Random ADHD Lemon #1: Mood Tracking & Journaling
Apps and Tools I tried and some I stuck with after I learned about my ADHD and began my journey into mental health! Maybe some of them can help you too! This will be a series!
In 2019 I spent most of my time on the streets, fighting for Climate Justice and Human Rights. A co-protester I worked with to organize events told me, “JayJay, du hast einen am Appel!”, which translates to: “You have one on-the apple,” meaning more like: “You are going nuts! Turn it down a notch!”
He was referring to my overcommitment, talking fast and not knowing my boundaries. I thought I was highly motivated, wanting to change the world, while forgetting to eat, drink water, and sometimes even breathe. I am thankful for his words now. Even though I didn’t act upon them immediately, it set the groundwork for figuring out what was going on with me. It took me two burnouts, the corona crisis and heavy social isolation, before I sought a diagnosis in 2022. I received it from a doctor who briefly looked at me twice — especially at my restless legs — and said: “We don’t need to fill out any questionnaires. You have ADHD without a doubt”.
I got the proper diagnosis later with all the necessary steps, just to have it on paper, but it wasn’t really needed. I was already nose deep in unravelling my childhood, the recent years and my intense activism phase. Leaving overcommitment behind to focus on my mental health was a good decision. The way I approached new projects and current obsessions was now explained by this diagnosis.
Since then I have been trying to organize myself better. I’m finding easier ways to support myself through everyday madness, to calm down, remember things, and protect myself from burnout.
I tried out various tools and strategies to counter my brain's mood swings, between highly motivated hyperfocus — forgetting to eat and drink water — JayJay and total lethargy.
Today I’m going to start with Mood Tracking and Journaling apps and tools that helped me to uncover a lot of internal structures I wouldn’t have been able to reflect on otherwise. Let’s delve into this!
Some of these tools could be useful to you, but not all of them might. Use what helps you and toss out the rest. Your way to deal with your ADHD is a very personal one. The point is not to use them perfectly, but to support your goals and find relief, so you can be yourself and not someone you should be. So try them out and maybe they make you reach your goals, the way you want them to!
Leave me a comment down below, if you found this helpful or you have other apps or tools you want to share for other readers! Stay tuned for the next post of “Random ADHD Lemon”!
MOOD TRACKING & JOURNALING
#1 Companion Mood Tracker and Journal App: “FINCH”:
I stumbled upon Finch, after I downloaded several mood tracking apps which I mostly deleted and then stuck with this for some time. It helped me a lot through a tough time. The gamification/ companion aspect of the app was interesting for some time, as it offers some RPG elements and a lot of freedom in customization. Let’s delve into my pros and cons:
🟢 Pros:
🐦 First thought: Tamagotchi. The Finch bird —“Birb” — can be customized in gender and name, and is your constant companion that grows with you. It regularly asks you questions where you can choose between two answers or write an answer yourself. The first two options define your companion’s character.
🤗 Mood Tracking offers five moods to choose from. This flows into an overview, where the times you tracked show the mean mood of each day in a calendar. You also receive weekly messages in a mailbox, giving insight into weekly feels and other metrics. Like mood per weekday or which key-words lifted you up or weighed you down.
📝 Journaling: While writing notes, the app will recognize and mark some words as key-words. These can then be analyzed and compared to other key-words and moods. You can add, edit or remove words while journaling with the hashtag.
⏰ Goals and other reminders can be set and customized as repeating or not, with notifications for your phone. You can even implement goals like drink water, with several steps required to complete a goal. (e.g. drink 5 glasses of water → five clicks, and its done)
🎮 The app has seasons, which offer some special items for your companion to win, by checking in and filling up the bar with points with every goal completed. This can be ignored or deactivated.
🦉Guardian Birbs: You can gain access to the Plus version of the app through a community based Guardian system. If you apply for it, other users can sponsor you to access all features (this is anonymous).
🔴 Cons:
📉 Statistics are limited in the free version, and in the plus version, the overview is very simplified and lacks detail.
#️⃣ Random Key-Words: Some of the key-words in the journaling can be random. And the effort to remove those words is a high, so I stopped using the insights feature for the hashtagged words.
🤔 Journal mood: the system chooses your mood based on recognized words, which can sometimes be completely wrong and must be adjusted manually.
😬 All pros can be cons: the gamification, companion aspect, RPG questions, and customizations can become overcrowded and boring over time.
Check out their website for more information: https://finchcare.com
At some point the app wasn’t satisfying my needs anymore, so I moved on. But it might appeal to younger people. For me, at least, it was the first step into mood tracking and journaling apps. Great app, with a lot of extras.
#2 Korean Mood Tracking App “MOODEE”:
I learned of this app through my ADHD support group, but found it also quite helpful for depression and trauma in general. Because I tend to be unable to describe my emotions and feelings. Moodee helped me with that. Here are some of my pros and cons:
🟢 Pros:
📊 Tracking moods and some statistics are free, such as an overview of which days of the week tend to be good or bad and providing a general monthly overview of the number of moods tracked.
👀 Offers a wide range of emotions displayed in a color coded spectrum with explanations. This is helpful for exploring emotions you struggle to find words for. You can add up to three emotions per mood tracking.
✍️ Customizable topics you can add and remove, to which you want to link your chosen emotions (e.g. cheerful, supported, loved → relationship).
📝 Notes feature at the end of your mood tracking, allowing you to leave a note that is saved in your history of tracked emotions.
📫 Moodee companion-generated quests at the end of mood tracking to possibly change your mood and cheer you up. Some quests are funny, others helpful.
🎶 Calming interface and background music. I even use the app's music to help me sleep.
🔴 Cons:
💲 Pricy full version for more insight into data, additional options, and tools like chatting with your Moodee companion, thoughts training modules, and customization of the companion's background and clothes: €9.99/month or €49.99/year.
🥉 Emotions per mood tracking are limited to three. I would have liked more.
👀 Too random quests: Some quests may not fit the tracked emotions or topics.
Check out the stores to learn more about the app and download:
#3 Journal with Goals and Mood Tracker “DAYLIO”:
My absolute favorite app at the moment. It offers comprehensive statistics and analytical functions and is usable for free (with limitations regarding icons and in-depth statistics).1
🟢 Pros:
🎚️ Incredibly customizable. Offers more than 5 standard moods, which you can edit and choose a color set. You can edit the “Activities” you are tracking and customize them as needed.
📖 Functions to archive activities and mark tracked days as favorites to review later.
📊 Comprehensive statistics (a bit limited in the free version) allow you to analyze the ups and downs and the related activities with the moods tracked, providing detailed insights into changes, more so than Finch can offer.
⛳ Goals and Tracking: You can redefine goals from your tracked activities, or choose from suggestions (same goes for groups of activities and other aspects of the app).
🤗 Much for little: The app offers enough options and freedom without the full version, still providing significant insights into your behavior and mood changes.
🔉 You can upload images and record audio messages when tracking a mood and related activities, instead of writing journal — which you can also still do.
💲 Cheap offers: The full version of the app is very affordable. I got it for 11.88 € a year, which is .99 cents a month, paid annually.
🔴 Cons:
🤔 Too much freedom? maybe. You have to edit a lot yourself, and it can get crowded depending on how much you track.
🧐 A lot of stuff and too little: The full version offers a lot more stuff, like more icons for you to differentiate between activities, but this can get overwhelming. The available icons for the free version could be too little and cause some activities to look the same, because of the icons repeating.
📈 Beware the insights: Depending on how deep you dive, you can get lost in exploring the statistics and analytical results of your activities. Be aware that this could be a “hyperfocus trap”.
I recommend this app when you need more detail and freedom in tweaking your mood tracking and journaling. It can also kept relatively low without much effort. If you wanna learn more and try it out check out their website:
Just the link here: https://daylio.net
#4 📓 Good ol’ Diary and Ball Pen:
🪟 Perfectionism Out the Window: I struggled too long to conform to an ideal diary format like back in school: clean writing, structure and a boring beginning like "Dear Diary, today I...". NOT NEEDED! Let’s throw this out! It killed my motivation! The diary is my creative playground, mine alone. There are no rules but those I set.
🥊 Mind Dumpster or Punching Bag: Some entries are just a dump for my thoughts. I write the most random words I can think of. Sometimes, when too angry or emotional, I scratch up pages, tear one out and tape them back together. The diary isn’t meant to impress; it’s for venting, reflecting, and dumping everything out.
🖌️ Creative Ways of Writing: I learned that using my own made-up writing system keeps me motivated (I use the same script in much of my artwork; it has become part of my self-expression). I also don’t hold back on my urge to strike through words and scribble random things between paragraphs, and leave it like that.
📹 A Place to Experiment with Perspective: My diary is a place to reflect and shift my thoughts, especially when I’m pessimistic. I write down one positive thing each day, even when it's hard; I change the perspective of events, trying to see them positively or neutrally while keeping reality in mind. WORDS HAVE POWER! What you write and repeat, like positive affirmations, can greatly impact your mood and journaling experience.
#5 YOUR TURN: Do you know any cool apps for mood tracking or other journaling methods? Write them in the comments below!
This was the first “Random ADHD Lemon”! I hope you liked the format and how it turned out. If you have any feedback, or find any mistakes, feel free to comment below! Your feedback helps me improve my writing skills!
Lots of love and Lídiant Wíalë <3
JayJay out!
Thank you Christian for recommending the Daylio app to me!
It was my pleasure recommending Daylio. 😉 Like reading this blog post! 😁
Personally, I am trying to migrate my knowledge journal from Word to Obsidian (I still use Daylio for mood tracking and daily journaling). This app truly offers a second brain - like experience as it creates a backlinked network of thoughts. With time, you build your own neural net that can be visualized, showing you thoughts that are often connected to each other. Look it up on the internet and you'll get the idea immediately. It's becoming pretty impressive once you are a few years in.
It's also highly customizable with add-ons, offers high data security as nothing is uploaded anywhere, is free, can be synced for free using 3rd-party apps, and more.
I've started with copying my notes and knowledge about ADHD to it. Slooowly trying to use it more, but currently not rushing it.