Seth Gillihan

How are things for you in your work life, whether you work outside the home or your primary job is taking care of your children? Naturally, depression and anxiety affect our relationship with our work, so try to consider your job when you’re feeling well. Do you love your work? Find it meaningful? Do you enjoy your coworkers? Are you overextended, constantly feeling like you don’t have enough time to do everything well? Do you struggle with the demands of work and home? Or are you bored at work? Do you feel like you have abilities that aren’t being put to use? Or maybe worst of all, are you bored and overtaxed?

You’ll also record how much you enjoyed each activity and how important it was to you. Remember, the enjoyment and importance ratings are yours alone to make—nobody else gets to decide what you enjoy and find important.

Finally, you’ll rate your overall mood for each day on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is very bad and 10 is very good.

Plan to fill out the form the same day you do the activities, either at the end of the day or throughout the day. If you wait until the next day or later, you’ll forget important information.

In fact, their circumstances sound a lot like what we would create for someone if we wanted to make her depressed: high stress, low reward, and minimal engagement. When the little energy we have is spent doing things that are unrewarding, we continue to deplete ourselves mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.