Organise by hour, not by medicine
Used as a daily pill schedule maker or a weekly pill planner generator, it starts from the same idea. Almost every chart and app lists medicines down the page and asks you to work out what is due. That is backwards. The question you ask twenty times a day is what do I take now, and the fastest answer comes from a chart where each row is an hour and each box holds whatever is due at that hour. You read one row and stop.
Give each medicine a colour and keep it
Colour is how people actually identify medicines in conversation and in a hurry. Each medicine on your chart keeps the same colour every time it appears, and the same colour if you rebuild the chart weeks later. Over a long course “the teal drops at eleven” becomes a reliable instruction you can give over the phone.
Separate the ones taken only if needed
Painkillers and anti-nausea medicines taken only when a symptom appears must not sit in the hourly grid, because someone following the grid literally will give them on schedule. They belong in a clearly marked strip of their own, with the dose and any food instruction, which is exactly where this chart puts them.
Track the finish, not just the start
Different courses end on different days, and the ends are what people lose track of. The chart shows the last dose date for each medicine and simply stops printing it after that, so the grid thins out as you progress. That is also how you catch the classic error of continuing a four-day antibiotic into week two.
Tick every dose
A tick box is a tiny thing that removes the two commonest errors at once: the dose taken twice because nobody was sure, and the dose skipped because everyone assumed someone else had given it.
How to make one
- Add every medicine with its dose and frequency
- Mark the as-needed ones separately
- Print one page and tick each dose as it is given
Questions
How many medicines can I put on one chart?
As many as you need. The layout adapts, and beyond about six a day it is worth printing on A3.
What if two medicines are due at the same time?
They stack in the same box, each with its own colour and tick box.
Do I need an app with reminders?
A phone alarm and a printed chart complement each other well. The chart still works when the phone is flat or in another room.
A note on safety. PillsChart reproduces the schedule you type. It does not check doses or interactions. Always follow the instructions from your doctor or pharmacist, and check the printed chart against the prescription before anyone relies on it.
More chart guides
Ready to make your chart?
It takes about two minutes and prints on one page. Nothing you type leaves your device.
Put mine on one chart