Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Keeping aids in use with a short weekly review tied to something you already do: gather, look back, look ahead, update, and book the next one.
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 anchor a weekly review to your week, sort last week's open items, check the next two weeks' entries, and put the review's five moves in order.
You now have the pieces: a calendar with complete entries (lesson 2), checklists (lesson 3), reminders (lesson 4) and a launch pad (lesson 5). Three of those wait to be looked at. This lesson is about the habit that makes sure they are.
It is optional practice alongside any care you receive. If you work with a therapist on memory aids, the review is a good thing to plan together.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Weekly review | A fixed time each week to check and update your aids. |
| Daily look | About two minutes each morning reading today's entries. |
| Look back | Checking the past 7 days for anything left open. |
| Look ahead | Checking the next 14 days for incomplete entries. |
| Anchor | The thing you already do that the review follows. |
| Drop on purpose | Deciding a task is no longer needed, and crossing it out. |
The weekly review is a standing appointment with your own aids: fifteen to twenty minutes, at the same time each week, with the calendar, the notebook and any lists in front of you.
| Move | What you do |
|---|---|
| 1. Gather | Move loose notes and scraps into the calendar or notebook |
| 2. Look back | Check the past 7 days: done, move, or drop each open item |
| 3. Look ahead | Check the next 14 days: is each entry complete? |
| 4. Update | Refresh lists, reminders and the launch pad |
| 5. Set the next one | Put next week's review in the calendar |
Alongside it, a daily look of about two minutes — at breakfast, say — reads today's entries and copies them to the whiteboard if you use one.
A calendar full of complete entries helps nobody if it is not opened. A notebook with the plumber's quote in it helps only when you look. So using an aid well has two parts: setting it up, which the earlier lessons taught, and using it regularly, which is a habit like any other.
Habits form around a fixed time and a fixed cue. The review is easiest to keep when it is tied to something you already do every week: after Sunday breakfast, with the second cup of coffee, I do the review at the kitchen table. That sentence names the moment, the place and the action, the same shape as the implementation intentions in lesson 2.
The review itself works by looking both ways. Looking back catches what slipped last week before it is lost. Looking ahead two weeks catches what an entry is missing — a leave-by time, a document to bring — while there is still time to fix it. Fourteen days is long enough to see a form to fill in or a card to mail before it is urgent.
Another way: steps
Another way: story
Joan set her review for Sunday after church, at the dining table. In the third week, looking ahead, she saw Car inspection, Fri 20th with no time and no place. She called the garage on Monday, added 9:00 a.m., Route 9 Garage, bring registration, and set a reminder. Without the review, she would have found the entry on Friday morning.
In a well-known study, Lally and colleagues (2010) asked 96 volunteers to repeat one small daily behavior, such as a walk after breakfast, in the same situation every day, and to rate how automatic it felt. For those whose data could be modeled, it took a median of 66 days for the behavior to reach its most automatic, with a very wide range — from 18 to 254 days. Missing a single chance to do it did not noticeably set the habit back.
Two things follow for a weekly review. First, expect it to feel like an effort for weeks, not days; that is normal and says nothing about you. Second, one missed week is not a failed system. Do the next one.
Clinicians who teach people to use a memory book after brain injury often follow a plan Sohlberg and Mateer described in 1989, in three stages. In acquisition, the person learns what each section of the book is for. In application, they practice using it in role-played and real situations. In adaptation, they use it in new settings, at home and out. The point for this lesson is that using an aid is itself something learned by practice; nobody is expected to pick it up at once. If you work with a therapist, they may set up your aids in the same stages.
In offices, the weekly review was made popular by David Allen's book Getting Things Done (2001), which calls it the habit that keeps a whole system of lists trustworthy. The version here is smaller and slower, and it suits any mix of paper and devices.
Take a fictional review on Sunday, March 1, after breakfast.
Gather. Two sticky notes from the week go into the calendar: dentist wants to rebook and Kim's new number. The number goes in the notebook.
Look back, Feb 23 to Mar 1. Return the library book is not done. It moves to Tuesday, with the book put on the doormat Monday night.
Look ahead, Mar 2 to Mar 15. The window covers March 15. That matters in the US, because federal income tax returns are normally due on April 15, and an entry Tax papers to Hill Accounting, Mar 12 is in the window. It has no time and no list of what to bring; both get added now, from the accountant's letter.
Update. The reminder for swim lessons, which ended, is deleted. A new bus pass goes on the launch pad.
Set the next one. Weekly review, Sun Mar 8, after breakfast goes in the calendar with a weekly repeat. The whole review took about 20 minutes.
I'll review whenever I have a spare moment. A spare moment rarely arrives. A review with no fixed time and anchor is the first thing a busy week drops.
Missing a week means the system failed. Lally's volunteers missed days and still formed habits. Do the next review; do not start over.
The review is for looking ahead only. Looking back is how a task that slipped last Tuesday gets moved to a date rather than forgotten.
List the open items from the past 7 days.
Call the insurer · Mail the rent check · Buy a birthday card
Anything not ticked is still open.
Mark what was done.
Mail the rent check → done (ticked Wednesday)
A tick means it can be cleared.
Move what still matters to a date.
Call the insurer → Tue 10:00 a.m., reminder set
A moved task needs a date, not just good intentions.
Drop what no longer matters, on purpose.
Birthday card → dropped (called instead)
Crossing it out stops it nagging.
Read each entry in the next 14 days.
Thu 12: Dentist · Sat 14: Bake sale · Tue 17: Jury duty
Fourteen days leaves time to fix what is missing.
Test each against the six fields.
Dentist: no time or place. Bake sale: no what to bring.
An incomplete entry fails on the day.
Fix what is missing now.
Dentist: 2:15 p.m., Oak Dental. Bake sale: bring 2 dozen cookies
Fixed a week ahead, not the morning of.
Set reminders where needed.
Reminder: Fri 13, 6 p.m., Bake the cookies for the sale
Preparation gets its own reminder.
Put the next review in the calendar.
Weekly review, Sun 15, after breakfast (repeats weekly)
The review schedules itself.
Find something done every week at the same time.
Saturday morning coffee at the kitchen table
The anchor already happens without effort.
Name the moment, place and action.
After Saturday coffee, at the kitchen table, I do the weekly review
The same shape as an implementation intention.
Put it in the calendar as a repeating entry.
Which plan is most likely to keep a weekly review going?
Looking ahead over a fictional two weeks. The first two entries are checked; check the last two.
| Entry | What it needs |
|---|---|
| Vet, Tue 3 p.m., 8 Elm St (20-min drive) | add leave-by time |
| Picnic, Sat noon, Lake Park | add what to bring |
| Book club, Thu 7 p.m., library room 2, bring the novel, leave 6:40 | |
| Mail passport form by Fri 13 |
Put the five moves of the weekly review in order.
Number the steps in order (write the number in the box):
Looking back over a fictional week. For each item, write done, move to a new date, or drop on purpose.
| Item from last week | Decision |
|---|---|
| Renew the parking permit (open; expires next week) | |
| Pick up dry cleaning (ticked) | |
| Buy tickets for the concert (open; now sold out) | |
| Call the landlord about the leak (open) |
A fictional review is on Sunday, June 8. Looking back covers June 2 to June 8. Looking ahead covers the next 14 days. What is the last date looked ahead to, and how many days does the whole review window span, back and ahead together?
The look-ahead ends on June a; the window spans b days.
A fictional person is back from two weeks away and does a review. Write the move for each item.
| Item | Review move |
|---|---|
| Unpaid phone bill from last week | |
| Scraps and receipts from the trip | |
| Checkup next Thursday, no time written | |
| Beach-pass reminder that no longer applies | |
| No review booked for next week |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional person who does laundry every Saturday at 10 a.m. plans a weekly review. Fill in the plan.
| Plan | |
|---|---|
| Anchor | |
| Look back | |
| Look ahead | |
| Last move |
Choose the anchor for your own review, and put the first one in your calendar with a weekly repeat. Next: what to do when a reminder is missed. 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: choosing the anchor, step 3
Weekly review · Sat 9:30 a.m. · kitchen table · repeats weekly
The calendar reminds you of the calendar.