# A Simple Mood Journal
Sometimes it's difficult to explain why you're feeling the way you do.
You might notice that you've been more anxious, irritable or low recently without being able to identify what has changed.
A mood journal is a simple way of slowing things down and noticing patterns.
Rather than writing pages about your day, you record a few pieces of information about how you felt, what was happening and what may have influenced your mood.
Over time, those small observations can help you understand yourself better.
What is a mood journal?
A mood journal is simply a record of your emotional experiences.
It might include:
- how you were feeling
- how strong the feeling was
- what was happening at the time
- thoughts that were going through your mind
- how you responded
- anything that seemed to help
You can keep one in a notebook, in your phone or using a digital journal.
It doesn't need to be detailed.
A useful mood entry can take less than two minutes.
Why track your mood?
Our memory isn't particularly good at giving us an objective picture of how we've felt over several weeks.
If today has been difficult, it can sometimes seem as though the entire week has been difficult.
A journal gives you something more concrete to look back on.
You may begin to notice patterns.
Perhaps your anxiety tends to increase on Sunday evenings.
Maybe your mood is lower after several nights of poor sleep.
Perhaps certain situations repeatedly leave you feeling stressed.
Or you may discover something positive — that your mood tends to improve after going outside, exercising, seeing someone or completing something you've been avoiding.
The purpose isn't to analyse every emotion.
It is to become curious about what influences how you feel.
Try this simple mood journal
Once or twice a day, pause and answer these questions.
1. How am I feeling?
Choose one or two words.
For example:
Calm. Anxious. Sad. Content. Irritated. Lonely. Hopeful. Frustrated. Tired. Excited.
Try to be more specific than simply good or bad.
There is no correct answer.
2. How strong is the feeling?
Give the emotion a number from 0 to 10.
0 means you barely notice it.
10 means it feels extremely intense.
For example:
Anxiety: 7/10
or:
Contentment: 6/10
The number doesn't need to be precise. It simply gives you a way of noticing changes over time.
3. What was happening?
Briefly describe the situation.
For example:
Preparing for tomorrow's presentation.
Having dinner with my family.
Driving home from work.
Sitting alone in the evening.
Try to describe what actually happened rather than what you think it meant.
4. What was going through my mind?
Notice any thoughts that appeared around the same time.
For example:
“I'm going to make a mistake tomorrow.”
“It was good to see everyone.”
“I have too much to do.”
“Nobody has contacted me today.”
You don't need to decide whether the thought is right or wrong.
For now, simply record it.
5. What did I do?
Notice how you responded.
Perhaps you:
avoided something
called someone
went for a walk
continued working
stayed in bed
watched television
asked for reassurance
took a break
Again, don't judge the behaviour.
You are collecting information.
6. What helped?
Finally, ask:
“Did anything make the situation even slightly easier?”
Perhaps talking to someone helped.
Maybe going outside changed your mood.
Perhaps completing one small task reduced the pressure.
Or maybe nothing seemed to help this time.
That's useful information too.
An example
Here's what a completed entry might look like:
Mood: Anxious
Intensity: 7/10
Situation: Preparing a presentation for tomorrow.
Thought: “I'll forget what I want to say and everyone will notice.”
What I did: Kept rewriting the first few slides instead of finishing the presentation.
What helped: Took a ten-minute walk and then worked on the next section rather than trying to make the beginning perfect.
Mood afterwards: Anxiety 5/10
Notice that the aim wasn't to eliminate the anxiety.
The journal simply helped identify what was happening and what made a difference.
Your quick mood check-in
If you want an even simpler version, use these five prompts:
How do I feel?
How strong is it? — 0 to 10
What happened?
What was I thinking?
What do I need right now?
That is enough.
A mood journal doesn't need to become another task on your to-do list.
Look for patterns, not individual bad days
After keeping your journal for a week or two, look back through your entries.
Don't analyse every sentence.
Instead, look for repeated patterns.
Ask yourself:
When does my mood tend to be better?
When does it tend to be worse?
Are there particular situations that repeatedly affect me?
Are there thoughts that appear frequently?
Does sleep seem to make a difference?
What activities tend to help?
Who do I tend to feel better after spending time with?
What am I doing when I feel most like myself?
You may begin to see connections that weren't obvious while you were experiencing them.
Don't track only difficult emotions
A mood journal can easily become a catalogue of everything that went wrong.
Try to record positive experiences too.
Notice when you feel:
relaxed
interested
connected
proud
grateful
energised
content
Then ask the same question:
“What was happening when I felt this way?”
Understanding what supports your wellbeing can be just as valuable as understanding what makes things difficult.
Try adding three simple factors
If you want to explore your patterns in a little more detail, add three quick ratings to each day:
Sleep: Poor / OK / Good
Energy: 0–10
Stress: 0–10
After a couple of weeks, you may notice useful connections.
For example:
Poor sleep → lower energy → more irritability
or:
High workload → increased stress → difficulty sleeping
These patterns won't necessarily prove that one thing caused another, but they can give you useful questions to explore.
Avoid turning your journal into a scorecard
Mood tracking should help you understand yourself, not judge yourself.
A day with anxiety at 8/10 isn't a failed day.
And your goal isn't to achieve:
Happiness: 10/10
every day.
Emotions naturally change.
Sometimes sadness is an understandable response to loss.
Sometimes anxiety appears when something genuinely matters to us.
Sometimes frustration tells us that something needs attention.
The aim is not to remove uncomfortable emotions from your life.
It is to become better at recognising them and understanding what they may be telling you.
When journaling isn't helpful
Mood journaling doesn't suit everyone.
If you find yourself repeatedly checking your mood, worrying about every change or becoming more focused on difficult feelings because you are tracking them, take a break.
You can also make the exercise less frequent.
Instead of checking several times a day, try one short entry in the evening or a few entries each week.
A wellbeing exercise should support you, not become another source of pressure.
Try it for seven days
You don't need to commit to keeping a journal indefinitely.
Try it for one week.
Once each day, record:
Mood
Intensity: 0–10
Situation
Thought
Response
What helped
At the end of the week, spend five minutes looking back through your entries.
Then ask yourself one final question:
“What have I noticed about myself that I didn't notice before?”
You don't need to change anything immediately.
Sometimes noticing the pattern is the first useful step.
This exercise is intended as a general wellbeing tool and isn't a substitute for professional mental health or medical care. If tracking your mood causes distress, stop the exercise. If persistent changes in mood are significantly affecting your everyday life, consider speaking with your GP or a qualified mental health professional.