Feelings list
List of Moods for a Mood Tracker: 18 Core Moods (+ 60 More Feelings Words)
Quick answer
A good mood tracker uses 10–20 moods, grouped into families so the big picture stays readable. A proven set of 18: happy, excited, grateful, bright, cheeky, loved, surprised, calm (positive); tired, bored, confused (neutral); sad, worried, scared, frustrated, angry (intense); melancholy, lonely (low). Start there, then add a word only when you notice you keep reaching for it.
What moods should I put in my mood tracker?
Use a list that is precise enough to mean something and small enough to pick in seconds. Five faces ("great → awful") are fast but hide everything interesting — lonely and tired both land on "meh", yet they call for completely different responses. A 100-word emotion wheel is precise but slow, and slow trackers get abandoned.
Here is the 18-mood set used in the Kibun app, grouped into four families. Copy it straight into a bullet journal, a printable, or any app that lets you customise moods.
| Family | Moods | What it usually signals |
|---|---|---|
| Positive | Happy, Excited, Grateful, Bright, Cheeky, Loved, Surprised, Calm | Energy or ease is available |
| Neutral | Tired, Bored, Confused | Low stakes, often a need (rest, stimulation, clarity) |
| Intense | Sad, Worried, Scared, Frustrated, Angry | Something matters and feels threatened or blocked |
| Low | Melancholy, Lonely | Quiet heaviness, often about connection or meaning |
Why families matter: when you review a month, you rarely care whether Tuesday was excited or bright. You care that the week was mostly green and then turned intense on Thursday. Families make that visible at a glance — and they map neatly onto a colour key.
How many moods should a mood tracker have?
Between 10 and 20 works for most people:
- Under 6: fast, but your chart will look the same every week. You'll stop learning from it.
- 10–20: the sweet spot. Enough nuance to separate states that need different responses, few enough to choose without hesitating.
- Over 25: you'll pause every entry, and pausing is how tracking habits die.
If you're unsure, start with the 18 above and remove any mood you haven't used after a month.
60 more feelings words (to customise your list)
Use these when a core mood isn't quite right. Pick the handful you actually feel — not the ones that sound good.
Positive: content, hopeful, proud, relieved, inspired, playful, peaceful, confident, motivated, affectionate, curious, satisfied, energised, joyful, amused.
Neutral: indifferent, distracted, restless, numb, drained, unfocused, uncertain, pensive, flat, sleepy, detached, busy, okay, reserved, mellow.
Intense: anxious, overwhelmed, irritated, stressed, jealous, embarrassed, guilty, ashamed, defensive, impatient, tense, panicked, hurt, resentful, nervous.
Low: empty, hopeless, disappointed, discouraged, homesick, nostalgic, isolated, rejected, insecure, gloomy, heartbroken, unmotivated, left out, weary, lost.
What's the difference between a mood and an emotion?
Psychologists usually separate them by duration and cause. An emotion is short and has a clear trigger — a flash of anger when someone cuts in line. A mood is longer, lower-intensity and often has no single cause — a grumpy afternoon. A mood tracker records moods, but emotion words make better labels because they're more specific. Research on affect labeling suggests that naming a feeling precisely can reduce its intensity (more on that here).
How do I use a list of moods day to day?
- Pick a fixed time — or two (morning and evening). Consistency beats frequency.
- Choose the mood that fits best, not the one you wish you felt. Nobody grades this.
- Add one line of context when something stands out: slept badly, argued with a friend, went for a run.
- Review weekly. Look at families first, then the individual moods.
If you'd rather tap than write, a mood tracker app does steps 1–4 for you: reminders, a timestamp on every entry, and a calendar that colours itself. Kibun uses exactly this 18-mood list, and you can log a mood in about ten seconds without creating an account.
Prefer paper? Grab the free printable mood tracker — it includes this list as a colour key.
Frequently asked questions
- What are the best moods to track?
- Track a mix across four families: positive (happy, calm, grateful), neutral (tired, bored), intense (sad, worried, angry) and low (lonely, melancholy). Covering all four families matters more than the exact words.
- How many moods should I track per day?
- One or two check-ins a day is enough for most people — for example morning and evening. More check-ins add detail but make the habit harder to keep.
- Can I use this list of moods in a bullet journal?
- Yes. Copy the 18 moods and their families into your mood key, and assign one colour per family or per mood. The free Kibun printable includes the list ready to use.
- What mood tracker app uses a list of 18 moods?
- Kibun, a mood tracker app for iOS and Android, uses these 18 moods across four colour families. Pro users can also create custom moods.