OCD notebook: episodes, time, and delay timer

How to use it

1. Choose Add an entry. Pick the date and, if you want to, the time. Every other box is optional. You can write a short label for what it was about. You do not have to write the thought itself.
2. Tick what you did in response, if you want to. Add how many minutes it took, how many minutes you waited before doing it, and a distress number from 0 to 10. Choose how it went, or leave that unanswered. Add notes if you like.
3. Open Weekly summary to see what you wrote added up: totals and averages for all your entries, and week by week. Weeks start on Monday. You can turn on a simple bar chart.
4. If your therapist suggested waiting before a ritual, use the Delay timer. It only counts minutes. When it stops, you can add that wait to your notebook with one tap.
5. Under Print and share, choose a range of dates if you like, then print, copy as text, or download a file for a spreadsheet. Switch on Hide what I wrote on screen at any time to show the word Hidden in place of your words.

Good to know

• This notebook is not therapy and it is not medical advice. It works best alongside a qualified therapist. It never tells you what to do, never scores you, and never says whether a week went well. If you feel unsafe, or you might hurt yourself or someone else, go to Crisis help now.
• You do not have to write the thought itself. A short label is enough. The response choices (washing or cleaning, checking, repeating, counting, ordering or arranging, mental review or other mental rituals, asking for reassurance, avoiding, and other) are common examples, not a complete or official list. The International OCD Foundation's About OCD page lists examples of compulsions that include washing and cleaning, checking, repeating, mental review, counting, putting things in order, asking for reassurance, and avoiding situations that might trigger obsessions. Use Other, in your own words, for anything else.
• Distress is a number from 0 to 10 that you choose, for your own tracking. It is a different scale from the 0 to 100 rating on the exposure ladder worksheet. This notebook does not decide what your numbers mean. Try to use them the same way each time, and ask your therapist if they would like a different scale.
• The weekly summary only adds up what you wrote. It counts entries, adds minutes, averages distress, and lists the responses written most often. An average is worked out from whole numbers and shown to one decimal place, rounded half up. Weeks start on Monday, and weeks with no entries are left out. A week with few entries may mean you wrote less down, not that less happened, so read the numbers with that in mind. The summary never compares weeks and never calls one better or worse.
• The delay timer only counts minutes. A presentation about OCD treatment, posted on the International OCD Foundation website, lists delay, reduce, modify and eliminate as response prevention options. It also says that delay does not always work, and that modifying or reducing a compulsion is often more practical than delaying it. Our own advice, not the presentation's: use the timer only if your therapist suggested waiting, and stop whenever you like.
• The timer follows the clock, so it stays right if you switch tabs. If you close the page, it picks up where it left off, and it tells you if the time ran out while you were away. It plays no sound while the page is closed. If you reopen the page during a wait, tap it or press a key once so that the sound is allowed to play. On some phones, sound may not play while the screen is locked. The longest it holds is 180 minutes, including any time you add.
• Hide what I wrote on screen shows the word Hidden in place of your words, so you can open the notebook near other people. The form for adding or editing an entry shows your words while you type. Print, Copy and the file always include what you wrote. Hiding is not a lock. Anyone who can use this browser on this device can switch it off.
• Print, Copy and the file list entries oldest first, and they cover only the dates you choose. Include my notes only controls the Notes box. What it was about and the words you wrote for Other are always included. In the file, text that starts with = + - or @ gets an apostrophe in front, so that a spreadsheet does not run it as a formula.
• Limits: 1,000 entries, 120 characters for what it was about, 100 characters for Other, 1,000 characters for notes, and up to 1,440 minutes (24 hours) in the minutes boxes. The list shows 50 entries at a time. Everything is saved in this browser only. Clearing your browser data erases it, so print or copy anything you need to keep.
• If keeping a notebook starts to feel like something you must do, or it makes things harder, take a break from it and tell your therapist or someone you trust.

Where this comes from

• The International OCD Foundation lists examples of compulsions, including washing and cleaning, checking, repeating, mental review, counting, putting things in order, asking for reassurance, and avoiding situations that might trigger obsessions. It also says compulsions are time-consuming and get in the way of important activities: International OCD Foundation: About OCD
• A presentation about OCD treatment on the same foundation's website lists response prevention options (delay, reduce, modify, eliminate) and says that delay does not always work and that modifying or reducing compulsions is often more practical than delaying: Facilitating Effective Response Prevention Strategies in OCD Treatment (presentation posted on the International OCD Foundation website)
• The OCD guide
• Crisis help

More tools

General support only. These tools are not medical, legal or diagnostic advice, and they do not replace professional help. If you are in crisis, go to Crisis help.