A pain diary is quick to start and even quicker to abandon. Usually that is not down to discipline but to how it is set up: record too much and you stop after two weeks; record too little and there is nothing to read out of it later.
This guide shows you what actually belongs in one, how often you should log an entry, and how your notes turn into something that genuinely helps both you and your doctor.
What is a pain diary?
A pain diary is an ongoing record of your symptoms: when they occur, how severe they are and what else was going on at the time. It does not replace a diagnosis - it provides the data a diagnosis can build on.
The benefit shows up in two places:
- In the consulting room. Instead of "the last few weeks were bad" you can say: "Pain on 18 of 30 days, an average of 6, and the bad days almost always after short nights."
- For yourself. Trends across weeks reveal connections that get lost in everyday life. And the question "is the new treatment doing anything?" can only be answered if there is a before.
What belongs in a pain diary?
This checklist covers what is customary in pain documentation - without turning each entry into homework:
- Date and time - only then do time-of-day patterns become visible.
- Intensity on a fixed scale (more on that in a moment).
- Location and type of pain - stabbing, dull, burning, cramping, pulling, pressing or throbbing.
- Duration - minutes, hours or continuous.
- Circumstances - stress, sleep quality, cold or warmth, physical activity, alcohol.
- Medication and measures - what you took or did, and whether it helped.
- Impact on everyday life - missed work, cancelled plans, disturbed sleep.
Points 1 to 5 are the essentials, 6 and 7 the bonus. If you only have 30 seconds: time and intensity are the core, everything else is context.
The right scale - and why you should not switch it
The most common is the numeric scale from 0 to 10: 0 means no pain, 10 the worst pain imaginable. For symptoms that are either present or not, yes/no is often enough; for a rough classification, mild/moderate/severe.
What matters is less which scale you pick than that you stick to it. A value only means something compared with your own earlier values. Change the yardstick halfway through and the whole record becomes unusable.
In PainTrack you set the input type once per pain definition - all three scales are available in the free version.
How often should you log an entry?
For most people one to three entries a day is enough, plus one per acute attack. Regularity matters more than frequency: a daily entry across four weeks says more than 40 entries in a single bad week.
As a rule of thumb, give it at least four weeks before drawing conclusions. For symptoms with a possible monthly rhythm or a seasonal component, two to three months is more sensible.
Fixed anchors help: the same time each evening, tied to something that happens anyway. A reminder at times and on weekdays you choose takes care of the rest - the smart reminder in PainTrack stays quiet on days you have already logged, so the notification does not become background noise.
Five mistakes that cost you the benefit
- Filling it in retrospectively at the weekend. Recalled pain is heavily skewed towards the extremes. Log as close to the event as you can - and if you do fill in later, do it for individual days, not whole weeks.
- Only recording the bad days. Without the good days there is no yardstick, and the record looks more dramatic than it is.
- Starting with too many symptoms at once. Begin with the one pain that troubles you most. You can add others later.
- Free text instead of structure. Prose reads nicely but cannot be analysed. Fixed fields and recurring keywords are what make patterns visible in the first place.
- Drawing your own diagnoses. A diary shows connections, not causes. Interpreting them belongs in the consulting room.
From recording to insight
Collected numbers are worth little as long as nobody looks at them. Three views are enough to start with:
- A trend chart across 7 or 30 days shows the direction: is it getting better, worse or staying the same?
- Weekly trends compare the current week with the previous one - a number instead of a gut feeling.
- An activity heatmap across the past three months shows how consistently you have logged. Gaps are not a failing, but you should know about them before drawing conclusions.
PainTrack Pro adds chart ranges across 90 days and the whole period, plus a third trend card.
The pain diary at your appointment
Appointments are short. A pile of scraps of paper therefore achieves less than a compact summary. This order has proven itself:
- Period and frequency - "Symptoms on 18 of the last 30 days."
- Typical and maximum severity - "Usually 4 to 5, on four days 8 or higher."
- Trend - "Slightly fewer days than last month, but the same peaks."
- Anything notable - "The severe days almost always followed nights with poor sleep."
- Effect of measures - what you tried and what it achieved.
That is exactly what the PDF doctor's report in PainTrack Pro is for: you choose the pain definition (one or all), the content ("Entries only" or "Charts & entries") and the period, from one week up to a year. You share the finished PDF straight from the app or print it out. To see what such a report looks like, have a look at the sample report as a PDF.
Ready in five minutes
- Create one pain definition - name, colour, input type. "Back pain", 0–10, for example.
- Make your first entry - tap the intensity, add a note and tags if you want to.
- Set a reminder - a fixed time when you realistically have a moment.
- Stick with it for four weeks - only then start analysing.
- Create a report and take it to your next appointment.
Paper works just as well for this - it simply means more manual work when analysing. Which option suits you is compared in Printable pain diary template or app?.
Frequently asked questions
How long should I keep a pain diary? At least four weeks without a break, so that weekly rhythms become visible. To judge a new treatment, two to three months makes more sense.
Do I have to log something every day - even on pain-free days? Yes, especially those. A pain-free day is information, not an empty field.
What if I have missed days? No reason to stop. Carry on logging and mention the gaps at your appointment rather than reconstructing them from memory.
Are my entries secure? In PainTrack all data stays encrypted on your device - no account, no server, no cloud upload. You can additionally lock the app with Face ID or Touch ID.
PainTrack is not a medical device and does not replace medical diagnosis or treatment. The app is intended for personal documentation and self-observation.