Fool-proof ways to remember to take your meds
Collaborative Post
Medical practitioners tell us that their medications work. But, unfortunately, many of us don’t benefit from them as we should because we simply forget to take them. We’re so distracted by everything else in life.
Of course, forgetting to take your pills isn’t without consequences. You could find that a condition comes back. Or, worse still, you might wind up in the emergency room.
In this post, we take a look at some of the simple tricks you can use to remember to take your meds. Check them out below.
Combine Meds With A Daily Task
The reason some people drink a lot of green tea is usually that they combine it with some daily task. Perhaps making themselves a brew is all part of the ritual of replying to emails in the morning.
You can do something similar with pills. Maybe you could take your medications while your toast is in the toaster or just before you go out into the garden to do some weeding.
Set An Alarm
In the West, we often use alarms for one purpose: to wake up in the morning. But, in practice, there’s no reason we can’t use them to organise our days and our lives.
Having an alarm to take pills means that you can put the entire process on autopilot. You don’t have to rely on memory alone to get you to do it. The alarm will do it for you.
Make Your Pills Visible
Putting your pills in a drawer is a surefire way to forget about them entirely. Instead, try to leave them someplace conspicuous. Leave them out on the side so that they jog your memory.
Use A Pill Organiser
Knowing which pills you need to take (and when) can be a challenge, especially if your routine changes all the time. That’s why a pill organiser can help. These handy devices allow you to separate pills by day and even morning and evening. You or someone who cares for you organises the pills and then all you have to do is know what time and day it is before you take them.
The great thing about pill boxes is that they let you separate the medicine you need for each day. So instead of trying to remember what you took yesterday, you can just lay it all out as the doctor prescribes.
Take 15 Minutes For Self-Care In The Morning
Self-care should be an essential part of every person’s routine. Instead of just trudging downstairs and putting on the toaster, try spending around 15 minutes just to yourself.
During this time, you can do all the things you need to do to maintain your wellbeing. Good examples include drinking green tea, meditating, breathing and taking all the pills you need to take.
Combining medications with a daily task can actually help them become more effective. When you feel more relaxed and in-tune with your body, it begins to work better.
Take Note Of When You Take Your Medications
A lot of people go through their lives on autopilot, just doing things, without really thinking about it. We’ve all had this experience when we’ve left our car keys in the refrigerator. It results from a lack of mindfulness about each present moment.
The good news, though, is that you can break out of this by simply being more conscious of when you need to take your medications. Making a mental note can make it more likely that you’ll remember. Simply saying to yourself “I need to take this pill on Tuesday” can make all the difference. It helps fix it in your memory.
Get Somebody You Trust To Help You
Sometimes you really can’t remember to take your pills. But that’s okay. It doesn’t matter. You can just enlist somebody to help you.
Thousands of people use this strategy. Following all those dosage instructions on the back of the packet is difficult, especially if you need to take different drugs on different days. However, if you have somebody who knows what they’re doing, the process becomes substantially easier.
Set Up An Email Or Text Alert
If you’re somebody who uses a lot of technology, you can help yourself to remember by setting up a notification on your phone. Many services now exist that will send you a message to alert you to a task you need to complete. Using one of these is handy because once you set it up, you don’t need to think about it again. Just remember to keep your phone switched on so that you hear the notification.
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