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When a plan changes, list every cue it had, move or delete each one, and catch changes in a short evening review.
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 list the cues a changed plan leaves behind, decide for each whether to move, delete or keep it, and move a plan's days when it shifts.
You can now build a plan that fires on its own and records that it is done. Plans change, though: a meeting moves, a pickup slides, a lunch is canceled. This last lesson is about keeping the cues in step with the plan. The scenes are invented. The practice is optional, alongside whatever care you have, and it is not a measure of memory or of recovery.
| Term | What it means |
|---|---|
| Stale cue | A cue still set for a plan that has changed, which fires on the wrong day. |
| Cue inventory | A list of every cue a plan has: entries, alarms, objects, and people. |
| Move | Reset a cue to the plan's new day or time. |
| Delete | Clear a cue whose plan is gone, so it cannot fire. |
| Evening review | A short look at tomorrow's plans each evening, to catch changes before they matter. |
Two aids keep plans current.
The cue inventory is a short list on the plan card: every cue the plan uses. Calendar entry. Alarm 3:30. Folder on the pad Monday night. Mom will text. When the plan changes, you work down the list, so no cue is missed.
The evening review takes two minutes at a fixed time, such as after dinner. Read tomorrow's calendar and cards, and ask: has anything changed? Is every cue for tomorrow set, and is the kit on the pad? Tie the review itself to an anchor, as in lesson 3.
Every plan in this course is a set of cues. When the plan changes, the cues do not change with it. A moved meeting still has an alarm on the old day, an object on the launch pad for the wrong morning, and a friend who will text you at the old time. These stale cues do two kinds of harm. They fire on the wrong day, which wastes a trip or causes a worry. And the new day may have no cue at all, which is how the moved meeting gets missed.
So a change is handled in three moves. List every cue the old plan had. Move each one that belongs to the changed plan, or delete it if the plan is gone. Then check: read the new day's cues once, and make sure nothing is left on the old day.
Changes are easier to catch when the plan is read on a schedule. Memory-notebook training (Sohlberg and Mateer, 1989) builds in set times to open the notebook, so the plan is read before it is needed rather than when something has already gone wrong. An evening review does the same for everyday plans.
Another way: picture
Think of moving house. Changing the address on one bill is not enough: the post office, the bank and your friends all need the new address, or mail keeps going to the old one. Each cue is one of those addresses.
Another way: steps
When a plan changes, each cue in the week gets one of three moves.
| The cue belongs to… | Move | Example |
|---|---|---|
| a plan that moved | move it to the new day | the alarm for a shift now on Friday |
| a plan that is gone | delete it | the note for a canceled lunch |
| a plan that did not change | keep it | Monday's alarm, same as ever |
Keep matters as much as the other two. In a rush to fix a change, people sometimes move a cue that belonged to something else. And delete matters because an old cue left on teaches you to ignore it. An alarm you dismiss twice becomes an alarm you dismiss out of habit.
Each kind of cue is updated in its own way. An alarm is deleted and set again; editing the time is fine, but a second alarm beside the old one is not. A calendar entry is dragged to the new date, and its label checked so it still says what to do. An object on the launch pad comes off until the evening before the new day. A person who was going to remind you is told the new day, since people are cues too. A written card gets the old line crossed out and the new one written beside it, so the change itself is on record.
Federal law sets Memorial Day as the last Monday in May. Many US cities shift trash collection by a day in a week that has a holiday, and publish the shifted days on a collection calendar. Take a fictional city that collects on Mondays and moves pickup one day later in a holiday week.
In a May whose Mondays fall on the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th, the holiday is the 25th, so pickup moves to Tuesday the 26th. The household's usual cue is an if-then line: if the Sunday evening news ends, then I wheel the bins to the curb. That cue would put the bins out on the 24th, a day early. The update: cross out Sunday on the card for that week and write Monday the 25th, after dinner, and move the phone alarm to Monday. Then, at the evening review on Sunday, the card shows the change before the news ends.
Updating the calendar and nothing else. The calendar is one cue of several. The alarm, the object and the friend still point at the old day.
Keeping the old alarm just in case. A cue on the wrong day is not a spare; it is a false alarm, and it teaches you to dismiss alarms.
Holding the change in your head. I'll remember it's Thursday now is the exact kind of intention this course began with. Write the change down.
List the cues the plan had.
Calendar dinner at Lu's, Fri 7; alarm Fri 6:15 leave for Lu's; dessert box on the launch pad Thursday night.
Working from a list means no cue is left behind.
Move the entry and the alarm.
Entry → Sat 7; old alarm deleted; new alarm Sat 6:15 leave for Lu's.
Deleting the old alarm stops a false alarm on Friday.
Move the object cue.
Dessert box off the pad; it goes out Friday night instead.
An object put out two nights early stops standing out.
Check the new day and the old one.
Friday: no dinner cues. Saturday: entry, alarm, box on Friday night.
One read of both days shows the change is complete.
List the cues for the week.
Tue alarm practice 5 p.m.; cleats on the pad Tue morning; coach's text Thu about a Sat 9 a.m. game.
Both the cancellation and the new game change the week's cues.
Delete the cues for the canceled practice.
Tue alarm deleted; cleats stay in the closet on Tuesday.
The practice is gone, so its cues must not fire.
Add cues for the new game.
Entry Sat 9 a.m.; alarm Sat 8:15 leave for game; cleats and water bottle on the pad Friday night.
A new plan needs its own full set of cues.
Tell the person-cue.
Text Grandpa, who drives on Tuesdays: no practice; game Sat 9.
A person who still thinks Tuesday is on will turn up on Tuesday.
List the cues.
Calendar entry Wed 10 a.m.; alarm Wed 9:30; note on the card.
Every cue the old plan used goes on the list.
Move each cue.
Entry → next Wed 10 a.m.; old alarm deleted, new one next Wed 9:30; card line crossed out and rewritten.
Each cue now points at the new day, and none at the old one.
Check both days.
A fictional change. Jen's parent-teacher conference moves from Tuesday at 4:00 to Thursday at 5:30. Her plan had a calendar entry, a Tuesday 3:30 alarm, and Kai's folder on the launch pad for Monday night. Which update is complete?
A fictional appointment at the car-repair shop moves from day 12 of the month to 5 days later. The plan's object cue (the spare key and the paperwork on the launch pad) goes out the evening before. Complete the update.
Find the new day.
12 + 5 = n
Every cue will be moved to this day, so it comes first.
Find the evening for the object cue.
new day − 1 = e
The kit goes on the launch pad the evening before, now of the new day.
Clear the old cues.
Delete the old alarm; take the key and paperwork off the pad until the new evening.
An old cue left live fires on the wrong day and teaches you to ignore it.
Match each kind of cue to the way it is updated when a plan moves.
| Delete the old one and set the new time | Drag it to the new date and check the label | Take it off until the evening before the new day | Tell them the new day and time | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phone alarm | ||||
| Calendar entry | ||||
| Object on the launch pad | ||||
| A friend who was going to remind you |
A fictional change. Book club moves from Tuesday to Thursday, same time and place. For each cue in the week, write *move* or *keep*.
| Cue | Move or keep? |
|---|---|
| Calendar entry: book club Tue 7 p.m. | |
| The book on the launch pad Monday night | |
| Alarm: trash out, Tuesday 8 p.m. | |
| Note: Kai to soccer Thu 4 p.m. |
A fictional May: Mondays fall on the 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th. Memorial Day is the last Monday in May. Trash is picked up on Mondays, one day later in a holiday week, and the bins go out the night before pickup. Find the holiday, that week's pickup, and the night the bins go out.
Holiday: May a. Pickup: May b. Bins out the night of May c.
Somewhere new: a fictional work schedule. Ray swaps his Wednesday shift for Friday, so he will now work Friday and is free Wednesday. For each cue, write *move*, *delete* or *keep*.
| Cue | Move, delete or keep? |
|---|---|
| Calendar: shift Wed 6 a.m. | |
| Alarm: Wed 5:15 a.m. | |
| Note: lunch with Ann Fri noon | |
| Alarm: Mon 5:15 a.m. |
Lesson test: one question per skill, one attempt each, no hints. Your answers are checked when you submit.
A fictional change. This month's garden club meeting is canceled; next month's goes ahead. For each cue, write *move*, *delete* or *keep*.
| Cue | Move, delete or keep? |
|---|---|
| Calendar entry: garden club, this month | |
| Seed packets on the launch pad | |
| Calendar entry: garden club, next month |
Choose a time for a two-minute evening review and tie it to a routine. Next time a plan changes, write its cue inventory and work down it. This is the last lesson of the course. 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: a haircut moved a week later, step 3
This Wednesday: no haircut cues. Next Wednesday: entry, alarm, card.
Reading both days confirms the update is complete.