A migraine diary you can keep on a bad day

Start with the smallest useful entry

A complicated diary can become another task to avoid when you feel unwell. Give yourself a short version: time, main symptom, and what you could not do. You can add context later, or leave it unknown. A blank field is more honest than a guessed answer.

The American Migraine Foundation recommends bringing headache information and treatment history to a specialist visit. Your record does not have to look like a clinical report to be useful.

Separate symptoms from possible explanations

Use one space for what happened and another for what you suspect may be connected. “Skipped lunch” is an observation. “Skipping lunch caused this attack” is an interpretation that a diary alone cannot establish.

Keep the wording consistent enough to compare entries. If you use mild, moderate, and severe, write a note explaining what those words mean for your daily activities. You do not need to track every food, weather change, and sensation.

Record a headache that crosses midnight

Use a start date and time and an end date and time, rather than putting both clock times on the first date. If the headache is still present, write “ongoing.” If you fell asleep with pain and woke without it, record what you observed; waking time is not proof of the time the headache ended.

The example below describes headache on two calendar dates. It does not establish that there were two attacks. Keep a shared note such as “continuation of Monday evening” if your diary uses a separate row for each day. Ask your clinician how they want headache days, migraine days and attacks counted; those labels should not be silently substituted for one another.

• Keep any medicine under the date and time it was actually taken, even when the headache began the previous day.
• If the pain clearly stopped and later returned, record both observations and any uncertainty about the gap.
• For a summary, distinguish dates with headache recorded from unrecorded dates. Keep the underlying notes available.

Choose fields for the question you want answered

Decide whether you are trying to describe attacks, explain missed activities, or prepare for a medicine review. Those purposes overlap, but they do not require an exhaustive list of possible triggers. For attack descriptions, concentrate on timing and symptoms. For a visit about treatment, bring the actual medicine names and the dates you used them, alongside any instructions you were given.

Use the same meaning for each field. “Started” should refer to the attack, while the entry date may be when you wrote the note. If an attack spans midnight, include both dates. If you are uncertain whether one long event ended and another began, describe the uncertainty rather than inventing a boundary. Your clinician can explain how they want that situation counted.

Turn seven days of notes into an honest summary

Suppose a seven-day period contains entries on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Headache was recorded on three of those days, and Tuesday explicitly says no headache. Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday are unrecorded. The summary is “three headache days among four recorded days; three days unknown,” not “three headache days this week” without qualification.

Count medicine-use days from their dates, not from the number of diary rows. Two notes about the same day's medicine do not automatically mean two days of use. Do not combine different medicines into one unexplained total. Preserve the underlying entries so a professional can resolve ambiguities. This is record organization, not a method for deciding whether use is excessive.

What to do with incomplete entries

If writing during an attack is difficult, a short note saved later is reasonable. Mark it “entered afterward” and keep approximate wording. A remembered disruption—such as leaving work early—can be recorded even when the pain score is missing. There is no need to fill every box before an entry is worth keeping.

Before sharing an export, read it as someone who was not there. Are abbreviations understandable? Is a blank duration clearly unknown? Have you explained a change in your personal rating scale? The appointment notes tool on the resource hub can hold that context without rewriting every attack. Keep the full diary available; a summary is an introduction to the record.

Choose the format you will actually use

Use the free browser log for quick notes and CSV export, or print a blank sheet if screens are uncomfortable. Migraine Tracker+ adds a dedicated diary and report features on your iPhone. Neither format identifies the cause of a headache.

Call your local emergency number for a sudden extremely painful headache, or headache with new weakness, difficulty speaking or loss of vision. Seek medical advice for other new concerning symptoms; completing a diary should never delay getting help.

Use the free resources with this guide

Open the migraine free resources to choose a browser log or printable sheet. The appointment notes tool turns your own answers into a downloadable note. Read the preview before sharing it and keep original records when requested. Neither tool interprets your entries or sends them to a healthcare professional.

A migraine trigger diary: look for patterns without assuming a cause covers a separate practical question in more detail.