My life is now in my iPhone.

In the calendar app... Twice a day it reminds me to take my pills. Plus I also have my pills in a pill organizer, so I can double check if I happen to forget whether I actually did take them or not.

Every appointment is put in my phone and it reminds me 2 hours before and an hour before. Once the 2 hour reminder goes off, I reset that reminder to go off 30 minutes before (assuming that's the time I actually have to walk out the door). For unusual or very important appointments, I also set a reminder for 2 days before.

In the notes app, I keep lists.
Grocery lists, lists of questions to ask each member of my rehab team as I think of them (one list per rehab member), a list of my current meds and dosages, little notes of things I need to remember, things to take with me, directions to places, to do lists, where I parked the truck... everything and anything.

I set alarms, to remind me to do things... check things on the stove... etc.

I make an effort to put things in immediately and I take time first thing in the morning before getting out of bed and last thing at night before I get into bed to review my calendar and notes to get a feel for the day ahead and the day past and the next day.

My OT says that by reviewing before and after you give yourself a chance at establishing a thread of memories (for those of us that have a hard time consolidating information and memories). I'm not sure if it helps me with that or not, but I do find that at the end of the day, even if I don't remember what I did that day, I can look in my phone and get a feel for what happened that day and there's something reassuring about it. Like the day didn't just happen without me.. if that makes sense.

I'd be lost without my phone... I tried to have paper notes, but ended up losing them. I tried a planner and a large calendar, but forgot to check them and update them.

Mokey, I hope you can find a system that works for you. I do understand that awful feeling when you forget something important. In spite of my best efforts, I've had a few failures of my system above on occasion (usually when I think "Oh later I'll enter that in my phone... surely I won't forget! ) and it always makes me feel like crap.

And my house is a huge mess too... I've stopped apologizing for it though... I've got to the stage where I just don't care. Dirt is just dirt and a mess is not that bit of a deal... try to be kind to yourself... you're already having a hard time, you don't need to be angry with yourself too!

Starr