Spoon Tracker

What it is

The Spoon Tracker is a visual rendering of spoon theory · the idea that on any given day, you have a finite, limited number of units of energy ("spoons") and that ordinary activities spend them at different rates. The tracker lets you drag spoons in and out across the day so the cost of what you're doing is visible to you in real time, instead of being a vague feeling.

How to use

1. At the start of the day, set your starting spoon count. Most people land between 6 and 12 on a good day. Lower on a bad one.
2. As you do things, drag spoons out of the tray and into the spent column. Use the suggested costs or set your own.
3. Use the banked column for energy you're choosing to protect for later.
4. At the end of the day, glance at the pattern. Don't analyse · just notice.

Resets at midnight by default. There's a manual reset button if you want to start over earlier.

Why it helps

For brains that struggle to feel the cost of an activity until they've already paid it, externalising the budget is the difference between a sustainable day and a crash at 3pm. The tracker isn't trying to be accurate. It's trying to be visible. The act of moving a spoon is itself a tiny, useful pause.

Accessibility & safety

• Fully keyboard-accessible. Drag-and-drop works with mouse, touch, and keyboard.
• Saves to your browser's localStorage. Nothing leaves your device. Cross-device sync is not available and isn't planned for launch.
• Resets at midnight in your local timezone. The manual reset button is always available.
• This is not a clinical tool. It's a visual aid. If your energy patterns are clinically concerning, please talk to someone qualified.

When it helps

• Mornings when you're not sure what kind of day this is going to be.
• After a heavy day, to see what you spent on what.
• During recovery from burnout, when you're rebuilding a sense of how much you actually have.

When it doesn't

• When you're already over-monitoring yourself. Spoon counting can become its own anxiety; if you find yourself updating the tracker more often than you're living the day, close it.
• When the number is consistently below 5 for weeks. That's not a tracking problem, that's a flag.