Reminders, and keeping track of what you have taken

A reminder tells you it is time. It does not tell you whether you acted on it, and that is the question people actually get stuck on — standing in the kitchen at nine in the evening, genuinely unsure.

A nudge, not a nag

The reminder in Underweather is deliberately light. It arrives once, it says the thing, and then it leaves you alone. It does not escalate, it does not follow you around the day, and it does not ask you to confirm you are a good patient.

That is a choice rather than a limitation. An app that badgers you gets silenced within a week, and a silenced reminder is worth nothing at all. A quiet one you leave switched on is worth a great deal.

Note the time it was actually taken

Not the time it was due. Those are different, often by hours, and the gap is exactly what someone will ask about if a course is not working the way it should.

A reminder and a record are two different things

An alarm going off is not evidence. A record that says what was taken, and when, answers the question the alarm cannot — and it is the thing to bring if the dose is being reviewed.

An app that badgers you gets silenced within a week. A quiet one you leave on is worth a great deal.

It matters most when more than one person is involved

When two people are looking after someone, the doubt doubles. One shared record removes an entire category of worry, and it is far better than a text message asking whether the tablets were given.

Keep the finished courses

When a course ends, the record of it is still worth having. “We tried that in March and it did not do much” is one of the most useful things you can tell a doctor or practitioner, and almost nobody can say it with dates attached.