A wise person once said that humans are creatures of habit.
But forming those habits means repeating daily activities that can sometimes slip our minds, such as in remembering to take our daily supplements and medications!
We’ve put together this list of 10 tips to help jog your memory every day and make sure you never miss a pill.
- 1. Use a pill organizer. These convenient storage cases are a perfect way to organize your supplements and medications every week and ensure you’ve taken everything for the day.
- Add to your normal routine. We find this to be the easiest way to smoothly incorporate your pills into your daily routine. Keep your bottles next to your toothbrush, your coffee, your keys, or any other spot in your home that you are guaranteed to visit every day.
- Keep them visible. In addition to the previous tip, keep your bottles visible. Don’t hide them in a drawer or medicine cabinet; after all, out of sight, out of mind! By keeping the bottles out you will be visibly reminding yourself every day.
- 4. Set a phone alarm. Boy, do we love the age of technology! Set a recurring alarm (or two) to remind you every day to take your medication(s) and/or supplement(s). This is especially helpful if you must take them at the same time every day.
- Set an email reminder through your digital calendar. Whether you use Gmail, Outlook, or any other email provider with a tied-in calendar, you will most likely be able to schedule daily email reminders via the calendar. This is a great idea for those of us who check our emails daily. The best part? You can add a loved one to the reminder, so they are also alerted to your daily schedule and can check in to make sure you’ve remembered your pill(s)!
- Download an app just for this purpose. Do some research into daily reminder apps such as Medisafe & Dosecast that are specifically created for tracking supplements and medications. These are especially helpful if they allow you to enter in dosage amounts, refill reminders, and allow you to indicate when you’ve taken a pill already for the day. Some even allow for synching with family members’ phones for extra reminders!
- Sticky notes—the old classic! Not into techy reminders? Stick (literally!) to the classic brightly colored sticky notes, scattered in calculated locations throughout your house or office that you’re guaranteed to look at during your daily routine.
- Keep your bottles on your desk.In the PipingRock office, this is one tip many of us follow! If you’re in the office every day, keep your bottles (in sight—remember tip #3! —or in a drawer you open every day) at your desk so there’s no way you can miss them.
- Keep a spare at your hot spots. Use small (clearly labeled) baggies to keep spare pill(s) at work, in your car, or even in your gym bag for those days when remembering a dose slips your mind.
- Finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help.There’s no shame in reaching out to loved ones to help remind you to take your medication(s) and/or supplement(s)! Maybe you have a lunch buddy that can give you a head’s up if they notice you haven’t taken your midday dose, or one of your children can send a daily text in the afternoon as a friendly reminder. The more head’s up you get from loved ones, the less chance you’ll have of forgetting altogether!
PipingRock Empowering Your Health Journey
