ENESPT
← NDPH.org

Free to print

A whole year of headaches, on one page.

Shade one square each day by how bad the pain was, tick the days you took something for it, and add up each month. In a few weeks you will have the record a neurologist actually asks for.

Prints on one A4 or US Letter page, landscape. If your printer cuts an edge, choose “Fit to page”.

Headache calendarOne square per day · shade it by the worst pain that day

How to mark a day

  • Leave blank — no headache
  • One line — mild: you notice it, but carry on as normal
  • Half shaded — moderate: it slows you down
  • Fully shaded — severe: you can barely function
  • Tick the strip below on days you took a painkiller, triptan or other medication for the headache

How to use it

  1. Each evening, mark today by the worst the pain got — not the average.
  2. Tick the strip underneath if you took medication for the headache. Daily preventive tablets don’t count.
  3. At the end of each month, count and write the three totals on the right.
  4. Write anything that changed in Notes: starting or stopping a medication, an illness, a new trigger.
  5. Bring the sheet to every appointment.
Ten or more medication days in a month (fifteen or more if you only take simple painkillers such as paracetamol or ibuprofen)? Tell your doctor — frequent use can itself keep headaches going.

Notes

Hatched squares: days that don’t exist in that month. Light hatching on 29 February: leap years only.ndph.org · Not a diagnostic tool. A sudden, severe or unusual headache needs urgent care.

Why these marks?

Neurologists judge a daily headache mostly by two numbers: how many days a month you have pain, and how many days you take something for it. The four marks build on each other, so you can change your mind with a pen — a line can become half, half can become full. If you prefer your phone, Migraine & Headache Companion keeps the same record and counts it for you.