How to track your mood: a simple daily mood diary and Year in Pixels

Why track your mood?

Memory is a poor record of how we've felt. A single bad day can colour a whole week, and a good fortnight is easily forgotten. A quick daily log gives you something more reliable to look back on. Over time it can help you:

• Notice patterns, such as feeling flatter after short nights or brighter on days you get outside.
• See progress that's hard to feel day to day.
• Put a hard patch in context: "this happened in March too, and it passed".
• Describe how you've been if you decide to talk to a friend, a GP or a counsellor.

How to start a mood diary

1. Pick a simple scale. Five levels is the sweet spot: enough to show a difference, few enough to choose in a second. For example Rad, Good, Meh, Bad and Awful.
2. Choose a regular time. The evening works for most people, because you can sum up the whole day. Linking it to something you already do, such as brushing your teeth, helps it stick.
3. Rate the day as a whole, not just the last hour. If it was mixed, pick the middle, or log twice.
4. Add a few tags. What you did, who you saw, how you slept. Tags are what turn a list of moods into patterns.
5. Write a line if you want to. One sentence is enough. It's optional, and skipping it is better than skipping the day.

What to tag

Start with a handful of tags that might matter to you, and add more later. Common ones:

Don't try to tag everything. Ten or fifteen tags you actually use are worth more than fifty you scroll past.

What is a Year in Pixels?

A Year in Pixels is a grid with one small square for every day of the year, each coloured by that day's mood. It started as a paper bullet-journal idea and works beautifully on a screen: by December you can see good and hard stretches at a glance, like a weather map of your year.

Spotting patterns sensibly

After two or three weeks you'll have enough entries to start looking back. Compare the tags on your good days with the rest. Keep in mind:

• Patterns aren't causes. You might feel better on days you exercise, or exercise more on days you already feel better.
• Small samples mislead. Three good Fridays aren't a trend. Wait for a month or two.
• Try small changes, such as an earlier night or a short walk, and see if the colours shift.

Tracking your mood in Mood Pixels

Mood Pixels is built to take two taps a day.

• Tap the big +, pick one of five faces (or slide to find it), then add activities and an optional note or photo. You can rename, recolour or swap the face for each level.
• Activities come in groups such as Emotions, Sleep, Social, Health, Hobbies, Food and Weather. Edit them, remove what you don't use and add your own.
• See it back as a mood calendar, charts, streaks and your Year in Pixels, which you can share as an image.
• Stats show which activities tend to go with your better days, and weekly goals let you aim for more of something, like a walk three times a week.
• A gentle reminder nudges you at your chosen time while the app is open.

Logging, the calendar, charts, stats, streaks and Year in Pixels are free, with no ads and no account. Mood Pixels Pro ($2.99 once) adds patterns explained in plain words, a mood forecast and a monthly letter. Entries stay on your device; you can add a 4-digit PIN lock, export a CSV and back up to a file.

When to talk to someone

A mood diary is a tool for noticing, not a diagnosis or a treatment. Everyone has low days. But if your diary shows you've felt down, anxious or numb most days for two weeks or more, or it's getting in the way of daily life, it's worth talking to your GP or doctor. Your diary can make that conversation easier.

Common mistakes

• Making it a chore. Long entries every night rarely last. Two taps do.
• Only logging bad days, or only good ones. The comparison is the useful part.
• Giving up after a gap. Missed a week? Just log today.
• Reading too much into a week. Look for patterns across months.