Mental health · a life skill
Simple Mood Tracking
a number and a word, once a day
Moods move like weather, and memory is a poor forecaster of last week. The simplest version of the skill takes under a minute: once a day, at the same moment, give the day a number from 1 to 5 and one word for how it felt. After seven days you have a strip you can read, instead of a feeling about how the week went.
- Easy
- Medium impact
- Learn it: 1 week
- Under a minute a day
Asked on Sunday night, Sam would have called it a rough week. The strip shows 2 low days and 3 at 4 or better. Seven entries made on the day don't depend on memory, which is where a summary written at the end of the week goes wrong.
The method
One moment, one number, one word.
-
Pick one moment a day
Tie it to something you already do each evening, like clearing the table or brushing your teeth. The same moment each day keeps the days comparable.
-
Rate the day from 1 to 5
The day as a whole, not the last hour. Give the first number that comes; you're noting the day, not grading it.
-
Name it in one word
Tired, tense, settled, proud. One word, not a sentence. Finding the word is the part that makes you look at the feeling.
-
Read the week, once a week
Look at the seven days together on Sunday, not every evening. A week shows a shape that one hard day hides.
Same moment, a number, a word, and one look a week.
Example: Sam checks in after dinner. By Sunday the words read flat, tired, settled, tense, relieved, light, restless. The average is 3.3, and 3 of the 7 days were 4 or better. The two low days, Tuesday and Thursday, were tired and tense: both words about the body, which gives Sam something to look at next week.
This is for noticing, not diagnosing. If low mood lasts most of the day, nearly every day, for two weeks or more, talk to a doctor (NHS, NIMH). If thoughts of harming yourself come up, talk to someone today: in the US call or text 988, in the UK call Samaritans on 116 123, and elsewhere find a free line near you.
The daily check-in
Log today, and watch the week fill in.
1 · Which day
Missed one? Yesterday is fine if you still remember it. Further back, leave the gap.
2 · How was it, 1 to 5
3 · One word for it
The first word that fits. If none comes, try the naming practice.
4 · Your last seven days
Nothing logged yet
Everything here is kept only in this browser. Nothing is sent anywhere, and clearing your browser's site data removes it. Ready for more than a number? Add energy and context.
The research behind it
Putting a feeling into a word takes some of the heat out of it.
Matthew Lieberman and colleagues at UCLA showed people upsetting pictures and asked them to do different things while they looked: just watch, name the feeling, rethink the picture, or think about something else. In four studies, people reported less distress while naming the feeling than while just watching, about as much relief as the two deliberate strategies gave.
The surprise was that people didn't believe it. Even after they had felt the difference, they predicted that naming a feeling would make them feel worse. Naming also took the edge off pleasant pictures, so it seems to turn the volume down rather than only soothe.
An earlier brain-scanning study found the same thing from the inside: labeling the feeling lowered the response of the amygdala, a region that reacts to emotional images, and raised activity in a part of the right prefrontal cortex.
The daily timing comes from a different line of work. Reports made in the moment, known as ecological momentary assessment, avoid the recall bias that creeps into a summary written days later. These were lab studies and research tools, not trials of a mood diary; the evidence on tracking itself is on the next level.
The idea
Why it works.
The number is for the shape. Seven of them, made on the day, show whether a week was mostly hard or had two hard days in it, which is the question memory answers worst.
The word is for the texture. A 2 that says “tired” and a 2 that says “lonely” ask for different things, and finding the word means looking at the feeling for a moment instead of carrying it around unnamed.
When it goes wrong
Habits that help.
- You keep forgetting. Move the check-in next to something you never skip, and keep this page or a note on your phone's home screen.
- Every day is a 3. That's fine; let the word carry the difference. If the number never moves for a month, try rating just the evening instead of the day.
- It starts to feel like brooding. Keep it to the number and the word, and close the page. If the thoughts keep circling, interrupt the loop.
- A low run worries you. The log is useful to bring to a doctor, and you don't need to wait for two weeks to ask for help.
Practise this in HourLife.
In Mood: Five-face check-in. Log how you feel on a five-face scale, add a note and triggers, and see your days on a calendar, a year grid, and a 30-day trend.
