Overview
Everyone experiences emotional ups and downs — it’s a natural part of being human. But when low moods, anxiety or irritability start to interfere with daily life, understanding those feelings becomes crucial. One of the most effective yet simple ways to gain insight into your mental health is by tracking your daily mood.
It helps you identify patterns, triggers, and emotional cycles. Over time, this self-awareness becomes a powerful tool for managing your mental wellbeing.
Requirements
There are several ways you can track your mood and what exactly you’re tracking.
Traditionally, pen and paper is a good starting point and gives you that flexibility to write freely and track what you want to track.
What we are seeing more of are Mood Tracking Apps. Most of them are free on App Stores with Subscriptions to access more features. Be aware that some things you want to track might be behind a paywall.
Mood tracking is a useful tool if you are doing it near daily, over the course of several months. Apps can provide daily notifications to quickly score where you’re at with things.
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How to
Step 1: What do you want to track?
There are lots of factors which influence mood.
As well as naming individual emotions, consider tracking your eating habits, sleeping patterns and daily activities.
Over time, you will notice how other life-factors impact your mood.
Step 2: Ask yourself open and closed questions
- “How am I feeling today?”
- “What have triggered these emotions?”
- “Why am I feeling this way?”
- “Why is my mood better today than yesterday?”
- “Am I okay (safe) in myself?”
Step 3: Score your overall mood every day
For example, 0 being the worst mood possible, 10 being the best mood possible.
Score your overall mood honestly. When you look back through your tracking, you want to trust yourself that the information you have provided is accurate.
Step 4: Understanding trends
Usually, if your depressed for example, your score will be low and flat across most weeks. If you have mood-swings, you will notice highs and lows in your scoring.
If you are recording your sleep patterns, eating habits and life-events, you will notice your mood will be affected in some way.
When something happens, don’t expect your mood to change immediately. In some people, feelings and emotions can surface days or weeks later. Those who may have experienced trauma years previously can experience difficulties in mood management years later.
Download our Free Mood Tracker
If you don’t know where to begin, our free Mood Tracker PDF can be downloaded and printed.
Each copy lasts a week and allows you to record your AM and PM mood levels, daily anxiety and irritability levels, as well as how much sleep your getting in hours.
Additional
At first, it can be a very difficult to form the habit of tracking your mood. Find a routine you can easily stick to and build upon.
This coping strategy becomes a more useful tool over time the longer you do it. If you commit for the long-term, you will see long-term benefits.
If you need some help to begin tracking your mood, we can support you finding the tools you need. Just contact us.