Hearing Tip: Keep a Journal of Rest Breaks

Here is a useful exercise you can do to prepare for your hearing:  keep a journal of everything you do from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, including every time you take a break.  

Don’t worry.  You do not have to turn this in to anyone, not to your lawyer (although he or she should be aware that you are keeping the journal), and not to Social Security.  This is just for yourself.

But what good is it? 

At the hearing, the judge will ask you a number of questions about “Activities of Daily Living” or ADLs.  This includes some of the following:

• Can you drive a car?
• Can you cook a meal?
• Can you buy groceries?
• Can you make a bed?
• Can you do laundry?

Your disability might completely prevent you from doing some of these activities, but it is more likely that your disability limits how often, for how long, and how well you can do them.  

If the judge ask you, “how long can you cook?”  How would you answer?

If you say, “not very long,” you have not given the judge much of an answer.  Did you mean a few minutes, half an hour, two hours?  Do you want the judge to guess what you mean.  

In my experience with Social Security hearings in Colorado, it is critical that you can state exactly how long you are able to perform an activity before you need to take a break.  So you need to know how long you can stand before you need to sit down.

Try keeping a journal for a few days, then answer the following questions:

• Between 8am and 5pm, how many hours do you spend actively doing things?
• How much time do you spend, resting, lying down or taking breaks.