How to Use Year in Color

Year in Color is a free online journal that makes mood tracking simple and visual. Follow these six steps to start building your personal mood calendar and gain insight into your emotional patterns.

1

Click Any Day

Tap or click on any dot in the calendar grid for today or any previous day. Each dot represents one day of your year. Your online journal starts with a blank canvas — every day you log adds a new splash of color to your year.

Screenshot showing calendar grid with clickable day dots in the Year in Color online journal
2

Pick Your Mood

Select the mood that best describes how your day went. Choose from moods like Happy, Calm, Creative, Stressed, and more. Each mood is fully customizable — color-coded so your daily journal entry becomes part of a larger visual story.

Screenshot showing mood selection options in the daily mood tracker
3

Log Your Sleep

Rate how well you slept last night. Tracking your sleep quality alongside your mood helps you uncover how rest affects your emotional well-being — giving you a fuller picture of what drives your best and worst days.

Screenshot showing sleep quality logging in the mood journal
4

Add a Note

Write a note about your day to remember what made it special. Your mood diary captures not just how you felt, but why — making it easy to look back and understand your emotional patterns over time.

Screenshot showing note entry field in the mood journal
5

Watch It Grow

Over time, your year transforms into a colorful visualization of your emotional journey. Like a year in pixels, each day fills in with color, creating a beautiful overview of your moods across weeks and months.

Screenshot showing a colorful year visualization in the mood calendar
6

Reflect

Review your mood insights to understand what drives your best and worst days. The insights dashboard shows streak counts, mood breakdowns, and automatically detected patterns — helping you build self-awareness and track your emotional wellness over time.

Screenshot showing mood insights dashboard with statistics
Screenshot showing mood patterns and trends analysis

Ready to Start?

Begin tracking your mood today with Year in Color — it's completely free, works offline, and takes just seconds each day.