You have hypertension and take lisinopril 10 mg every morning to help manage your blood pressure and keep it within your target range.
One busy morning, you wake up late and rush to get ready for work. Between packing your kids’ lunches and helping them prepare for school, you head out the door without realizing you forgot your medication. The day flies by with back-to-back meetings, and after lunch, it hits you — you didn’t take your lisinopril this morning.
Don’t worry — you’re not alone! Many people find it challenging to remember their daily medications, especially on hectic mornings. Let’s go over some simple strategies that can help you stay on track and make taking your medication part of your daily routine.
What are some strategies to help me remember my medicines?
Use a weekly pillbox
- Benefits
- Simple, low cost, helps visually track missed doses and useful for multiple daily meds
- Considerations
- Requires regular refilling, can be confusing if new medication schedule changes, not portable for all-day dosing, limited daily medication space (Big pills and pt taking lot of pills)
- Options
- Weekly pillbox options are usually under $10
- There are options for once daily, twice daily, or three or four times daily pillboxes, depending on your needs
- Monthly daily pillbox with an alarm is ~$75
- Some pharmacies will package your medicine into monthly pill packs for an added fee. Feel free to call our 7th and Madison location at 206-324-6990 to inquire!
Combine taking the medication with a task
- Benefits
- Builds consistency and routine
- No extra tools needed
- Works well for once-daily meds
- Considerations
- May not work if routine changes (traveling)
- Less effective for multiple doses per day
- Examples
- After waking up
- Making coffee in the morning
- When putting on makeup
- Before breakfast or after breakfast
- Before shower/after shower
- Before/after brushing teeth
Use a calendar
- Benefits
- Visual reminder and record
- Helps track long-term adherence
- Easy customize
- Considerations
- Requires marking down days daily
- Might be difficult for multiple day dosed medications
- Examples
- Medication logbook
- Diary
Set an alarm reminder
- Benefits
- Immediate, real-time reminder
- Works for multiple daily doses
- Easy to set on phone or watch
- Considerations
- Easy to ignore or snooze
- Alarm fatigue can occur
- Requires keeping device charged and nearby
- How to set up an alarm
Download an app
- Benefits
- Can provide customizable alerts
- Tracks adherence history
- Can help with refill and keep medication data
- Considerations
- Need to be good with technology
- May require internet/data
- Notification can be silenced or missed
- See some examples of apps below
Ask a family member or friend to give reminders
- Benefits
- Adds social support/accountability
- Can help if patient forgets often
- Considerations
- May feel dependent on others
- Family/friend may forget
- Privacy concerns
Arrange to receive text or phone messaging daily reminder
- Benefits
- Automated and convenient
- Low effort for patient
- Can be used with healthcare team monitoring
- Considerations
- Requires working phone and access
- May become routine and ignored
- Not ideal for patients who prefer less contact
- See some examples of daily reminder options below
Prepared by Edward Kim, PharmD Candidate 2026
