A vitamin and medicine reminder that sits under the clock

Why a visible reminder works better than an alarm

Alarms are good at interrupting you and bad at remembering for you. You swipe the notification away while your hands are full, promise yourself you'll take the tablet in a minute, and the minute never comes. Worse, the alarm leaves no trace: two hours later you can't tell whether you acted on it.

A paper on the Lock Screen works the other way round. It doesn't shout, but it stays until you tap it, and it keeps the answer for you. An empty dot means not yet; a filled dot means done. That record is the real value of a pill tracker, especially for things you take every day, where today blurs into yesterday.

DailyWall is a habit and reminder tool, not a medical device. For medicines where timing really matters, keep using whatever your doctor or pharmacist recommends and treat the paper as an extra, visible check.

Practical ways to never forget a dose

The most reliable routines attach the tablet to something you already do without thinking. A few tactics that work for most people:

Tick the steps as you go

1. Anchor it to a fixed moment. Next to the kettle, the coffee machine or your toothbrush. The anchor does the remembering; the paper confirms it.
2. Keep the bottle where you'll see it, but out of reach of children and away from heat and steam. A kitchen cupboard you open every morning is often better than the bathroom.
3. Use a weekly pill organiser if you take several things. One glance tells you whether today's compartment is empty, and the paper tells you the same from your Lock Screen.
4. Match the meal setting to the label. Some supplements and medicines are meant to be taken with food, others on an empty stomach. Check the leaflet or ask your pharmacist, then set it once in DailyWall so it's printed on the paper.
5. Pack a travel day supply. Most missed doses happen on days that break routine: travel, late nights, weekends away.

Set up your vitamin reminder in DailyWall

The name, the dose and any meal note are written on the paper itself, so you see "Vitamin D · 1 tablet" rather than a vague "take pills". With two or three doses a day you still get one paper, with a dot for each dose, and a reminder at each time you set. Once the paper is done for the day, the reminder stays silent.

Tick the steps as you go

1. Open DailyWall, tap + and choose Set up a habit.
2. In the Health category, choose Take vitamins / medicine.
3. Answer What will you take? (for example "Vitamin D") and Dose (for example "1 tablet"). Both are optional.
4. Choose How many times a day?: once, twice or 3 times. The default is once, at 9:00 in the morning.
5. Set the Times for each dose. Twice a day starts at 9:00 and 21:00; a third dose adds 14:00. Change them to fit your day.
6. Choose With meals: doesn't matter, on an empty stomach, with food, or after eating.
7. Pick the days (every day by default), switch the reminder on or off, choose a paper look and, if it's a course with an end, set an end date.

What it looks like on your Lock Screen

Your DailyWall wall is your Lock Screen wallpaper, so the paper sits right under the clock. After taking a dose, open DailyWall and tap + on the paper; when you close the app, the one-time Shortcuts automation refreshes the wallpaper. Next time you pick up your phone, the filled dot is your proof. If you haven't set up the wallpaper yet, see how to put notes on your iPhone Lock Screen.

The vitamin paper has its own look: three washi tapes (pastel capsules, orange slices and soft polka-dot stripes) and three stickers, including a cheerful capsule and a little weekly pill box. They only appear on habit papers, so your reminder doesn't get lost among your other notes.

A note on privacy

Anything on your Lock Screen can be read by people near your phone, without unlocking it. For a multivitamin that rarely matters, but you may not want a prescription's name on display. Both the name and the dose are optional: leave them empty, or write something neutral like "Morning" or "Evening tablet". The reminder works exactly the same.

Missed a dose or a day?

DailyWall doesn't punish you. A paper you didn't finish isn't carried over to tomorrow; it stays faded on its own day, there's no streak to break and no red warning. Tomorrow a fresh paper is waiting.

What you should do about the missed dose itself is a medical question, not an app question. Check the leaflet or ask your pharmacist; for many medicines the advice is not to double up, but it varies. The faded paper simply helps you answer honestly when someone asks whether you took it.

A 7-day starter plan

Tick the steps as you go

1. Day 1: Set up the habit with just one thing you take, once a day.
2. Day 2: Move the bottle next to your morning anchor: kettle, coffee or toothbrush.
3. Day 3: Check the leaflet or ask your pharmacist about food, and set With meals to match.
4. Day 4: Look at your Lock Screen at noon. Dot filled? Good. Empty? Now you know before it's too late in the day.
5. Day 5: If you take more than one thing, add a pill organiser and fill it for the week.
6. Day 6: Plan for the weekend: will you be somewhere else at 9:00? Adjust the time if needed.
7. Day 7: Look back at the week on your wall. If a time keeps slipping, move it rather than trying harder.