I think there are a variety of apps that truly would make it simpler - and many are free or very low cost.  It helps to know what you're working on tracking tho, in terms of selecting the best app.   If you're not using the phone, then you'll need to have a pad & pen constantly along ... then transcribe & review, so probably more time consuming. 

I doubt any of the apps would even work on my phone.  Thanks though!

I would want to track food, medications, household activities that could cause flareups, exposure to irritants (cleaners, stuff in the chem building, days I'm stuck around scents), exposure to environmental allergens & animals, and activities that could cause issues whether it's direct exercise or kneeling cleaning floors.

It might be a little much to get all of that to start.  Food & medications would be needed for sure, and I might just note down anything way out of the ordinary, like taking care of someone else's dog, or spending a day out at the farm.  Oh, and symptoms of course!  That's the important part :)

Whoa - that IS a lot of stuff!  Sometimes it can be helpful to look at it from the 'flip side' - to track when you're feeling better, and work out what things may be contributing to that state, to see how you can do more of that :-) 

(might also want to figure in your menstrual cycle - hormones being the devilish little things they are!)

I have considered keeping a similar journal, chemgal.  I have eczema that is sometimes very predictable (hot weather, cured meats, dairy) and sometimes very unpredictable.

Since I will be in the market for a new phone in the fall, I may consider getting one that would work with a tracking app.   As it stands, though, I'd be using a notepad and pen too.  It seems like a daunting task, but it can't be any less appealing than dealing with my skin issues.

Please let us know what you decide to do.

I already know that hormones cause flareups in everything :)  Seriously, when I was a pre-teen my mom started making me wait at least half a week whenever I had strep throat as I was constantly on antibiotics and it would go away on it's own.  Now that just falls with my medications on a longer-term cycle and I can't really track what happens naturally with my body unless I start getting my blood drawn or something.

I'll let you know if I decide to go through with it!  I was hoping that someone would at least tell me the effort was worth it for them. 

DonT forget to traCk mood and stress.
I be done an elimination diet not too long ago and tracked the foods and stress and symptoms. Found paper most useful.

My tracking was a little different than yours chemgal - I had to track food, medication, physical symptoms, sleep, blood pressure, blood glucose, weight, bowel movements . . .

I made a two-sided form with all these items and down the side was the time of day - I did from 6:00 a.m right through to 5:00 a.m. - and then I just recorded under each column of the headers above what the scoop was.

Beloved & Mrs.. Anteater, did you find it helped you actually discover anything?

It didn't help me as in being able to determine how certain foods affected me, etc.  But it did help me when I had a doctor's visit and I was able to go back and summarize how I was doing.  It also helped as the doctor wanted me to keep track of my blood glucose and blood pressure and all I had to do was summarize it.  It also helped when I started to have to take a variety of medications at different times of the day - I could go back and look to see if and when I had taken them.

I had a very restricted diet first and then started to add one food at a time for three days. I did find out some trigger foods and some beneficial foods for my IBS. Also the benefit of exercises and sleep and relaxed eating habits (something I am still working on).
I noticed within two weeks an increase of energy and how foods are heavy on your system.
Then I had to go back to regular diet to have the celiac blood test done, which we didnt do before I went gluten free and I got all the symptoms back. Now I got to change permanently which is not as easy as when you do it for a couple of month. It doesn't help that I am not a great cook and not well organized.
I had done the journal before but it actually only worked for me in combination with the elimination and reintroduction diet.

Thanks Mrs. Anteater!  I'm hoping to avoid the full-on elimination diet.  Especially when some triggers can be medication based.