A Simple Method for Keeping Track of Daily Medicine

At some point, everybody has had the problem of remembering what pills they have to take, and when. I, at least, also have a somewhat erratic schedule. I found myself forgetting to take my pills, or worse, not being able to remember if I had taken them at all.

Here is the method I use to keep track of everything.

It will require access to a 3D printer.

In my case, I need to take one pill when I wake up, and three others mid afternoon.

I ask the pharmacy to put the morning pills into a smaller bottle (size PM10*). The other three go into a size larger bottles (PM20).

First thing in the morning, I take the first pill from the smaller bottle. I do not put the bottle back into the holder, I place it next to the end of the holder.

Mid day (or later) I see that the small bottle is out and know that I have taken the morning pill. I then look at the bottles left in the bottle carrier. If a bottle is upright it is a 0 and if it is inverted it is a 1.

This will give me a binary number corresponding to the day. If the number corresponds to today, I take the pills and set the bottles for the number that corresponds to tomorrows day of the week.

If the number corresponds to tomorrow's day of the week I do nothing because I have already taken this afternoon's pills.

I then place the last container, the morning's small bottle, back in the carrier.

*Pharmacy bottles come in standardized sizes, you can see the what size on the bottom of each vial.

The simplest bottle holder STL file provided is for a 1x4 pattern. By using three of the four holes, you can count the days of week, using a binary representation. An upside down bottle represents a ONE. A bottle right side up represents a ZERO.

If you ever find all the bottles right side up, reperesenting a 0000 configuration, someone might have been messing with your medicines.

Table of days

Monday = 001

Tuesday = 010

Wednesday. = 011

Thursday. = 100

Friday = 101

Saturday = 110

Sunday = 111

If I were to have more medicines to take, I would simply use a bigger base. If I had more times of day to take medicine, I would use a row for each time of day and replicate the counting scheme for each row.