The life chart is a tool we have developed to help you understand how different behaviours and choices you make might affect how you feel. We know that what influences one person's mood considerably might not influence another person’s mood at all. That’s why in this feature you can choose to track different things which might affect your mood. By doing this, you may be able to see trends about how your choices change your mood.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE: Higher points on the life chart do not necessarily mean “better”.
A SECOND IMPORTANT NOTE: Some elements of the chart are deliberately vague. We want you to use the sliding scales intuitively.
Can I log Lifechart entries for days past?
Yes! If you're looking to log an entry for yesterday or any day besides today, you can select the day of your choice. Where you see "date", you'll see today's date listed. After clicking today's date, a calendar will appear where you can write a Lifechart entry for the day of your choosing. Note that if you log an entry for a day that you already have an entry for, the Lifechart will use the most recent log.
Here’s what we mean when we say:
- Mood: How are you feeling today? Use the slider to give yourself an overall score, and record any extra details that might be important in the journal. I.e. “I failed my midterm”
- Medication: Only use this slider if you have a prescription for a mental health condition from your doctor. Then, record if you took your prescription AS DIRECTED today (yes) or not (no).
- Social Activity: Everyone needs a different amount of social interaction. Some people who have lots of social activity thrive and feel great. Others find that lots of social activity drains them or makes them grumpy. When using this slider don’t worry about if “lots” was “too much” or “not enough” for you. Just stick to the facts. You might notice a relationship appearing when you look at this line relative to your mood line on the chart—THAT will give you an idea of what is “too much” or “too little” for you.
- Exercise: Exercise comes in many forms. Just keep it simple on the slider. Did you exercise lots today? A bit? Not at all? If you like, take notes in the “journal” section to record what kind of exercise and how long it was.
- Alcohol use: You don’t have to “count your drinks” here. Just provide a picture of if you drank today, and if so, would you consider it a bit, or lots.
- Substance use: Today, have you taken any drug without prescription to get high, feel better or to change you mood? Did you use “lots”? This could mean many substances, or many times, or a large amount.
- Sleep hours: Approximately how many hours of sleep did you get last night?
- Sleep quality: How was last night’s sleep? Were you waking up at every little noise; did you have a hard time falling asleep? Or did you have one of those beautiful uninterrupted sleeps that made you feel like a million bucks? We've incorporated the sleep hours and quality into one bar- the height is how many hours you've had, while the colour represents the sleep quality. The colours are on a scale from red (awful), orange, yellow, yellow-green, to green (great).
