Mood trackers are a great way of stepping into mindfulness and understanding yourself better. Now that it is January, it is time to reflect on your goals and aspirations but also your mental health. Maintaining a mood tracker can do just that for you and so much more.
In fact, if you have maintained a bullet journal or would like to start off, it can be the perfect place to track your mood. One of the benefits of a bullet journal is that you can decide on what pages you want to add. One of those pages should be a gratitude and mood tracker for which you can use the free printables that I have created for this post.
Mood trackers can make you self aware which can be beneficial in the long run. Using the mood trackers you can take a step back and reflect on how you are progressing emotionally. Your mood can have a huge influence on your daily activities. From work to everyday life, I have been in situations where I do not have the “mood” to do something, and I have no idea why. Since I started using mood trackers, the process has become smooth.
In this article, I will take you through the steps of practising mindfulness and tracking your mood patterns such that you start your January strong with a mood tracker and be able to stay on top of the game.
I have also provided you with different styles of free mood tracker templates to choose from which you can download from the free resource library. All you need to do is subscribe for free 🙂 You also get other free printables apart from the templates shown here.
What is a mood tracker?
A mood tracker is a single or multiple page document where you can visualize your mood patterns for the month and make assertive decisions on becoming mindful of your actions. Having knowledge of your mood patterns can be powerful in helping you make decisions about whether you need to slow down or speed up and get a gauge of your overall feelings.
A mood tracker can come in a variety of templates. You can have a simplistic mood tracker with just a way of tracking how your overall mood was for the day and then sum it up to get a reflection of your mood for the month.
You can also have a more detailed version of a tracker where you can track your mood with other parameters and at the end of the month get a detailed expression of your mood.
Why use a mood tracker?
Using a mood tracker on a daily basis can have a variety of benefits. It can help you understand your emotional triggers and positive emotions that can influence your days. Understanding your mood can help with not only your daily routine but also:
- Physical fitness
- Surroundings
- Work routine
- Everyday routine
- Sleep pattern
Through a mood log, you can distinguish your good days from the bad days and make an informed decision on how you would like to spend the upcoming days on an emotional level. This also gives you an idea of what makes up your positive days, and how you can continue the streak.
A mood planner and tracker is a great first step towards self-improvement. And now that it is January, what better time to start the habit?
Along with using templates for mood trackers, you should also look towards getting a new planner to manage your daily tasks and routines. You can check out my article on setting up a planner to get started. I also provide free daily, weekly and monthly templates.
Monthly Mood Reflection – Practising Mindfulness
Let me ask you a question, have you asked yourself how have you been feeling recently? Having an idea of your mood changes can help you reset your approach for the coming days.
So, before you start practising mindfulness for January (or any other month), let’s take a step back and reflect on the past year. If you have been mood tracking for the past year, go back to your previous sheets and look at where you stand. If not, try to recall how you felt during the different months of the past year. Answer the following questions:
- What made you happy the last year?
- What activities did you enjoy and dislike in the past year that impacted your emotions?
- Try to recall the number of times you had moments of burnout or extreme procrastination and put them down as months. How did you feel at the time which caused these?
Using these points you can then plan out what kind of mood template sheet you would like to use for your January mood tracker.
Daily mood tracker
Daily mood trackers are great for recording everyday emotions and moods. Having a daily mood tracker and using it towards the end of the day for reflection can have a great impact on your life.
The daily free printable mood tracker you can see below comes with 3 sections
- Daily Gratitude
- Habit tracker
- Mood tracker
For the section on daily gratitude, you should write down what you are grateful for. It keeps you in the present moment and thankful for what you have in life.
The habit tracker section is a great place to have all your habits aligned. You can track the no of glasses you drank in the day, your morning exercise routine and all other habits that you would like to build in the month of January and all the days to come.
The mood tracker also has a legend for different colors which you can use to keep track of your daily moods that you experience throughout the day. By shading them with the colors you can make a good reflection of all your moods for the month.
Looking at the color that filled up most of the month, you will be able to gauge your different mood experiences. You can get this free mood tracker printable from the free resource library as a PDF which can either be printed or used on an iPad.
Weekly mood tracker with printable
A weekly tracker is slightly different from a daily mood tracker. In a weekly tracker, you can look back at your week directly and get an idea of your different moods. The weekly tracker that I have included in the free mood tracker printables list includes 3 main sections
- Water intake tracker
- Weekly mood tracker
- Gratitude tracker
In the water intake tracker, you can write down the total glasses you drank during all the days of the week. This will give you a good idea of how you should plan your water intake for the upcoming week.
In the weekly tracker, you can keep track of your mood based on the specific colors mentioned in the legend of moods given in the tracker. You will then be able to get a good scope of your week directly on just one page. The color key can be selected to be anything you want. It can also be just an etching if you want to keep it simple or even a pattern.
I have also added a tracker for looking back at your feelings of gratitude for each day of the week. The legend can be coloured based on colors of your choice which makes the tracker personalised to your liking.
Monthly mood tracker with printable
With the monthly mood tracker, you can look back any any month of the year and trace back your steps to see how your mood was. This is perfect because you can get a glance at the entire month in just one go.
The page however will not be as detailed as a daily or weekly tracker but can be used along with the others to get a summary of each month. In fact, I usually use a monthly mood tracker at the end of the month to look back at the entire month. Using this I make an informed decision on how I will approach the coming days.
In the monthly mood tracker, the main sections I included are:
- Mood tracker
- Month summary
- Gratitude
In the mood tracker, I usually just use the legend of different emotions shown through emoticons to gauge my moods on a daily basis can reflect my mood for the month.
I then use the monthly section to add what I would like to change in the coming month and what I enjoyed in the current month.
In the gratitude section, I give a one-two-word description of what I felt grateful for in the week.
This monthly mood tracker also has a mood chart where you can describe each day as a summary of one mood. The mood chart makes it simple to put together emotions for the month rather than using a complicated approach.
The monthly mood tracker also makes it easy to look back at the entire year and see how you are feeling. Sometimes with our busy schedules, we can get lost in the details. This is an uncomplicated way to collect your emotions and take the right direction in the upcoming year.
Types of mood trackers with printable
I have listed the three main types of mood trackers in the section above. In this section, I have created cute mood tracker templates that will be fun to use and fall into one of the categories above. You can then choose which tracker is the best mood tracker for you and use any of the templates for free. All you need to do is subscribe to the free resource library.
If you want to know organized ways to maintain a bullet journal, you can check out my article on cute DIY for bullet journals. They can also be used as planner printables which can either be used on an iPad or as a planner insert.
1. Mandala mood tracker Printable
A mandala is a symmetric design that traces back to Hinduism and Buddhism and is used for meditative practices. It can be a great monthly tracker for your mood and can provide a soothing way to understand your emotions which makes it my personal favorite from the lot.
The mandala tracker provided here is a perfect planner printable that can be inserted into your planner. It can be used as a digital planner on your iPad or as a printable.
It has 31 days on the outer circle such that it can accommodate all days of the month including a leap year. You can choose your own color key and name them according to your own moods. These moods can be happy, sad, angry, uneasy, annoyed, upset, mild etc.
2. Color Mood Tracker Printable
The color mood tracker uses vibrant colors to describe your moods. This design is simple and includes day and month on top of the page. This can be used for any month including January.
In this tracker, you can have each mood and personalize it as per different sections. You can also personalize the color code key which fits your own personality and preferences. Making it personalized to your tastes would make you use it more frequently.
To track your mood, shade next to the colour in the bar as per how you feel for each emotion.
3. Minimalist Floral Mood Tracker Printable
The floral tracker utilizes different types of flowers to describe your moods. I have put four flowers to showcase your moods
- Rose – Angry
- Marigold – Happy
- Lily – Sad
- Hibiscus – Annoyed
You can use each of the flowers shown at the bottom of the page to mark how you feel in each of the day. Looking back at it, you will visually be able to match your mood to the month.
4. Minimalist Mood Tracker Printable
This tracker is a minimalist mood tracker that has the most basic of inputs to be used by a mood tracker. You also have a section to write down 5 things that make you feel good.
This can provide you with an overall look at the month and provide a path for self-improvement.
5. Winter Mood Tracker Printable
This mood tracker is themed for the winter. You have snowflakes and other winter items to track your mood and get the winter vibrance into your tracker. This is a monthly planner that can be used for the months of January, February and March
6. Rain Cloud Mood Tracker Printable
This soothing weekly mood tracker is one of my favorites. It reminds me of the soothing sound of rain, and makes my mood better just by looking at it.
I have also provided a section of affirmations where you can put in your favorite lines along with tracking your mood for the week.
7. Mermaid Tail Mood Tracker Printable
This is a unique mood tracker where you track your mood based on the color of mermaid tails. This is a funky template that you can use to track your daily mood.
You can also customize this free template by writing down the moods you think will be most relevant to you. This mood tracker is aesthetic and pretty at the same time.
8. Themed Mood Trackers with Printable
I wanted to introduce a themed mood tracker where you could track your month based on the theme you provided that month.
I have put in the theme of ‘magic land’ for the month of January which goes perfectly with the magic and positivity that the new year brings us. This tracker is a variation of a monthly tracker which can be customized to the moods relevant to you.
9. Cute Mood Tracker Printable
Using this mood tracker you can customize the template with the moods that are personalized to you. Just fill in the moods under the section of ‘Mood Tracker’ and then tick the ones you feel during the week of the month.
This tracker also acts like a gratitude monthly journal. You can also add the number of glasses of water you drank each week which I have found to be a helpful metric in tracking my daily health.
You can select any of these mood trackers to understand yourself better and track your mood throughout the year starting with January. Most of the trackers have a blank space at the top of the page where you can put any month or week of your choice and repeat the pages as per your wish.
Try to use the trackers for the whole year and see if monitoring your emotions and mindfulness had any impact on your mental well being. Through my own personal use of these trackers, I realise the importance of mental health awareness and how mood tracking can give positive results.
This can be helpful to different people in different ways. All you need to do is to take the first step and start your journey towards mindfulness.
Don’t forget, you can get all these templates and more for your mood log from the FREE RESOURCE LIBRARY. All you need to do is subscribe to get the password
You can also check out my article on other planner printables to get started right this year!