Increase of jitter in a phase change optical recording medium is suppressed with no extreme decrease in the crystallization speed of the recording layer when the medium is overwritten at a high linear velocity. In addition, in a disk-shaped medium operated at a constant angular velocity, the overwriting is accomplished with the increase of jitter suppressed over the entire area of the medium. Provided is an optical recording method for recording a disk-shaped optical recording medium having a phase change recording layer which is rotated at a constant angular velocity, wherein amorphous recorded marks are formed in the recording layer. In this method, the minimum recorded mark is formed such that W L /M L incrementally or gradually decreases from the radially inner side to the radially outer side of the optical recording medium, when the minimum signal has a length of S L , and when the minimum recorded mark corresponding to said minimum signal has its maximum width of M W , E W is 0.1 M W ; the position on the leading edge side of the recorded mark at the width of E W is designated effective leading edge; and the position on the trailing edge side of the recorded mark at the width of E W is designated effective trailing edge; the distance between the effective leading edge and the effective trailing edge is designated effective length M L ; and the distance between the effective leading edge and the position at which the width starts to decrease on the trailing edge side is designated W L .