?+
No. It is an estimate fitted from your own history, not a prescribed limit, and it can be wrong. It is there to help you see the ceiling coming. Your clinician’s advice comes first.
About pacing
All recovery articles →See tomorrow’s budget tomorrow morning.
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