Back to the on-screen lesson ·
A ten-minute weekly review: count each line's missed days, ask what happened to its cue, and change one thing for a week.
Paper packet. Every task here also exists on screen, where it is checked automatically; answers written on paper are not assessed by Nydus. When you are back at a device, enter your answers there.
You will read a week of ticks, pick the lines missed on two or more days, find whether the cue was not seen, came at the wrong moment or was in the wrong place, and write one change as a when …, I will … sentence.
You have a card with an anchor, one action per line, starred lines and a place for ticks. A week of use leaves a record: which lines got a tick and which did not. This last lesson reads that record, once a week, to keep the routine working. The logs here are invented, and your own record is only ever compared with your own earlier weeks. It is not a score. This is optional practice alongside your own care, not treatment and not a measure of recovery. If anything about your memory, speech, energy or thinking is new or changing, tell your own clinicians.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Cue | Whatever is meant to prompt an action: the card, an alarm, an anchor, the things laid out. |
| Week sheet | The routine's lines down the side and the seven days across, one tick per box. |
| Missed days | Seven minus the ticks for a line in one week. |
| Review line | The point, two or more missed days, at which a line's cue is looked at. |
| Implementation intention | A plan written as when [cue], I will [action]. |
| One change | Altering a single cue and waiting a week before judging it. |
The support is a week sheet: the routine's lines down the side and the seven days across the top, so a week of ticks sits on one page. Keep it where the card is.
Give the review a fixed slot of its own, tied to an anchor like any other line: Sunday, after lunch, ten minutes with the week sheet and a pen. Put that line on the calendar, so the review does not depend on remembering to review.
When a line keeps being missed, the useful question is not what is wrong with me? but what happened to the cue? A cue is whatever is meant to prompt the action: the card itself, an alarm, the anchor moment, the things laid out. It can fail in three ways. It was not seen (the card was in a drawer). It came at the wrong moment (the alarm rang during a phone call). Or the things were in the wrong place (the stamps upstairs, the letter by the door).
The review is four moves. Count the ticks for each line and subtract from seven. Pick the lines missed on two or more days; one miss in a week is ordinary life. Ask the three cue questions of the most-missed line. Change one thing, and leave it for a week before judging.
A good way to write the new cue is as a when …, I will … sentence: When I fill the kettle in the morning, I will water the windowsill plants. Gollwitzer and Sheeran (2006) pooled 94 independent tests of plans written this way, often called implementation intentions, and found a medium-to-large effect on reaching goals compared with stating the goal alone. Most of those studies were of healthy adults and students, so the finding supports the form of the sentence; it is not a promise about any one person's week.
Another way: picture
A gardener walking the rows on Sunday does not scold the plant that drooped. She looks at what it lacks, sun, water or room, and moves one thing. Then she waits a week to see.
Another way: steps
| What the week shows | Cue problem | One fix to try |
|---|---|---|
| I forgot it was on the card | not seen | move the card or cue into your line of sight |
| The alarm went off in the shower | wrong moment | tie it to an anchor that comes just before |
| The stamps were upstairs | wrong place | put the things where the action happens |
| It said sometime this week | no anchor | give it a day and a moment |
The notes in the first column come from jotting a word beside a missed box during the week: drawer, shower, upstairs. Those few words make Sunday's review quick.
Changing one cue at a time means that next Sunday you know what made the difference. Change three and the week tells you nothing about any of them.
A week also smooths out the ordinary bumps: a visitor, a rainy day, a bad night. A fix judged after one day is judged on luck. When a line moves from missed on two or more days to missed on one or none, keep the change. When it does not, try the next of the three questions. And when every line is ticked most days, the review takes two minutes and you are done.
Quality engineers have long used a four-step loop: plan a change, do it, check the result, then act on what the check shows. It is usually credited to Walter Shewhart and was spread by W. Edwards Deming, and it is still taught in manufacturing and in health-care quality work. Its core idea is the one in this lesson: a small change, then a look at the record, then the next change.
The fictional Garcia household runs it on a shared chore chart. Last week rinse the recycling got 4 ticks out of 7: 3 missed days. The notes beside the gaps said bin is in the garage. The chart was in the hall, far from the job. Their one change: tape a copy of the line to the garage door, where the bin is. This Sunday it has 6 ticks, 1 missed day, and the chart moves on to the next line.
A missed line means I did not try hard enough. Effort is rarely what is missing. A cue out of sight gets missed by everyone.
Fix everything at once. Three changes in one week leave you unable to tell which one helped.
My week should be compared with how I used to do, or with other people. The review compares this week's line with the same line last week, and nothing else. It is a record of a routine, not a measure of you.
Count the missed days for each line.
blinds 7 − 7 → 0 · breakfast 7 − 7 → 0 · plants 7 − 3 → 4 · plan 7 − 5 → 2 · mailbox walk 7 − 6 → 1
Missed days are what the review reads.
Pick the lines on or over the review line.
plants (4) and plan (2) → review · the rest → leave alone
One miss a week is ordinary; two or more points to a weak cue.
Start with the most-missed line.
plants: missed 4 days → first
One change at a time, beginning where it will matter most.
Write the review on the sheet.
This week: look at the plants cue. Plan line: next week.
The second line waits its turn, so the week tests one change.
Read the notes beside the missed boxes.
plants: forgot, card in drawer, forgot, card in drawer
The same note twice shows the pattern.
Ask the three cue questions.
Seen? no, the card is in a drawer. Right moment? unclear. Right place? the can is by the sink, fine.
The first question that fails is the one to fix.
Write one change as when …, I will ….
When I fill the kettle in the morning, I will water the windowsill plants. The card moves to the kettle shelf.
The anchor makes the moment exact and the card is now in sight.
Set the check for next Sunday.
Next review: plants line, last week 3 ticks → this week ? ticks
The line will be compared with itself, one week to the next.
Count the missed days.
Tuesday-night line, 4 weeks: ticked 2 of 4 → 2 missed
A weekly line is counted over several weeks.
Read the note and ask the three questions.
Never sure which night it is → the line has no anchor
The problem is timing: nothing marks Tuesday night.
Write the change as when …, I will ….
Match each fictional reason a line was missed to the kind of cue problem it shows.
| The cue was not seen | The cue came at the wrong moment | The things were in the wrong place | The line had no anchor to start from | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| The card was kept in the kitchen drawer. | ||||
| The phone alarm rang during a call and was dismissed. | ||||
| The watering can lives in the garage. | ||||
| The line said *sometime this week*. |
The fictional line *Walk to the mailbox* has this week's ticks: Mon ✓, Tue ✓, Wed —, Thu ✓, Fri —, Sat —, Sun ✓. Complete the review of the line.
Count the ticks across the week.
Mon, Tue, Thu, Sun → a ticks
The log, not a feeling about the week, is what the review reads.
Find the missed days.
seven days minus the ticks → b missed
The missed days are compared with the review line.
Look for a pattern in the missed days.
Wed, Fri, Sat → three days without a morning anchor
Misses that share a day or a situation point to the cue, not to chance.
Here is Ada's fictional weekly review note. Select the sentences that name a specific change to a cue.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
A fictional week's log: *Open the blinds* ticked 7 days, *Water the plants* ticked 3 days, *Write the day's plan* ticked 6 days. How many days was each missed, and how many lines need a review?
Blinds missed a days, plants b, plan c. Lines to review: d.
Each missed line in a fictional review has a note beside it. Choose what went wrong with its cue.
| Cue problem | |
|---|---|
| Write the day's plan: card was under the mail. | |
| Stretch after breakfast: alarm went off in the shower. | |
| Mail the bills: stamps are upstairs. | |
| Bring in the trash can: card is on the back of the door. |
Ada moved her fictional plant-watering cue: the watering can now sits beside the kettle. Last week the line was ticked on 3 days; this week on 6. By how many days did it change, how many days was it missed this week, and does it still need a review (1 = yes, 0 = no)?
Change: a days. Missed this week: b. Needs review: c.
The Garcias review their fictional shared chore chart on Sunday. For each chore, write the missed days and choose the fix.
| Missed days | Fix | |
|---|---|---|
| Feed the fish: 7 ticks. | ||
| Rinse the recycling: 4 ticks; *chart is in the hall, bin is in the garage.* | ||
| Empty the dishwasher: 5 ticks; *nobody knew when.* |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Lou's fictional Sunday review. For each line, write the missed days and choose the change for next week.
| Missed days | Change for next week | |
|---|---|---|
| Open the blinds: 7 ticks. | ||
| Stretch after breakfast: 2 ticks; *card in the drawer.* | ||
| Write the day's plan: 6 ticks. | ||
| Take out the recycling: 4 ticks; *never sure which night.* |
Put a ten-minute review on your calendar, tied to an anchor such as Sunday after lunch, and bring your week sheet to it. Change one cue at a time. This is the last lesson of the course: what you take away is the card, the stars and the review. This is optional practice alongside your own care, not treatment and not a measure of recovery. If anything about your memory, speech, energy or thinking is new or changing, tell your own clinicians. You can stop at any point: close the page, and it reopens where you left it.
12. Your turn: *Take out the recycling*, step 3
When I clear the dinner table on Tuesday, I will take the bin out.
Clearing the table is a moment that already happens every Tuesday.