Daily Mood and Activity Log

This structured daily log provides a simple framework for tracking your mood and activities throughout the day. Keeping a regular record of what you do and how you feel helps identify patterns and connections between your activities and your emotional state — information that is invaluable for therapy and for your own self-understanding.

For each time block in the day (morning, afternoon, evening), record what you were doing, who you were with, and rate your mood on a scale of zero to ten. Additionally, rate each activity for pleasure (how enjoyable it was) and mastery (how much of an achievement it felt). Over a week or two, patterns will emerge: you may discover that your mood consistently dips in the evenings when you are alone, or that certain activities provide a reliable mood boost that you had not previously recognised.

This data forms the basis of behavioural activation planning. By identifying the activities that positively affect your mood, you and your therapist can plan to increase the frequency of these activities. Similarly, identifying activities or situations that consistently lower your mood allows you to develop strategies for managing or modifying those situations.

Consistency is more important than detail. A brief note three times a day is more useful than an elaborate entry done sporadically. Set a reminder on your phone for morning, afternoon, and evening to prompt your entries, and bring your completed logs to your therapy sessions for review.