In the middle of a migraine is the worst time to fill in a form. Light hurts, focus is gone, and a busy screen is its own small punishment. So the honest answer to “what should I log during an attack” is: as little as possible, captured in the moment.

A short entry written while it’s happening beats a detailed one reconstructed days later. Here’s the minimum that’s actually worth your attention mid-attack — and what can safely wait.

Log less, not more

The value of logging during an attack isn’t detail. It’s timing. An entry made now records the real onset time and the real peak; an entry made tomorrow is a guess. So the goal is a complete-enough record in seconds, then put the phone down.

The three things that matter mid-attack

If you do nothing else, capture these:

  • Time it started. Onset is the most useful single fact, and the easiest to get wrong from memory.
  • Pain level. A 0–10 score at its worst. One tap.
  • Location. One temple, both, frontal, behind an eye, the back of the head.

That’s a complete entry. In Migrainely it’s three taps in quick-log mode, designed so you can do it without really looking. Anything beyond this is optional.

What can wait

These matter for the bigger picture, but none of them need to be logged while you’re in pain:

  • Medication — what you took and when. Worth getting right, but you can add it once the worst passes.
  • Symptoms — nausea, aura, light or sound sensitivity.
  • Triggers — the skipped meal, the short night, the weather. These only mean anything across many attacks, so there’s no rush.

Add them an hour later, or the next morning, or not at all. A half entry is still a useful entry.

Why the screen matters

Most diary apps assume you can comfortably look at a bright, dense interface. During an attack, you often can’t. That’s the whole reason Migrainely leads with a true dark and low-light mode: a warm, dimmed palette, reduced contrast, large calm type, and nothing that flashes or pulses. Notifications can be silenced for the duration of an active log, so the app goes quiet exactly when you need it to.

A diary you can’t bear to open during an attack won’t get the one entry that matters most — the one made while it’s happening.

After it passes

When you can face the screen again, round out the entry: add the medication and dose, the symptoms, the likely trigger, and the time it eased so the record shows the duration. If you’re building the habit from scratch, the broader guide to keeping a headache diary covers the full picture — but in the moment, three taps is enough.