Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Writing a routine on a card so each line is one action someone could watch, with an anchor to start it and a check line to end it.
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 turn a vague routine into a card of single, observable actions, using the verb count and the watcher test, and give it an anchor and a check line.
You already follow written steps. A recipe, the card taped inside a fuse box, the instructions for a new printer: each works because someone else did the remembering and wrote it down one move at a time. This course is about doing the same for your own week, so that the ordinary days carry themselves. The people and routines in it are invented for practice. 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 |
|---|---|
| Routine card | One routine written down, one line per action, with a tick box beside each line. |
| Observable action | Something a person could be seen doing and seen to have finished. |
| Goal line | A line that names what you want (get ready, sort out) instead of what you do. |
| Watcher test | Asking whether someone in the room could tick the line when it is done. |
| Anchor | The everyday moment the routine starts from, such as after the coffee is poured. |
| Check line | The last line of a card, which confirms the whole routine is finished. |
The support in this lesson is a card: an index card, a sheet on the fridge, or a note on your phone. It holds one routine, from its starting point to its last check, with a small box beside each line for a tick.
The first few times, read a line, do it, tick it, then read the next. Do not try to remember what comes next; the card is there so you do not have to. This is the errorless way to start a routine: the right step is in front of you every time, so the wrong one never gets practiced.
A written routine works when each line is one observable action: a verb someone could see you do, the thing it is done to, and, when it matters, where. Put the bus pass in the blue bag is one. Get ready for the bus is not. It names a goal and leaves the steps inside your head, which is exactly the job the card was meant to take over.
Two quick tests tell the difference. Count the verbs. One verb, one line; two verbs joined by and are two lines. Ask the watcher test: could a friend standing in the room tick this line when it is done? Be organized and make sure it's sorted fail, because nobody can see them finished.
Why go to this trouble for jobs you have done a thousand times? The part of memory that holds what you are doing right now is small. Cowan (2001) put it at about four chunks at once for most adults, and a phone call, a noise or a tired afternoon uses some of those up. A routine carried in the head competes with everything else in it. A routine on a card does not. The ACRM review of cognitive rehabilitation (Cicerone et al., 2019) recommends compensatory strategies such as written aids for mild memory difficulties. That is the evidence behind using an aid; it is not a promise that writing a card repairs anything.
Another way: picture
Think of stepping stones across a creek. Each stone holds one foot. A line with two actions is a stone too far to reach in one step: you stretch, you wobble, and sometimes one foot lands in the water.
Another way: steps
Most first drafts are full of goal lines. They are natural to write, because that is how we think about a morning. The table shows three, and what a watcher would actually see.
| First draft | What a watcher would see | Lines it becomes |
|---|---|---|
| Get ready for the bus | shoes on, bag packed, bus time checked, door locked | 4 |
| Tidy up after dinner | plates to the sink, table wiped, food in the fridge | 3 |
| Do the plants | the watering can filled, the four pots watered | 2 |
Splitting a line does not make the routine longer to do. It makes it longer to read, and much shorter to recover when you are interrupted, because the tick shows exactly where you got to.
A card needs two more things. The first is an anchor: the moment the routine begins, tied to something that already happens every day. After the breakfast dishes are in the sink is an anchor; in the morning is not, because the morning has no edge you can notice.
The second is a check line at the end: look at the card, every box ticked? or bag on my shoulder, door locked. It is the line that catches the step skipped when the kettle whistled.
Keep one card to about five to nine lines. A longer routine splits into two cards with their own headings, such as Before breakfast and Before leaving. A short card is read to the end; a long one gets skimmed.
Written recipes were once a list of ingredients and a paragraph of advice: a good handful of flour, bake until done. Fannie Farmer's Boston Cooking-School Cook Book of 1896 is widely credited with popularizing level, standard measurements in American recipes, and modern recipes go further, numbering the method one move at a time: 1. Heat the oven to 350°F. 2. Grease the pan. The cook no longer has to hold the method in mind while their hands are busy.
A household card is the same idea. Take Lena, a fictional volunteer who leaves for the library at 9:15 on Mondays. Her first draft said Get ready and go. Her card now reads: after the breakfast dishes are in the sink, 1. Put on walking shoes. 2. Pack the library badge in the blue bag. 3. Pack a water bottle in the blue bag. 4. Check the bus time on the fridge card. 5. Lock the front door. 6. Bag on shoulder, door locked: tick. Six lines, about two minutes to read, and on the Monday the neighbor knocked at 9:05 she could see she had stopped after line 3.
More words make a better line. A line is one action, not a paragraph. Put the keys in the bowl by the door is enough; the reasons belong somewhere else.
A routine I know well does not need writing down. The card is for the days it does not come easily: a poor night, a visitor, a change in the week. Those are the days you cannot choose in advance.
Ticking boxes is for children. Pilots, nurses and chefs tick lists every working day. The tick is what lets you stop halfway and know where you are.
Underline the verbs in the draft line.
Get ready for the bus → no action you can watch; get ready is a goal.
A goal line hides its actions, so the first job is to find them.
List what a watcher would see, one action each.
Put on shoes. · Pack the bus pass in the blue bag. · Check the bus time on the fridge card. · Lock the front door.
Each of these has one verb and one object, so each can be ticked.
Apply the watcher test to every new line.
shoes: yes · bus pass: yes · bus time: yes · door: yes
Every line passes, so none needs splitting again.
Add the anchor and the check line.
Start: after the breakfast dishes are in the sink. Last line: bag on shoulder, door locked, tick.
The anchor says when to pick up the card; the check line says it is finished.
Write each action on its own line.
Sort darks and lights. · Darks in the washer. · Start the washer on cold. · Move the darks to the dryer. · Check the drum is empty.
Laundry is several actions that feel like one, so each gets its own line.
Find the action that needs nothing before it.
Sorting comes first: nothing goes in until the basket is sorted.
Starting from what has no requirement fixes the first line.
Number the rest in the order each allows the next.
1 sort · 2 darks in · 3 start washer · 4 move to dryer · 5 check drum
Each line needs the one before it, so the order is not a matter of taste.
Count the lines and add the anchor.
5 lines · anchor: after lunch on Wednesday.
Five lines sits inside the five-to-nine range, so one card holds it.
List what a watcher would see.
Plates to the sink. · Wipe the table. · Leftovers in the fridge.
Tidy up is a goal; these are the movements inside it.
Apply the watcher test to each line.
plates: yes · table: yes · leftovers: yes
Each line has one verb and one object.
Add the check line at the end.
Lena is writing a card for the mornings she volunteers at the library. Which line could someone watching her tick off?
Rosa's fictional card has one line for Thursday evening: *Do the trash.* Complete the rewrite.
List what Rosa would be seen doing.
Tie the kitchen bag. · Carry it to the can by the garage. · Wheel the can to the curb. · Set the recycling bin beside it.
Do the trash is a goal; the actions are what a watcher would see.
Count the actions the goal was hiding.
a actions
Each becomes one numbered line on the card.
Add a last line that checks the job.
Look out the front window: can and bin at the curb? Tick the card.
A check line catches the step that was skipped when the phone rang.
Count the lines on the finished card.
b lines
The actions plus the one check line, which keeps the card well under nine lines.
Here is Omar's fictional draft card for leaving for his Tuesday shift. Select every line that needs rewriting because it holds more than one action or no action at all.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Count the actions in each draft line of a fictional card. Line A: *Fill the kettle, switch it on and set out a mug.* Line B: *Water the plants on the windowsill.* Line C: *Feed the cat and refill her water bowl.*
Line A holds a actions, line B holds b, and line C holds c.
Audit four lines from a fictional evening card. For each, write how many actions it holds and whether a watcher could tick it as written.
| Actions named | A watcher could tick it | |
|---|---|---|
| Lock the back door. | ||
| Sort out the kitchen. | ||
| Plug in the phone by the bed. | ||
| Wash the pan and wipe the stove. |
A fictional laundry card has one action per line. Join each action to the action that must come straight after it, so the card's order is fixed before it is numbered.
This task has no paper form; do it on a device.
Walt is away on Saturday, and his grandson Theo will feed Walt's dog. Walt drafted a card for Theo. For each line, write how many actions it names and choose what it needs before Theo can use it.
| Actions named | What it needs | |
|---|---|---|
| Take care of Biscuit. | ||
| Scoop one cup of food into the red bowl. | ||
| Fill the water bowl and walk him round the block. | ||
| Lock the side door. |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional morning card, anchored to *after the coffee is poured*. For each line, write how many actions it names and choose what it needs.
| Actions named | What it needs | |
|---|---|---|
| Open the blinds. | ||
| Deal with the dishes. | ||
| Check the calendar and write today's plan on the card. | ||
| Put the keys in the bowl by the door. |
Choose one short routine from your own week and write it on a card: an anchor, one action per line, and a check line at the end. Use it for a few days before changing it. Next: writing notes that still make sense tomorrow. 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: rewrite *Tidy up after dinner*, step 3
The check line confirms nothing was skipped.