Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Writing a reminder that says what to do, setting it for when you can act, repeating it only when the task repeats, and keeping alerts few.
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 write reminder words with a verb and a detail, set the time from the leave-by time, choose one-off or recurring, and audit a day's alerts.
In lesson 1, an alarm or timed reminder was the aid for a task due at a time. In lesson 2 you worked out a leave-by time. This lesson puts the two together: a reminder that goes off at the right moment and says exactly what to do. Every aid here works on paper, and on any phone, watch, tablet or smart speaker. No particular app or device is needed.
It is optional practice alongside any care you receive, and the tasks in it are invented.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Timed reminder | An alert set for a clock time, on any device or a timer. |
| One-off | A reminder that goes off once and is then gone. |
| Recurring | A reminder that repeats daily, weekly or monthly. |
| Lead time | How long before an event the reminder goes off. |
| Alarm fatigue | Tuning out alerts because too many need nothing. |
| Done or moved | The rule for a reminder: do it, or reset it to a new time. |
A timed reminder is any alert set for a time: a phone alarm with a label, a reminder in a calendar or reminders app, a watch buzz, a smart speaker told remind me at 7 p.m. to put the bin at the curb, or a plain kitchen timer with a sticky note on it. Some phones can also remind you when you arrive somewhere; that is useful but not needed here.
Every reminder has three settings worth choosing on purpose:
| Setting | The question it answers |
|---|---|
| Words | What exactly do I do when it goes off? |
| Time | When can I start doing it? |
| Repeat | Does the task come back, and how often? |
A reminder that says Chicken! at 5 p.m. is a puzzle: take it out of the freezer? Put it in the oven? Buy some? A good reminder is written so that you could act on it even if you had forgotten everything about setting it.
Words: a verb, an object, and the one detail you will need. Take the chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow works. So does Call Dr. Patel's office to move Thursday — 555-0123.
Time: when you can start, not when the event starts. An alarm at 10:00 for a 10:00 appointment tells you that you are late. Set it for the leave-by time you worked out in lesson 2. And choose a moment you can act: not while driving, not in the shower, not asleep.
Repeat: only when the task repeats. A weekly task — trash night — gets a weekly reminder, set once. A one-off gets a one-off, which then disappears. A repeating reminder for a task that has ended is noise.
And keep them few. Every alert that needs nothing teaches you to dismiss alerts.
Another way: steps
Another way: picture
Think of a reminder as a note from a friend who knows what you are doing. Chicken! is a friend shouting a word across the room. Take the chicken out of the freezer for tomorrow is a friend who tells you what to do, then lets you get on with it.
The best-known study of timed reminders for everyday memory is NeuroPage. Wilson, Emslie, Quirk and Evans (2001) gave 143 people with brain injury a pager that showed short messages at times each person chose — messages for their own target tasks, such as taking medication on time. In a randomized crossover design, people completed more of their target tasks during the pager period than before it, and 85% did better with the pager than at baseline.
Pagers are gone, but the lesson of the study is the one this lesson teaches: the messages were specific, they arrived at a time the person could act, and they were for tasks the person had chosen. The study does not show that reminders change memory itself; they carry the task for you.
Hospitals learned the cost of too many alerts. In 2013 the Joint Commission, which accredits US hospitals, warned about alarm fatigue: it estimated that 85 to 99% of hospital alarm signals did not need a clinician to act, and that staff who hear so many alarms can become desensitized to them. Home is not a hospital, but the same thing happens on a phone. If most of your alerts are drink water and app notifications, the one that matters gets swiped away with the rest.
So audit your reminders now and then. Keep each one that always asks for an action. Rewrite one that is vague. Delete one that nags without asking for anything, or one whose task has ended.
The moment a reminder goes off, do one of two things: do the task, or move the reminder to a time you will do it. Snoozing again and again, or dismissing it meaning to come back, is how a well-set reminder still fails. Lesson 7 returns to what to do when one does.
Take a fictional household in a US city with trash pickup early on Wednesday mornings, an electric bill due on the 15th of each month, and a friend's birthday on June 3.
Trash. The bin has to be at the curb before pickup, so the reminder goes on Tuesday at 7 p.m., weekly: Put the trash and recycling bins at the curb. That is one reminder, set once, for 52 alerts a year.
The bill. It is due on the 15th; paying online takes five minutes, and payments can take a day or two to post. So the reminder is monthly on the 12th at 6 p.m.: Pay the electric bill online — account number in the notebook.
The birthday. A one-off each year is easiest set as a yearly repeat. The useful time is not June 3 but a week before, when there is still time to mail a card: May 27, Buy and mail Ana's birthday card.
Three reminders, each with a verb, each at a time to act, each repeating exactly as often as its task. Anything else that buzzes that week has to earn its place beside them.
More reminders, fewer misses. Past a point, more alerts mean more are ignored. A few that always matter beat many that sometimes do.
The event time is the reminder time. For anything with travel or preparation, the reminder belongs at the leave-by or start-preparing time.
A one-word label is enough; I'll know what I meant. Later, you may not. The words should work for a reader who has forgotten setting it.
Start from the label.
Label: Dentist
A noun names the event, not the action.
Write the words with a verb and a detail.
Leave for the dentist at Oak Dental, 90 Pine St — bring the insurance card
It says what to do and the one thing to take.
Set the time from the leave-by time.
Appointment 3:00 p.m.; drive 20 + margin 10 → reminder 2:30 p.m.
An alert at 3:00 would only say you are late.
Choose the repeat.
Repeat: one-off (Thu Oct 9)
A single appointment gets a single reminder.
Name the repeating task.
Water the tomato plants every other evening
The task returns on a pattern.
Pick a moment you can act.
7:30 p.m., after dinner, before the light goes
Not during dinner, not after dark.
Write the words and the repeat.
Water the tomatoes — watering can by the back step · every 2 days
One reminder, set once, repeating as the task does.
Decide when it ends.
End date: Sep 30, when the season is over
A reminder for a finished task is noise.
Write the words.
Move the wet laundry to the dryer
A verb and an object.
Set the time and repeat.
The wash takes 50 minutes → a one-off timer for 50 minutes
The task can start when the wash ends.
Say it to the device.
You need to return a borrowed ladder to your neighbor Sam on Saturday morning. Which reminder text works best?
A reminder for a fictional Saturday 9:00 a.m. yoga class, a 15-minute walk away, with a 5-minute margin. The words are done; finish the settings.
| Setting | |
|---|---|
| Words | Walk to yoga — mat by the door |
| Time | |
| Repeat |
Match each task to how its reminder should repeat.
| One-off | Repeat daily | Repeat weekly | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pick up the new glasses on Friday | |||
| Put the recycling out Sunday night | |||
| Feed the fish each morning | |||
| Choir practice on Wednesdays |
A fictional pottery class starts at 6:00 p.m. The drive takes 25 minutes and you allow a 15-minute margin. How many minutes before 6:00 should the reminder go off, and at what time?
The reminder goes off a minutes before the start, at 5:b p.m.
A fictional person's reminders for one day. For each, write keep, rewrite or delete.
| Alert | Decision |
|---|---|
| Look at the phone (every 30 min) | |
| Put the bins at the curb (Tue 7 p.m.) | |
| Mom | |
| Swim lessons (the lessons ended in May) | |
| Leave for work — badge on the hook (8:10) |
A fictional new job comes with reminders: a daily 7 a.m. *Pack lunch*, a weekday 8:10 a.m. *Leave for the bus*, a weekly Friday *Submit timesheet*, and a daily 3 p.m. *Stretch* that the person decides to delete. How many alerts a week are there before and after deleting it?
Before: a alerts a week. After deleting: b.
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
Set a time and a repeat for each fictional task. A haircut at 11:00 on Saturday is a 20-minute drive with a 10-minute margin; the water bill is due on the 20th of every month; the trash goes out every Monday night.
| Task | Time | Repeat |
|---|---|---|
| Leave for the haircut | ||
| Pay the water bill online | ||
| Put the trash at the curb |
Look at the reminders on your own phone, watch or speaker. Rewrite one that is only a label, and delete one that never asks you to do anything. Next: a home for the things you carry, and cues where the action happens. This course is optional practice alongside any care you receive. It is not treatment and does not measure your memory. If anything about your memory or thinking is new or changing, tell your own clinicians. You can stop at any point: close the page and the lesson opens again where you were.
13. Your turn: moving the laundry with a smart speaker, step 3
Remind me in 50 minutes to move the wet laundry to the dryer
Any device with timers or reminders works the same way.