Drinking Diary and Reduction Plan
A worksheet combining a seven-day drinking diary with a structured reduction plan: a target, drinking rules, high-risk situations, alternatives and a review. Uses Canadian standard drink sizes and Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health.
About this resource
Self-monitoring is the foundation of brief and moderation-focused interventions for problem drinking. Sobell and Sobell's guided self-change approach, and the broader motivational and cognitive behavioural literature, show that simply recording each drink, the situation and the reason for it produces useful reductions on its own and provides the data for a realistic plan. Many clients underestimate their consumption substantially until they count standard drinks, and many have never linked their drinking to specific triggers.
This worksheet provides a one-week diary in standard drinks, using the Canadian definition (341 ml of 5 percent beer, 142 ml of 12 percent wine, 43 ml of 40 percent spirits, each containing about 13.5 grams of alcohol), and then a reduction plan: a weekly target and a daily maximum, alcohol-free days, drinking rules, a map of high-risk situations with alternatives, and a review. It references Canada's Guidance on Alcohol and Health (2023), which describes a continuum of risk in which two or fewer standard drinks per week carries low risk, three to six carries moderate risk, and seven or more carries increasingly high risk, and which advises no more than two drinks on any single occasion.
The professional version adds notes on when moderation is not an appropriate goal (severe dependence, withdrawal history, liver disease, pregnancy, certain medications), on the risks of abrupt cessation in heavily dependent drinkers, and on using the AUDIT to stratify and to track change.
How to use it
- Screen with the AUDIT or a similar tool first. For clients with likely dependence, a history of withdrawal seizures or delirium, or relevant medical conditions, refer for medical assessment before any reduction plan, and do not set a plan that involves sudden cessation.
- Teach standard drink sizes explicitly; have the client estimate their usual pour and compare it with the standard measure.
- Ask the client to keep the diary for one full week before setting targets, recording drinks as they happen rather than reconstructing at the end of the day.
- Set the target collaboratively. A reduction the client chooses and believes is possible is better than an ideal target imposed by you. Move toward the guidance over time.
- Review the diary at each session. Look for patterns in time, place, company and mood, and focus problem-solving on the two or three highest-risk situations.
References
- Sobell, M. B., & Sobell, L. C. (1993). Problem drinkers: Guided self-change treatment. Guilford Press.
- Paradis, C., Butt, P., Shield, K., et al. (2023). Canada's guidance on alcohol and health: Final report. Canadian Centre on Substance Use and Addiction.
- Babor, T. F., Higgins-Biddle, J. C., Saunders, J. B., & Monteiro, M. G. (2001). AUDIT: The Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test. Guidelines for use in primary care (2nd ed.). World Health Organization.
- Miller, W. R., & Rollnick, S. (2013). Motivational interviewing: Helping people change (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.
