How to Complete a Daily Emotional Check-In

Tomoko, a 62-year-old retired postal worker, has been caring for her husband as his ALS progresses. She uses the daily check-in every morning — not because she expects anything to change overnight, but because naming how she feels each day creates a small record. Something that says: I was here. This is what it was like.

The daily check-in takes less than a minute. It asks one question — how are you feeling right now — and gives you space to add a note if you want. That's it. No streak counter, no judgment for days you skip, no summary that makes you feel bad.

Steps

1. Open the app and see the daily check-in card

When you open Grief Companion, the daily check-in card appears on your dashboard below the crisis resource banner. It shows a greeting personalized to the time of day:

• Good morning. How are you starting the day?
• Good afternoon. How are you doing right now?
• Good evening. How are you feeling tonight?

The check-in card stays on your dashboard until you complete it. After you've checked in for the day, it's replaced by a brief summary card showing your recent emotional pattern.

2. Select your emotional state from the emoji scale

The check-in uses an emoji scale with five emotional states. These are not labeled "good" to "bad" — they are labeled with words:

• Heavy — everything feels like weight
• Difficult — hard, but I'm moving through it
• Neutral — not much either way
• Lighter — a bit easier today
• Present — genuinely okay right now

Tap the emoji that best represents where you are in this moment. You don't need to average out your whole day — just right now, or as close to right now as you can get.

3. Add an optional one-line note

Below the emoji scale, there is a small text field labeled Add a note (optional). You can write anything here — a single word, a sentence, whatever comes. Or leave it empty. The note is for you.

Many people find that the note becomes the most useful part over time. Looking back at three months of one-liners — "couldn't sleep," "made her favorite soup," "just tired today" — creates a texture that the emoji alone can't capture.

4. Save your check-in

Tap Done. Your check-in is saved. The card on your dashboard updates to show a quiet confirmation, then transitions to your recent emotional pattern summary.

5. See your recent check-in history

After saving, the dashboard shows a small activity summary below the check-in card. This is not a streak counter — it is a soft visualization of your recent pattern. You might see something like:

"Your past 7 days: mostly Heavy and Difficult, with two Lighter days."

There is no encouragement to do better, no congratulations for a Lighter day. The summary is observational, not evaluative. It reflects your experience back to you without telling you what it means.

What to Expect

Check-ins are stored and contribute to your Progress Charts if you have two or more grief dimension assessments. They also feed into the AI-personalized check-in feature (Plus tier), which may reference your check-in patterns over time.

There is no streak counter anywhere in the app. If you miss five days, the app simply shows the check-in card when you return, with the same gentle greeting. It does not say "you missed 5 days" or "your streak was broken." Your consistency is your own business.

If you want to go back and add a check-in for a day you missed, you can do so from your journal's calendar view. Tap any past date and add a check-in retroactively — useful if you forgot to open the app but want to preserve the record.

note

Daily check-ins are available on all plan tiers, including Free.