Using the activity diary to begin to support progress

The activity diary will help you to see what you do throughout the day. Here's a printable version of the diary.

Choose a colour for rest, sleep, low activity and high activity and colour in the boxes at the bottom of the sheet.

As you go through the week, fill in the boxes according to what type of activity you are doing. The numbers along the top are the time from one morning to the next.

As a guide to help you fill it in:

• Rest is doing very little – ideally not watching screens, just low level breaks between other activity.
• Low activity – things that you can do fairly easily without tiring you (perhaps meals, cleaning your teeth, watching TV etc)
• High activity – things that demand a lot of energy – such as school, shopping, out with friends, emotionally demanding tasks etc.
• Sleep – as best you can mark in when you fell asleep and when you woke, rather than just time in bed.

Once you have completed the diary for a week, you may see that each day is different, that you fall asleep and wake at different times, sleep during the day or have busy or quiet days depending on how you feel and what you have to do. This can be helpful as a way of beginning to reflect on your activity levels and noticing how they might impact on symptoms. Filling in the diary can provide helpful information to share with your occupational therapist at initial appointments.

Activity, rest and sleep diary

Please choose a colour for time spent doing each type of activity in the morning, afternoon and evening. For example, red for high energy, blue for low energy, green for rest/chill and yellow for sleep.

Print the diary.