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Bullet journal mood tracker ideas: 15 layouts, colors and tips

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A bullet journal mood tracker is a page where you record how each day felt, usually with one color per day. The most popular layouts are the Year in Pixels (one small square for every day of the year), a monthly grid of 28 to 31 squares, and themed drawings like leaves, petals or tiles that you color in one by one. You choose a color for each mood in a key, and fill in one shape each evening.

Below are 15 mood tracker ideas to draw on paper, how to pick your colors and moods, and how to keep the tracker light. A mood tracker is a personal record, not a health tool, and this page is not medical advice.

What a mood tracker is, and what it isn't

A mood tracker is one of the most popular collections in bullet journaling. It turns a month or a year into a colored picture of how your days went, and many people enjoy looking back at it.

The best-known version, the Year in Pixels, was created by Camille, a French bullet journaler, and described on the official Bullet Journal blog. Her grid had 12 columns for the months and 31 rows for the days, colored with five colors. She explained that she didn't track each emotion separately, but "how I perceive the day in its entirety".

There's a limit worth knowing. Lindsay Braman, a therapist who writes about journaling, points out that moods shift through a day, so squeezing a complex day into a single color loses information. Her suggestion is to leave room for more than one feeling and a line or two of words. Several layouts below do exactly that.

A note on wellbeing. A mood tracker can help you notice how your days have been going. It can't diagnose or treat anything. If your mood worries you, or has been low for a while, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional. In the US, you can call or text 988 to reach the 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at any time.

How to set up a mood tracker

  1. Choose the time frame. A month is easier to start with. A year makes a beautiful page if you keep it up.
  2. Pick five to seven moods. Fewer moods make choosing faster.
  3. Assign a color to each. Write the key next to the tracker.
  4. Draw the layout. One shape per day.
  5. Fill it in at the same time every day. Evening works for most people.
  6. Look back at the end of the month. Notice, don't judge.

Mood tracker colors and moods

There's no right palette. Camille's original Year in Pixels used red, orange, yellow, green and blue, and many of her readers argued about which end should mean a good day. Choose what feels natural to you.

Some ideas:

  • A five-step scale. From "great" to "awful", in five shades of one color. Simple and easy to read at a glance.
  • Mood words. Happy, calm, energetic, tired, anxious, sad, irritated. One color each.
  • Energy and mood. Color for the mood, a dot for high energy.
  • Pastels. Soft colors for a gentle-looking page.
  • Two colors per shape. Split each square diagonally for days with two moods.

Keep the key short. If you hesitate for a minute every evening, there are too many choices.

15 bullet journal mood tracker ideas

Grids and calendars

1. The Year in Pixels. Twelve columns for the months, 31 rows for the days, one square per day. Fill it in each evening. At the end of the year, the whole year fits on one spread.

     J F M A M J J A S O N D
 1   ■ ■ ■ □ ...
 2   ■ ■ □ ...
 3   ■ □ ...
...
31   ■   ■   ■   ■ ■   ■   ■

2. The monthly grid. A row or block of 28 to 31 numbered squares on your monthly page. Quick to draw, and it sits right next to your events.

3. The colored calendar. No separate tracker: color the date numbers in your monthly log. The least work of all.

4. The weekly strip. Seven squares along the bottom of your weekly spread. Good if you live in your weekly pages more than your monthly ones.

Shapes that fill in

5. The circle. A circle divided into 28 to 31 slices, like a pie or a clock. Color one slice per day.

6. Leaves on a branch. Draw a branch with one leaf per day. In autumn, use autumn colors. It's one of the most pinned mood trackers for a reason.

7. Flower petals. One flower per week, seven petals, or one big flower with a petal per day.

8. Balloons. A bunch of balloons, one per day, each colored by mood.

9. Mosaic tiles. A stained-glass window or a tile pattern divided into 31 pieces. More drawing at the start, very satisfying to finish.

10. A seasonal theme. Snowflakes in January, hearts in February, raindrops in April, shells in summer, pumpkins in October. Match the drawing to the month's theme.

Mood trackers with more room

11. Morning and evening. Two half-squares per day, one for the morning and one for the evening. It answers the problem that moods change through a day.

12. Color plus one line. A square for the color, and one line beside it: the moment that shaped the day. It's half tracker, half diary, and it's the layout that makes the best reading a year later.

13. A word a day. Instead of a color, write one word per day: calm, rushed, proud, flat. A list of 31 words says a lot.

14. The mood graph. A small line chart with five levels up the side and the days along the bottom. Mark a dot each day and join them.

15. Mood next to sleep and weather. Three narrow columns per day: mood color, hours slept, and a weather symbol. You may notice your own patterns, for example tired days after short nights. Treat what you see as personal observations, not conclusions.

Tips to keep a mood tracker light

  • Fill it in at a set time. Linking it to something you already do, like setting tomorrow's alarm, makes it automatic. The same trick works for the habit trackers many people keep on the facing page.
  • Allow mixed days. Two colors, a split square, or a word. A mood tracker should fit your day, not the other way around.
  • Skip days without guilt. An empty square is fine. Fill in today, not last week from memory.
  • Don't grade yourself. A tracker full of low days isn't a failure. It's information you can share with someone you trust, or with a professional.
  • Keep the drawing for the setup. The daily step should take seconds.
  • Stop if it doesn't help. If tracking makes you feel worse, drop it. Not every journal needs one.

What to do with a full mood tracker

At the end of the month, or the year, take five minutes with the finished page. A few prompts that work:

  • What color shows up most? Is that a surprise?
  • Which days stand out? Write one line about the best one.
  • Do you see a rhythm? Some people notice their weeks, not their days, have a shape, like heavy Mondays or calm Sundays.
  • What would you like more of next month? One small thing, written in your monthly log.

Then start a fresh tracker, or don't. Some people keep one every month for years; others use one for a single season and stop.

If you're still setting up your notebook, our guide on how to start a bullet journal covers the core pages a tracker sits beside.

Where a digital bullet journal fits

Mood trackers belong on paper for most people: coloring a square is part of the ritual, and a notebook is private and cheap.

We make Carnet, a digital bullet journal: a weekly planner that feels like a paper notebook, in your browser. Carnet has no mood tracker and no scores, so the ideas on this page stay in your notebook. What it does is the planning: a weekly spread already drawn, the bullet journal marks, a Notes box on the week, a page inside every day for writing, and your Google Calendar appointments shown read-only. It costs $10 a month after a 7-day free trial (card required), with no free plan. If you want mood tracking on a screen, our digital bullet journal guide covers My Bullet Online, a web app with a mood tracker built in, and our bullet journal app comparison covers the other options.

FAQ

What is a mood tracker in a bullet journal?

It's a page where you record how each day felt, usually by coloring one shape per day according to a color key. Over a month or a year, it becomes a picture of your days.

How do you make a mood tracker in a bullet journal?

Choose five to seven moods and give each one a color. Draw one shape per day, such as a grid of squares, leaves on a branch or slices of a circle. Each evening, color the day's shape.

What colors should I use for a mood tracker?

Any colors that feel natural to you. A five-step scale in shades of one color is the easiest to read. Write the key beside the tracker so you don't have to remember it.

What moods should I put in a mood tracker?

Five to seven common ones work well: happy, calm, energetic, tired, anxious, sad and irritated, for example. Some people prefer a simple scale from great to awful.

What is a Year in Pixels?

A mood tracker covering a whole year: 12 columns for the months and 31 rows for the days, with one colored square per day. It was created by a bullet journaler named Camille and shared on the official Bullet Journal blog.

Is bullet journaling good for mental health?

We can't make a medical claim about that. Some people find that writing things down helps them notice how they feel, and others find trackers stressful. A mood tracker isn't a treatment. If you're struggling, talk to a doctor or a mental health professional, and in the US you can call or text 988.

See a weekly spread already drawn

Carnet's journal page shows a sample week you can type into without creating an account. Click a line and write. Nothing is saved.

See Carnet's digital bullet journal

Sources

Checked on October 27, 2026. This article is not medical advice.