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  • Published: 11 November 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241707227
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $36.99

The Good Decision Diary

Your daily guide to making better decisions, more of the time




The gentle guide to getting where you want to go, without beating yourself up on the way there.

I'll never eat sugar again!
I’ll work out every single morning!
I will never, ever shout at my kids!

Sound familiar? Anna Mathur, Sunday Times bestselling author and psychotherapist, has been there too. In The Good Decision Diary, Anna introduces a compassionate and realistic alternative to unsustainable promises. This isn’t about perfection - it’s about progress.

The journey begins with 21 days of reflection and observation, where Anna shares her own experiences and equips you with tools to approach change with kindness and curiosity.

From there, she gently guides you through a 14-day practice of questioning behaviours, challenging long-held beliefs about change, and identifying patterns of self-sabotage. You’ll discover how a decision that nurtures you one day can hinder you the next - and how to tell the difference in the moment.

The Good Decision Diary will help you make better decisions, not all of the time, but more of the time.

  • Published: 11 November 2025
  • ISBN: 9780241707227
  • Imprint: Penguin Life
  • Format: Hardback
  • Pages: 304
  • RRP: $36.99

About the author

Anna Mathur

Anna Mathur is a psychotherapist and the bestselling author of Mind over Mother. She's passionate about taking therapy out of the therapy room and sharing her own personal and professional experiences to support mums through motherhood.

She shares supportive insights on her Instagram (@annamathur) and runs regular 'Mental Health' lives. Anna has appeared on Sky News, Good Morning Britain and BBC Three. She has been featured in Grazia, Stylist and The Telegraph. Her podcast, 'The Therapy Edit', has around a quarter of a million downloads and she has appeared on podcasts including Deliciously Ella, Control Alt Delete, Scummy Mummies, The Midult and Honestly.

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Praise for The Good Decision Diary

The Good Decision Diary offers a reflective, low-pressure approach to personal growth. It's designed as a daily guide for those looking to untangle habits and better understand their inner voice, with more gentleness than the typical fix-yourself-fast approach

Anne-Laure Le Cunff, Neuroscientist and author of Tiny Experiments

Anna provides a transformative approach to personal growth. This book is an essential companion for anyone looking to make meaningful changes with kindness and self-awareness

Zoe Blaskey, Founder of Motherkind

A reassuring and comforting read, offering immediately actionable insights. It stands as a guiding star in a world filled with infinite choices and indecision

Emma Reed Turrell

Anna's diary made me feel supported and seen, but crucially also, gently challenged. Her honest encouraging words prompt a realistic personal accountability with grace and understanding at the core. As always with Anna's writing, it left me feeling uplifted and understood

Ellie Taylor

Anna Mathur asks just the right questions to stop us sleepwalking through life, getting what matters most to us front and centre, without the usual self-flagellation. Her prompts and approach help us become our own accountability partner, brainstorming new ways of responding to life and self

Suzy Reading

Compassionate, real, and quietly powerful. Anna gives you permission to stop chasing perfection and instead start making progress that actually sticks

Simon Gilham, author of Stop Lying to Yourself

This book is like a dear, wise friend who knows you, gets you, believes in you and is wholeheartedly committed to helping you grow. Like any dear friend, keep it close

Fiona Buckland

Anna guides us safely and expertly through our inner dialogue and our outer worlds

Julia Bradbury
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