Year in Pixels: How to Track Your Mood (and More) All Year
Ask yourself how last March was. Most of us have a rough impression at best, and it's often coloured by whatever happened at the end of the month. A Year in Pixels gives you something better than memory: one small coloured square for each day, which together show you the shape of your whole year.
It takes about ten seconds a day, and January is the natural time to start, though any date works.
What is a Year in Pixels?
A Year in Pixels is a grid with a square for every day of the year, popular in bullet journals. Each evening you colour in today's square according to a key, most often for your overall mood. Nothing else is required: no paragraphs, no analysis, no perfect handwriting.
By the end of the year, you've got a picture you can read at a glance. Good stretches, rough patches and repeating patterns become visible in a way that diary entries rarely show.
How to set one up on paper
- Draw the grid. Use 12 columns for the months and 31 rows for the days. Dotted or squared paper makes this easy. Cross out the dates that don't exist, such as February 30.
- Choose your key. Pick around five colours, and write the key next to the grid so you never have to guess.
- Choose your moment. Tie it to something you do every night, like getting into bed. Leave the journal and pen where you'll see them.
- Colour one square a day. Choose the colour that best sums up the whole day, not just how you feel at that moment.
Colour key ideas
A five-point scale is usually the most useful. It's detailed enough to show patterns, and simple enough to decide on quickly.
| Colour | Mood |
|---|---|
| Dark green | Great |
| Light green | Good |
| Yellow | Okay |
| Orange | Meh |
| Red | Rough |
Using shades that run in order, like these, helps good and bad stretches stand out. You could instead name your colours by feeling, such as calm, anxious, energetic, sad or tired. That's richer but harder to compare, and a day can easily be two of those at once. If that happens, split the square diagonally.
What else you can track
Mood is the classic, but the format works for anything you can reduce to a few levels:
- Sleep: colour by hours or by how rested you felt.
- Energy: useful if you want to know when to plan demanding work.
- Exercise: rest day, light, moderate or hard.
- Spending: no-spend day, normal day or over budget. It makes a surprisingly clear picture of when your money tends to go.
- Focus: how much of the work you planned actually got done.
- A single habit: done, partly done or missed.
Start with one grid. Two is about the limit before it starts to feel like homework. For more ideas on what's worth tracking, see our list of habit tracker ideas.
How to read your year
The colouring is only half the value. Every month or so, spend five minutes looking at the grid and ask:
- What's the overall trend? Is this month lighter or darker than the last?
- Is there a rhythm? Do Mondays run low, or does your mood dip at the end of each month or in the winter?
- What came before the good runs? Holidays, exercise, friends, a lighter workload?
- What came before the rough patches? Poor sleep, deadlines, too many late nights?
A pattern in your grid is a clue, not proof. Two things happening together doesn't mean one causes the other. But a clue is often enough to try something small and see whether the next month looks different.
A mood log can also be useful to bring along if you're ever talking to a doctor or therapist. If your grid shows a long dark stretch, consider reaching out to someone rather than simply recording it.
How to stick with it all year
- Missed a few days? Fill them in if you remember them, or leave them blank. Blank squares are fine, and they shouldn't stop you from continuing.
- Don't aim for pretty. Ornate layouts are fun on January 1 and a burden by April.
- Don't over-think the colour. Choose within ten seconds. Your first instinct is good enough.
- Be honest. It's for no one but you, and a year of flattering squares won't teach you anything.
Paper vs app
Paper is calm and pleasant, and it's easy to keep in view on a desk or bedside table. Its limits are that it stays at home and you have to do your own pattern-spotting. We cover similar trade-offs in our guide to the bullet journal habit tracker.
An app is always with you, can remind you, and can do the comparisons for you. The trade-off is one more thing on your phone, and many apps won't feel as personal as a page you drew yourself.
Track your mood next to your habits
Trace isn't a literal Year in Pixels, but it covers the same ground: rate each day from 1 to 5, see how your mood lines up with your habits, and watch your check-ins fill a 365-day heatmap.
Open Trace Works in any browser · your data stays yours · syncs across devicesFrequently asked questions
What is a Year in Pixels?
It's a grid with one square for each day of the year. Each day you colour the square according to a key, usually for your mood, so that by year's end you can see your whole year's patterns at a glance.
How do you make a Year in Pixels?
Draw a grid with 12 columns for months and 31 rows for days, choose around five colours, write the key beside it, and colour one square each evening. You can also use an app if you prefer not to draw one.
What colours should I use for a Year in Pixels?
A five-step scale works well, for example dark green for great, light green for good, yellow for okay, orange for meh and red for rough. Colours in a clear order make patterns easier to see.
Can I start a Year in Pixels in the middle of the year?
Yes. Start today and draw your grid for the next 12 months, or simply begin at the current date and leave the earlier squares blank. The patterns are just as useful.