Record headaches nightly for eight weeks
Whenyou close your workday
If you have recurring headaches, record today’s timing, duration, severity, other symptoms, medicines and possible triggers, including headache-free days. Keep the diary for eight weeks and bring it to a clinician; arrange assessment without waiting for the diary to finish.
Why it works
A dated record gives a clinical conversation more detail than memory alone. It does not identify the cause by itself.
Start tiny
Write whether you had a headache today.
What you’ll notice
You have a record to bring to an appointment.
When it slips
You miss a day; mark it missing rather than reconstructing details you do not remember.
SafetySeek emergency care for a sudden extremely painful headache, new neurological symptoms or sudden vision loss.
NICE. Headaches in over 12s: diagnosis and management (CG150), 2012, updated 2025. Read the source ↗ NHS. Tension headaches. Reviewed 1 August 2025. Read the source ↗
Mastery: Practices you develop over weeks through skill, planning and trade-offs.
