Back to the on-screen lesson ·
Why an intention due at a clock time is harder than one due when something happens, and how to turn a time into an event.
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 sort intentions into time-based and event-based, and turn a time-based one into an event with a labeled alarm or by pinning it to something in the day.
The last lesson tied each action to a cue you will meet. Some intentions come with such a cue built in: give Lee her book when I see her. Others are due at a time, and a time is not something you meet. This lesson is about that difference. As before, the scenes are invented, the practice is optional and sits alongside your own care, and nothing here is a test of memory.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Time-based intention | One due at a clock time, after a stretch of time, or on a date: at 3 p.m., in 20 minutes, by the 15th. |
| Event-based intention | One due when something happens or is met: when I see Pat, at the hardware store. |
| Self-started | Remembering that you must bring back yourself, because nothing outside you prompts it. |
| Clock-checking | Looking at a clock or phone to see whether the time has come. |
| Labeled alarm | An alarm whose name says the action, such as walk to car, not just a sound. |
The aid for this lesson is an alarm or timer with a label: a phone alarm, a kitchen timer with a sticky note, a watch. Three rules make it work.
An event-based intention is due when something happens: you see Lee, you reach the hardware store. The event arrives in front of you and can bring the intention back by itself. A time-based intention is due at a clock time or a date: join the call at 2, pay rent on the 1st. Nothing in the room announces 2 p.m. You have to remember to check the clock, and then remember again what the time was for.
Researchers call this self-started remembering. In a well-known study, Harris and Wilkins (1982) watched people wait for set times while doing something else. They checked the clock, waited, checked again, and acted, over and over. Ceci and Bronfenbrenner (1985) found children waiting for cupcakes to bake checked the clock more as the time drew close. Einstein and colleagues (1995) argued that time-based tasks rely more on self-started remembering, and found age differences on their time-based task that did not appear on their event-based one. Results vary with the task, but the direction is steady: a time needs checking, an event does not.
So the useful move is to turn a time into an event, with a labeled alarm or by pinning the action to something that happens at that time.
Another way: picture
Picture two doors. The event-based intention waits behind a door you will walk through, so you bump into it. The time-based one waits behind a door that opens at 2 p.m. somewhere down the hall, and you must keep walking back to see if it is open yet.
Another way: table
Ask one question of every intention: what will say now? A clock or a date means time-based: give it an alarm or an event. Something you meet means event-based: check that it passes the four cue tests.
Pin it to an event already in the day. Many times of day have an event nearby. Dinner ends near 7, the dog walk is at 7:30, the paycheck arrives on the 10th. If the action can be done at that event, pin it there: when I carry out the dinner scraps, I water the tomatoes. This costs nothing and uses a moment you already notice.
Make an event with an alarm. When nothing in the day lines up, an alarm creates the event. Set it for when the action can be done, and label it. For a job due at a precise minute, like a parking meter, the alarm is the better choice, because pinned events drift: dinner may end at 6:40 one night and 7:30 the next.
| Intention | Kind | Turned into an event |
|---|---|---|
| Bread out in 35 minutes | time | timer labeled bread out |
| Water tomatoes at 7 p.m. | time | pinned to carrying out the scraps |
| Buy batteries | event | already one: the hardware store |
Many time-based jobs have a deadline, not a start time. The alarm then goes off before the deadline, early enough to finish. Work back in steps. Start from the deadline, take off how long the action takes, and take off a few spare minutes. A meter paid for 60 minutes, with an 8-minute walk and 5 spare minutes, needs an alarm at minute 60 − 8 − 5 = 47. Setting it for minute 60 would ring just as the meter runs out, with the car still 8 minutes away.
The National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) recommends testing smoke alarms at least once a month by pressing the test button. Once a month is a time-based intention, and one with no event attached, so it is easy to let slip for a season.
Turn it into an event. A fictional household pays rent on the 1st of every month. Pin the test there: when I pay the rent, I press the test button on each alarm. Paying the rent is noticed, it happens monthly, and the alarms are in the same home. A calendar alarm on the 1st labeled test smoke alarms backs it up.
There is a yearly event too. In the United States, daylight saving time starts on the second Sunday in March and ends on the first Sunday in November, and many fire departments use the clock change as the reminder to check alarms. Changing the clocks is an event almost everyone notices.
Trusting yourself to check the clock. Checking works when you are calm and idle. On a busy day the checks stop, and the time passes unseen.
An alarm with no label. A beep at 2:55 says something. Five minutes later, after a phone call, you may not know what. The label keeps the action with the cue.
Setting the alarm for the deadline. An alarm at the deadline leaves no time to act. Set it for when you must start.
Ask what will say now.
Call the bank at 3 p.m.: only a clock. Kind: time-based.
Nothing in an afternoon at home announces 3 p.m.
Look for an event already at that time.
School pickup is at 3:15; nothing lands at 3:00.
No event lines up closely enough, so pinning will not work here.
Make the event with a labeled alarm.
Alarm 2:55 p.m., label: call bank — card number on fridge.
Five minutes early leaves time to find the number before 3.
Decide what happens when it rings.
Rings → call at once; if busy, move the alarm to 3:05, never just dismiss it.
A dismissed alarm turns the intention back into one held in the head.
Ask what will say now.
Move the wash to the dryer in 45 minutes: a stretch of time. Kind: time-based.
The washer is in the basement, out of earshot, so its own buzzer will not reach you.
Check for an event in 45 minutes.
A TV show ends in about 45 minutes, but it could run long.
A pinned event that drifts is a weak cue for a job with a fixed minute.
Set a timer that goes where you go.
Phone timer: 45 minutes, label wash to dryer.
A phone timer rings wherever you are in the house.
Put the plan in one sentence.
When the phone says wash to dryer, I go down and move it.
The time is now an event with the action written on it.
Ask what will say now.
Put the trash out Tuesday night: a day and a time. Kind: time-based.
Tuesday evening looks like every other evening, so nothing announces it.
Look for an event on Tuesday night.
Tuesday night is the weekly call with Mom, which ends about 8:30.
A weekly event on the right night is a natural place to pin the job.
Pin the action to the event.
A fictional afternoon. Sam puts bread in the oven and it must come out in 35 minutes. Which plan turns the time into an event?
A fictional errand. Val pays a parking meter for 110 minutes, starting now (minute 0). The walk back to the car takes 10 minutes, and she wants 5 spare minutes. Complete the plan for the alarm.
Name the kind of intention.
Be back before minute 110: time-based.
Nothing on a shopping trip will announce the meter running out.
Take the walk off the meter time.
110 − 10 = a
She must start walking by then to reach the car in time.
Take the spare minutes off, and set the alarm there.
start-walking minute − 5 = b; alarm labeled walk to car
The labeled alarm is the event; the spare minutes cover paying or a slow line.
Put the steps for turning a time-based intention into an event-based one in order.
Number the steps in order (write the number in the box):
A fictional week. For each intention, write whether it is time-based or event-based.
| Intention | Time or event? |
|---|---|
| Pay the rent on the 1st | |
| Join the video call at 2 p.m. | |
| Give Lee her book back when I see her | |
| Buy batteries at the hardware store |
A fictional Tuesday list: (1) move the car before 8 a.m. for street sweeping; (2) ask Mo about Saturday when he drops off the kids; (3) take the casserole out at 6:15; (4) buy bread at the bakery by the gym; (5) text Ada at noon. How many are time-based, how many event-based, and how many alarms would turn every time-based one into an event?
Time-based: a. Event-based: b. Alarms needed: c.
Somewhere new: a fictional household with no phone alarms. Pin each time-based intention to an event from the list that happens at about that time and puts the person where the action can be done.
| Time-based intention | Event to pin it to |
|---|---|
| Water the tomatoes at 7 p.m. | |
| Move the car by 8 a.m. Thursday | |
| Pay the water bill by the 15th |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional Saturday. For each intention, write whether it is time-based or event-based.
| Intention | Time or event? |
|---|---|
| Pick up the dry cleaning before 5 p.m. | |
| Ask the mail carrier about the package | |
| Fill the tank at the gas station on Elm |
Look at tomorrow: find one intention due at a clock time, and turn it into an event, either pinned to something that already happens or with a labeled alarm. Next: if-then plans that make the link between cue and action firmer. This is optional practice alongside any care you receive, not treatment and not a test of memory. If anything about your memory is new or changing, tell your own clinicians. Stopping is always allowed: close the page, and the lesson reopens where you left it.
12. Your turn: the Tuesday trash, step 3
When I hang up with Mom on Tuesday, I wheel the trash to the curb.
The call ends on the right night, at a time when the job can be done.