Free Template
A dating spreadsheet template that actually works
Yes, a spreadsheet is a perfectly good way to keep track of the people you're seeing — you're not weird for wanting one. Here's a free Google Sheets template with the six columns that earn their place, how to keep it alive for more than two weeks, and an honest note on where spreadsheets stop working.
Why a spreadsheet is a fine place to start
When you're seeing more than one person, the failure mode is always the same: the details blur. Who's allergic to what, whose big meeting was this week, which one told you the story about the ferry. Your memory isn't bad — it's just not built to hold several parallel getting-to-know-someone threads at once.
A spreadsheet fixes the core problem with zero learning curve: one row per person, a glance before you text back, thirty seconds of updating on the ride home. The trick is keeping it small. Most dating spreadsheets die of ambition — fifteen columns, a scoring system, conditional formatting — and get abandoned by week two. Six columns is the whole template, on purpose.
The six columns, and why each one earns its place
Name (and how you met)
The anchor. "Sam — climbing gym" beats "Sam" three weeks from now, when there are two Sams.
Last date
The single most useful date field. Recency tells you who's active, who's fading, and who you've accidentally left on read for a week.
Energy after
One word — energized, flat, drained. Feelings fade faster than facts, and this column is where your patterns eventually show up.
What we talked about
Two or three threads worth picking back up: the job interview, the trip, the story they told twice.
Gave me pause
The small flag you'd otherwise talk yourself out of. Writing it down once keeps you honest with yourself later.
Next step
A question to ask, a place to suggest, or an honest "let this fade". Future-you opens the sheet already knowing what to do.
Notice what's missing: no scores, no rankings, no "pros and cons" column. The moment a spreadsheet starts grading people it stops being a memory aid and starts being a scoreboard — and it changes how you think about everyone in it.
Get the template
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How to keep it alive: the weekly rhythm
After each date, update one row. The ride home is the window — by the next morning, the details have already started to blend. Last date, energy after, one or two threads. Ninety seconds.
Before each date, read one row. Thirty seconds turns "how's, uh, work?" into "how did the presentation land?" — the difference between someone who was listening and someone who wasn't.
Once a week, scan the whole sheet. This is where the sheet earns its keep. Who consistently leaves you energized? Whose row hasn't changed in three weeks? What does the "gave me pause" column say when you read it top to bottom? Patterns you can't see date-by-date are obvious in a column.
Where spreadsheets honestly break down
Nothing reminds you. The sheet can't nudge you to write while it's fresh, and it can't put the right row in front of you before a date. The system runs entirely on you remembering to remember — which is the exact problem you were trying to solve.
It's one awkward share away from a story. Spreadsheets are built for sharing, which is lovely for budgets and hazardous for dating notes. "Dating spreadsheet ends up in the group chat" is a genre for a reason.
Cells flatten feelings. A grid nudges you toward clinical entries and quietly toward comparison — rows next to rows start to feel like a leaderboard even when you never meant them to.
If — when — you hit those walls, that's what a purpose-built dating journal is for: the same six columns' worth of remembering, but private by default, organized around people instead of rows, with the right detail resurfaced before the next date. The spreadsheet is a great start. It's just not the finish line.
Common questions
Is the dating spreadsheet template really free?
Yes. Leave your email on the page and you get a view-only Google Sheets link — use File and then Make a copy, and your version is yours forever, private to your own Google account. The email signs you up for occasional notes from us, and you can unsubscribe anytime.
What should a dating spreadsheet include?
Six columns cover the job: their name and how you met, the last date, your energy afterwards in one word, what you talked about, anything that gave you pause, and the next step. Resist adding more. Most dating spreadsheets die of ambition — fifteen columns and a scoring system get abandoned by week two.
Is it wrong to keep a spreadsheet of people you are dating?
Keeping private notes to remember what matters to people is just paying attention. What crosses a line is scoring or ranking people, or sharing the sheet — which spreadsheets, being built for sharing, make one misclick easy. Keep it private, keep it about details rather than grades, and there's nothing to feel odd about.
Spreadsheet or dating journal app — which is better?
Start with whichever you'll actually keep up. A spreadsheet is free and instant, and the weekly scan across rows is genuinely useful. An app earns its place when the spreadsheet's gaps start to cost you: nothing reminds you to write, nothing resurfaces the right row before a date, and a sheet is always one share away from an audience.
Or skip the spreadsheet entirely
AfterMatch does what the template does — and the reminding, resurfacing, and privacy the template can't. Free for up to two connections.