What mood are you in today: Do you carefully observe your mood?

In the data age we live in, leading companies and governments are considering how to manage this big data. The importance of monitoring a data can also be found in simple examples from our own lives. For example, internet broadcasting channels that follow the video data we watch bring suggestions accordingly. Artificial intelligence, which analyzes the music we listen to, offers us new discoveries with the advice of "You may also like these songs". Employees in corporate life are definitely involved in a data tracking or analysis process for the company's performance management. The situation is the same for those who care about the home economy; The time spent on any consumable at home, the change in price and efficiency are tracked, and the next shopping is shaped accordingly.

There are data that we follow on a personal level and that we normalize the follow-up. Expenditures, body weight, screen usage time, number of steps per day are the simplest examples. While the steps taken ten or fifteen years ago were not on our agenda, counting these steps today takes someone out of their seat and at least for a walk. In summary, in order to manage a subject, it is necessary to follow and evaluate the data about it.

Another useful data that can be tracked personally is mood. We can have different feelings every day. Sometimes, even during the day, we can be thrown from one extreme to the other in a turbulent mood. While some are not even aware of this situation, others may only notice extreme emotions and feel as if they have been in the grip of negative emotions for a long time. This can eventually turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy and leave that person alone with negative emotions.

No matter how you feel right now, tracking your mood on a daily basis will benefit you greatly. Some of these benefits could be:

Observing the emotion during the day (or more frequently) and determining the dominant emotion in the long term (1 month, 3 months, 1 year).

Identifying internal and external causes of fluctuating mood swings.

Identifying the right actions to manage negative emotions (being more willing to set goals that can improve both long-term and next-day mood).

Making healthier decisions.

Making clearer choices about life.

Being able to detect a serious condition that can affect mental health early.

Deciding to seek professional help.

To track and analyze your mood, you can set a daily routine—for example, evaluating the day before you go to bed each day, or the day before while doing your morning routine. There are phone applications where you can record your mood daily, as well as you can do this by taking notes in a notebook. You can even start keeping a bullet journal to observe the data that is important to you in your daily life. Logbook, mood, routine habits, expenses, etc. In addition to following the data, it helps you to organize your life with daily, weekly and monthly planning sections. You can buy it ready-made or you can arrange it yourself in a different theme every month. As someone whose drawing skills are not very good, but who has been drawing his own logbook for 14 months, I would like to emphasize that the process of preparing logbook templates has a very enjoyable and relaxing effect.

It is useful to pay attention to a few points while monitoring your mood.

1. Be fair

Although your mood is mostly positive during a day with negative emotions, you may tend to record that day as negative. If you see this situation recurring, you can set a more frequent interval than the daily and record at this frequency, or you can note what percent of the day your dominant emotion is active during the day.

2. Recognize your positive emotions.

Sometimes expectations can be high for feelings such as happiness and peace. These can be associated with enthusiastic and exciting moments and interpreted as if it is not possible to be happy in the absence of these moments. Therefore, first review the definitions of your positive emotions and make your assessment in accordance with these definitions and qualities. When you have a stagnant day, remind yourself that you can record that day as happy or peaceful.

3. Try to stick to the routine.

Considering that keeping track of things on a routine basis is not an easy task, try to determine the method and time that suits you best, and set a daily reminder alarm if you need to.

4. Review within a specified time frame.

To reap all the benefits of recording your mood, be sure to review your notes frequently—monthly, seasonally, annually—and evaluate the big picture.