Your own data
Mood & Energy Tracker
Three numbers, one tag and a sentence — twenty seconds a day. After a few weeks it will tell you more about your own rhythms than any generic forecast can.
Today's prompt
Which part of today would you happily repeat tomorrow?
mood
Even
energy
Steady
clarity
Workable
Tags
In short
Log mood, energy and clarity in twenty seconds a day, tagged and matched to the moon phase, then read your own streaks, weekday patterns and drains against restorers.
- Energy and mood usually diverge before anything goes wrong — a run of high mood with low energy is worth noticing early.
- Weekday averages are often the most actionable output: a reliably bad Wednesday is a schedule problem, not a mood problem.
- Log the ordinary days. Only recording extremes produces a distorted picture of your own baseline.
- If you break the streak, log today rather than backfilling a week you cannot honestly remember.
20 sec
Time per entry
3
Scales tracked
~20
Entries before patterns
29.5 d
Lunar cycle length
Origins
Self-tracking predates the app store by several centuries. Benjamin Franklin ruled a grid of thirteen virtues and marked a dot against each failure daily; commonplace books, ships' logs and Victorian weather diaries all rest on the same instinct — that a memory of how the last month felt is far less reliable than a record of it.
Mood charting entered clinical use in the twentieth century for exactly that reason. Retrospective recall is heavily biased by the present moment: ask someone on a bad Tuesday how their month has been and they will describe a bad month. A daily line written at the time reduces that hindsight bias, though it still reflects the mood of the moment.
Tying the log to the lunar phase is the astrological contribution, and it is worth being honest about it. The evidence for a lunar effect on mood in the general population is weak. What a moon-tagged log does reliably do is give you a neutral thirty-day frame to notice your own cycles against, which is useful whether or not the Moon has anything to do with it.
The Method
Log at the same time each day
Evening works best for most people. Consistency matters far more than accuracy on any single day.
Rate quickly
First instinct on all three scales. Deliberating produces a number about your self-image rather than your day.
Tag sparingly
One or two tags. A day tagged with everything tells you nothing when you look back.
Write one line
A single specific sentence — 'declined the extra shift' — is worth more in six weeks than a paragraph of feeling.
Read the patterns monthly, not daily
Below about twenty entries every apparent pattern is noise. Resist interpreting the first fortnight.
Act on one finding
A tracker that never changes a behaviour is a diary. Pick the clearest drain and remove one instance of it.
Practice Notes
- Energy and mood usually diverge before anything goes wrong — a run of high mood with low energy is worth noticing early.
- Weekday averages are often the most actionable output: a reliably bad Wednesday is a schedule problem, not a mood problem.
- Log the ordinary days. Only recording extremes produces a distorted picture of your own baseline.
- If you break the streak, log today rather than backfilling a week you cannot honestly remember.
- Cross-reference with your journal entries — a reading that landed hard usually sits beside a distinctive day.
Myth & Truth
Commonly said
The Moon controls your mood.
In practice
There is no good evidence for that. The lunar tag is a neutral cycle to notice your own rhythms against.
Commonly said
Tracking will make you self-obsessed.
In practice
Twenty seconds a day is less rumination than most people spend re-reading one message. The structure tends to reduce circling, not increase it.
Commonly said
You need months of data before it is useful.
In practice
The daily prompt is useful on day one. The patterns need about three weeks.
Commonly said
Numbers make feelings objective.
In practice
They make them comparable, which is different and enough.
Questions Readers Ask
Where is my data stored?
Entirely in your own browser's local storage. Nothing is uploaded, and clearing your browser data removes it.
What do the scales mean?
One is the worst version of that day for you, five the best. They are personal scales, not a clinical instrument.
Can I log a past day?
Yes — change the date before saving. Try not to go back more than a couple of days.
Is this a mental health tool?
No. It is offered for reflection and entertainment and is not a substitute for medical or psychological advice.
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