How can you get these mood charts done easily?  With the least hassle for the most benefit? And without feeling like you’re choking on someone else’s rules and regs? One way is to use a day planner.  Any sort of date book will do. A cheap one is fine. The hideous thing to the left is my first first mood chart thingy. 

A day planner for mood tracking just has to have enough room to scribble a bit. Weekly or daily planners are usually best for having enough scribble room.

While I can write a blue streak here, the idea of writing out every medication and mood made me grit my teeth. So I started using a bunch of abbreviations for things that came up over and over. I’ve put a copy below of my basic handy little abbreviations to give you some ideas of ways you can abbreviate for yourself. You can click to “biggify” in a new window. 

I use abbreviations for my meds too.  TRI6 = Trileptal 600mg, LAM1 = Lamictal 100mg, and so on.   I just note new abbreviations in the front of it in case I forget down the road just what a “TRI” is.  

I note the meds stuff when I take them, which is one more way for me to keep track of whether I’ve taken my meds. I add the day’s general mood and energy stuff for the day when I take my evening meds, and hours of sleep the previous night when I take my morning meds.  Any unusual stuff that affected my mood, meds side effects, and the like gets put in whenever it makes sense to, often in the evening.

Here’s a scan of a day in the life of Immi to give you an idea of how a rough day for me when trying a new med looks.

A regular day doesn’t have all that stuff in the middle, just the smileys, arrows and numbers and meds.

Most days it takes me about 3 whole minutes to do the entire day’s mood charting. I found it worth it, once I found my own cheap and easy way to do it. Maybe my way will give you some ideas.