Mood charts can help clients identify emotional patterns by tracking feelings, intensity, and context over time.
Using precise emotion labels improves emotional awareness and supports better emotion regulation.
Mood tracking reveals how habits, environments, and relationships influence wellbeing.
Mood charts and mood journals can provide a clear and visual way to see how feelings shift across days, weeks, and situations (Schueller et al., 2021).
By recording what we are feeling (valence), how strong the feeling is (intensity), and what is happening around us (context), we begin to notice patterns we would otherwise miss.
Mood tracking with a mood chart is a simple yet effective way to identify which habits lift mood, what drains us, how sleep affects overall wellbeing, and how relationships affect how we feel (Faccio et al., 2019).
This article offers a selection of practical mood chart templates and journaling tools you can start using right away in your practice.
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An obvious benefit of mood charts is the ability to develop emotional granularity, the ability to identify and describe emotions in a precise, nuanced way rather than using broad labels such as “good” or “bad” (Widdershoven et al., 2019, Tan et al., 2022).
The ability to distinguish emotions and understand emotional complexity is an aspect of emotional intelligence and expertise (Wilson-Mendenhall & Dunne, 2021).
When clients can describe emotions using words such as disappointed, anxious, upset, nervous, or irritated, rather than simply saying “bad,” they can understand, regulate, and communicate their inner experience more accurately.
The ability to expand vocabulary beyond vague descriptions like “stressed” or “bad” to precise language like “overwhelmed by deadlines,” “demotivated by colleagues’ negativity,” or “disappointed in myself” matters tremendously.
Emotional granularity is strongly linked to better mental health, decision-making, and emotion regulation. Being able to name emotions precisely enables us to manage them effectively (Eckland & Berenbaum, 2021; Tan et al., 2022).
Mood charts help enhance emotional wellbeing across diverse populations. While they are effective in helping individuals manage their clinical conditions, they are also a supportive tool for personal growth, enabling individuals to experience positive emotions for longer and more often (Boghrati et al., 2024).
At the core, mood charts transform the invisible structure of emotions into visible data, a shift that can fundamentally change how people understand their emotions.
I have studied emotions for over 15 years and have tested several tools in my coaching practice, as well as in the corporate sector and with students in academia. Every time a client recognizes their emotions and sensations, placing them in context and developing situational awareness, it triggers a shift in their perception of emotions (Schueller et al., 2021).
Mood charts also bridge the gap between subjective experiences and objective understanding, enabling individuals to gain perspective and deep insight into themselves (Boghrati et al., 2024; Dubad et al., 2021).
The most fundamental benefit of mood charts in therapy is their ability to foster self-awareness and emotional intelligence (Schueller et al., 2021). Perhaps your client feels energized after morning exercise and depleted when skipping it.
As another example, a client may complain about anxiety whenever her parents visit, only to realize it is the anticipated fight, not the visit, that leads to the feeling of anxiousness.
Visualizing the invisible data also changes the conversation from “emotions are something that is happening to me” to “emotions are points of information” (Boghrati et al., 2024).
Real-time mood tracking helps address another problem your clients may face when looking back on emotions: memories are often inaccurate (Widdershoven et al., 2019).
When people log their mood in the moment, they capture what they’re truly feeling right then, rather than trying to piece it together when the details are blurred days later (Schueller et al., 2021).
In the therapeutic setting, mood charts facilitate communication and support a collaborative treatment plan (Dubad et al., 2021). Therapists also report that going over mood charts together made it easier to connect the dots between what the client feels and what is happening in their life.
These visual patterns often reveal links that don’t show up in conversation alone and can be especially helpful when planning how to prevent future setbacks.
What I learned from tracking my mood for one year!
An Overview of Simple Mood-Tracking Methods
Mood-tracking methods range from simple paper-and-pencil tools to digital apps. At the most basic level, a person can rate their mood once or several times a day. This can then be repeated over a week or a month or more.
Mood tracking methods may include:
Rating mood on a scale (1 to 10)
Labeling emotions (calm, anxious, etc.)
Noting sleep, activities and social interactions
Identifying triggers or significant events
Recording valence (how positive or negative they feel)
Noting intensity of experiences
Adding contextual information, such as medication
Some clients prefer daily handwritten notes, reporting that this gives them the opportunity to create daily slots to be present and stay mindful, as well as a sense of accomplishment when writing on paper.
Others prefer apps because they like being automatically prompted to pause and reflect, and choose different apps based on their personal preferences.
As a therapist, you might also use software with built-in privacy protection and a mood-tracking application that integrates directly with your current workflow.
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5 Mood Journals for Tracking Emotions
Let’s start with the bullet journal mood tracker, which is basically a do-it-yourself system that turns any notebook into a combined planner and emotion log.
The Bullet Journal method uses “rapid logging” with short, bulleted entries like tasks, events, and notes, plus simple symbols (signifiers) so people can quickly capture what happened and how they felt without having to go into detail (Carroll, 2018).
Core elements such as the Index, Future Log, Monthly Log, and Daily Log provide structure (Carroll, 2018). The Bullet Journal method leaves space for each page to be customized for goals, habit trackers, and dedicated mood-tracking spreads where colors or symbols can be used for different emotional states. It is a playful way of creating more self-awareness (Schueller et al., 2021).
An alternative to a physical notebook could be a virtual one, where clients can design their own bullet journal or use an existing template, such as:
The company Papier offers a wellness journal that is prestructured with reflective questions and a section on how you feel.
The Emotions Journal by switch is designed by therapists and offers a structured approach to reflect on the day and how you feel.
The Give Yourself Kindness Journal is a guided self-compassion mood journal that helps you notice, name, and explore your emotions through prompts rather than rigid tracking grids.
The journal offers research-informed questions, an emotion wheel, and space for reflection that allows for the validation of difficult feelings, the identification of needs, and the quieting of internal voices. This journal is especially useful for clients who are working on emotional awareness and kinder self-talk.
While journals offer flexibility and reflection, structured mood charts provide clearer visual tracking.
Printable Mood Chart for Adults
Here are several printable mood charts that can be helpful in your practice. Some of these may be adapted and given as handouts to your clients.
The SimplePractice Daily Mood Chart is a comprehensive clinical chart that tracks multiple dimensions over a seven-day period. It includes a notes section for events/observations to identify triggers and includes the following categories:
Energy levels
Mood rating
Sleep hours
Irritability (0 to 3 scale)
Movement/activity
This chart is widely used in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) settings and can be saved directly to electronic health records.
The Carepatron Mood Chart Template is a customizable yet basic chart with fields for mood rating, intensity, triggers, sleep, and activities. It is designed for therapists to share with clients, either digitally or in print. It also includes a built-in evaluation framework to help review patterns and triggers together in session.
The Therapist Aid Daily Mood Chart is a simple hourly tracker for the day, specifically designed for CBT interventions. Clients record emotions every two hours, rate intensity on a 1 to 10 scale, and note what was happening at that time. This mood chart helps clients recognize links between the surroundings, thoughts, and feelings.
The Therapist Aid Weekly Mood Chart features squares for each day where clients jot down brief notes like “anxious,” “happy,” or “can’t sleep (worrying)” along with a short reminder of daily activities for context.
The STABLE Resource Toolkit Daily Mood Chart, created by John O’Reardon, is a simple one-page tool to track your moods over an entire month. It is especially helpful for people experiencing bipolar disorder to notice patterns in mood, sleep, and triggers.
The main part of the chart is a grid. Across the top are the days of the month. Down the left side is a seven‑point mood scale that goes from +3 (very high/manic), through 0 (neutral/normal), to −3 (very low/depressed).
Each evening, the client marks their mood for that day by placing a dot on the scale. If their day includes both a high and a low mood, they can put two dots in that day’s column.
Under the mood grid, there are extra rows where they can track:
How many hours they slept each night
Their weight on the 14th and 28th of the month
Daily anxiety and irritability (each rated from 0 to 3)
Whether they took their medications as prescribed (with checkmarks)
Any alcohol use (marked as “A”) or unprescribed drug use (marked as “D”)
Altogether, this chart gives clients a clear, at-a-glance picture of how their mood, sleep, and habits change over the month.
This format supports pattern recognition of mood cycles, early‑warning signs, and the relationship between medication adherence, sleep, substance use, and mood swings, making it a collaborative clinical tool that reinforces patient education and engagement in managing the condition.
McGill University DIRECT-sc Mood Monitoring Sheets is a clinical-grade mood-monitoring tool developed by McGill University’s CANSMART research program as part of its depression self-care initiative.
It has three daily mood ratings for morning, afternoon, and evening on a 10-point scale, plus space to record relevant thoughts, activities, or events that influenced mood. These sheets are inspired by scales used in cognitive behavioral therapy and help identify mood-boosting activities and track progress over time.
All of these mood charts have been designed for use alongside therapeutic interventions and can support treatment decisions for your clients.
A mood chart helps you support your client in identifying patterns rather than focusing on individual days as good or bad. It helps clients notice what they felt, how strong the sensations were, the context in which they experienced the emotions, and their mood (Greenberger & Padesky, 2016; Padesky, 2020).
Here is what you need to focus on when interpreting a mood chart (Greenberger & Padesky, 2016):
Look for patterns over time, not individual moments.
What are the recurring and strong experiences?
What was the valence and intensity of an emotion in these patterns?
What was the outcome of these experiences?
Highlight recurring triggers that regularly lower mood.
Highlight mood lifters to identify what supports your clients’ regulation.
Differentiate between one-off spikes or dips from consistent trends.
Compare thoughts, interpretations, or self-talk to understand how meaning-making shapes emotional reactions.
Translate patterns into specific recommendations, such as adjusting sleep schedules, creating space for downtime, scheduling recovery time, and planning social time.
I had a client who believed her mother-in-law was triggering her, even though they got along well, and her help with the children was greatly appreciated. Nevertheless, my client felt anxious on days when her mother-in-law picked up the children from school.
By keeping a mood tracker, she realized that the anxiety wasn’t about the mother‑in‑law but about an internal standard around parenting and competence.
On the days her mother-in-law picked up the children, she unconsciously compared herself to an “ideal mother” and worried she was outsourcing too much or not doing enough, which manifested as anticipatory anxiety.
Other Mood Tracker Ideas: 3 Apps
Many clients prefer the convenience of tracking their mood on an app. From notifications to charts, availability and ease of use, there are many benefits to mood tracker apps. Here are out three top picks for mood tracking apps.
1. How We Feel
How We Feel was developed by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and is a beautiful visual mood-tracking app. It allows users to log valence, intensity, and context, and also offers science-based reflections, short regulation strategies, and clear pattern summaries to help understand and work with emotions over time.
Daylio is a highly visual, tap-based mood and activity tracker that lets users log how they feel throughout the day and then visualizes their emotional patterns in clear charts and stats. It works well for people who prefer minimal typing but still want a private, customizable micro journal to track mood, habits, and goals over time.
Headspace is primarily a meditation and mindfulness app that supports overall wellbeing. It allows users to track their mood while providing an array of tools to regulate their inner world and gain a deeper understanding of themselves and their environment.
It even offers CBT-informed exercises and sleep tools to help manage stress, anxiety, and mood.
These 17 Emotional Intelligence Exercises [PDF] will help others strengthen their relationships, lower stress, and enhance their wellbeing through improved EQ.
In coaching, I offer these sheets to help clients pay closer attention to what is impacting their mood and motivation.
I also find the Up and Down Activities worksheet very helpful. This worksheet helps clients review their recent activities and classify them as “up” (mood‑lifting) or “down” (mood‑lowering) so they can intentionally apply behavioral activation principles.
Musical Mood Mapping is honestly one of my favorite worksheets and tools. I have used this to create a list of songs I play before delivering talks to larger groups to help me stay focused and avoid anxious thoughts. The worksheet helps identify how music affects emotions, supporting clients in creating personalized playlists that promote emotion regulation and wellbeing.
If you’re looking for more science-based ways to help others develop emotional intelligence, this collection contains 17 validated EI tools for practitioners. Use them to help others understand and use their emotions to their advantage.
A Take-Home Message
Mood tracking isn’t about self-monitoring. It is about cultivating self-awareness and supporting people in building a kinder, more informed relationship with their inner world so they can make aligned choices every day.
By logging valence, intensity, and context, your clients can organize vague feelings into recognizable patterns, turning emotions from something that is suddenly happening into data they can work with.
Over time, the patterns in a mood chart reveal which and how habits, environments, and people impact your client, enabling you to provide targeted advice and support.
It doesn’t matter whether the tracking is done on a printable sheet, in a journal, or in an app; what matters is taking regular pauses to name the emotion, reflect, and let the insight shape future behavior.
Choose a tracking format that suits you well, such as a paper journal or an app. Decide on a check-in rhythm, such as every morning, and stick to it for at least a week. At that time, rate your emotions and try to specify what you are experiencing and provide a brief context. What were you doing? Was someone with you? What were you thinking about?
What is a mood journal?
A mood journal is a dedicated place where you can regularly note what you are feeling, how intensely you are feeling it, and what is happening around you. This helps you to see patterns in your emotions, thoughts, and behavior.
How can I make a mood-tracker journal?
You can use preexisting templates or a notebook to draw up a simple format you like with space for the date, emotion words, and a rating scale such as 1 to 10 or pleasant/unpleasant. Add a context field so you remember when you experienced the sensations.
References
Boghrati, R., Sharif, M. A., Yousefi, S., & Heydarian, A. (2024). Emotion tracking (vs. reporting) increases the persistence of positive (vs. negative) emotions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 110, Article 104556. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104556
Carroll, R. (2018). The bullet journal method: Track the past, order the present, design the future. Portfolio/Penguin.
Dubad, M., Elahi, F., & Marwaha, S. (2021). The clinical impacts of mobile mood-monitoring in young people with mental health problems: The MeMO study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12, Article 687270. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2021.687270
Eckland, N. S., & Berenbaum, H. (2021). Emotional awareness in daily life: Exploring its potential role in repetitive thinking and healthy coping. Behavior Therapy, 52(2), 338–349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2020.04.010
Faccio, E., Turco, F., & Iudici, A. (2019). Self-writing as a tool for change: The effectiveness of a psychotherapy using diary. Research in Psychotherapy: Psychopathology, Process and Outcome, 22(2), 256–264. https://doi.org/10.4081/ripppo.2019.378
Greenberger, D., & Padesky, C. A. (2016). Mind over mood: Change how you feel by changing the way you think (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Padesky, C. A. (2020). The clinician’s guide to CBT using mind over mood (2nd ed.). Guilford Press.
Schueller, S. M., Neary, M., Lai, J., & Epstein, D. A. (2021). Understanding people’s use of and perspectives on mood-tracking apps: Interview study. JMIR Mental Health, 8(8), Article e29368. https://doi.org/10.2196/29368
Tan, T. Y., Wachsmuth, L., & Tugade, M. M. (2022). Emotional nuance: Examining positive emotional granularity and well-being. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, Article 715966. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.715966
Widdershoven, R. L. A., Wichers, M., Kuppens, P., Hartmann, J. A., Menne-Lothmann, C., Simons, C. J. P., & Bastiaansen, J. A. (2019). Effect of self-monitoring through experience sampling on emotion differentiation in depression. Journal of Affective Disorders, 244, 71–77. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2018.10.092
Wilson-Mendenhall, C. D., & Dunne, J. D. (2021). Cultivating emotional granularity. Frontiers in Psychology, 12, Article 703658. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.703658
About the author
Dr. Kinga Mnich is a globally-minded Executive Coach, Social Psychologist, and Speaker who helps high-achievers lead with confidence, clarity, and emotional intelligence. With over 15 years of experience across academia, social impact, and leadership development, she integrates science-backed strategies with mindfulness and somatic tools to create meaningful, lasting change. Kinga brings a rich multicultural perspective to her work.
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Tom
on February 16, 2025 at 05:55
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on September 30, 2022 at 11:23
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Great article. Thank you for having so many choices, my daughter just came home from from a stay at a psychiatric center and is very creative. I am sure she will be able to choose one journal idea from this list.
There are a range of apps available for Apple and Android which allow you to track mood according to customized intervals. I’d take a look at some of the options listed here if you are interested. 🙂
Mood charts and mood journals can provide a clear and visual way to see how feelings shift across days, weeks, and situations (Schueller et al., 2021).
Here are several printable mood charts that can be helpful in your practice. Some of these may be adapted and given as handouts to your clients.
What our readers think
Agreed this was very helpful and informative. Great work on this.
I found your blog really really useful. This is very informative and genuine blog.cheers for writing this blog.
We appreciate you sharing your informative and simple-to-read blog with us. This post is excellent. You are one of the best bloggers I have read, I must say. I appreciate you publishing this useful article.
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Great article. Thank you for having so many choices, my daughter just came home from from a stay at a psychiatric center and is very creative. I am sure she will be able to choose one journal idea from this list.
Is there a mood tracker that tracks by the hour or at least 1/2 day
Thank you
Hi Grace,
There are a range of apps available for Apple and Android which allow you to track mood according to customized intervals. I’d take a look at some of the options listed here if you are interested. 🙂
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Amazing thing,and good application for the mood ring chart