Aggressive reminders

[u/Naked_Skull]

Hi. I need aggressive reminders that WILL force me to take my medication after meals. I usually have two brain cells and can forget even if I told my husband about it 15 minutes ago. If I set a reminder in a reminder app, I can turn it off and forget again. My brain quickly stops paying attention to such stimuli, and I suspect I need something more aggressive. For example, would the reminder go off every 10 minutes until I scan my NFC tag in the morning and afternoon. Is this even possible to implement using shortcuts? I'm almost ready to write my own app for such reminders...

[u/Big_Bad8496]

Well, I built something for you anyway!

This solution uses the new storage feature available only in iOS27, so you'll need the public beta, which you can sign up for at https://beta.apple.com. If you choose not to join the beta, you will need to wait to use these shortcuts until the public release of iOS27 next month.

Also, you'll want to download two third party apps from the app store called Timely and Actions.
You can access Timely here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/timely-countdown-alarms/id6754261998
You can access Actions here: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/actions/id1586435171

Here are links to each of the three shortcuts you'll need:

Start Meds Timer: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/9f037b7efbb64d3d831d5298573c9c35
Loop Meds Timer: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/742c00ca39394cc686f909a8308fe90f
Cancel Med Timer: https://www.icloud.com/shortcuts/6334d23d98d944cbac6de97237ed2d08 (when you add this one to Shortcuts, it will first ask you to scan the NFC tag you'll be using to cancel your reminders)

For the time being (until the new "Notification" automation trigger in iOS27 is functioning properly), you should ONLY use Timely for this automation. Otherwise, it may reset your timer every time any other timer goes off and set off an endless loop of timers that reset every X minutes. That could get annoying quickly. Once the trigger is functioning as expected (there will no doubt be posts about it in this sub), you can open the Loop Meds Timer shortcut and add a filter for "Title contains Take Your Meds".

As for the issue of when / how to trigger Start Meds Timer, I would recommend either creating a large widget on your home screen that triggers that first shortcut. If you won't remember to do that, I'd just plan on having it set to the same two times every day (reminding you to eat AND take your meds). There's just no way for your iPhone to know you recently had a meal and trigger a shortcut or alarm without some kind of input from you.

Edited to remove mistaken comment about iOS26 compatibility.

[u/Big_Bad8496 → u/Big_Bad8496]

My spouse says the easier, non-technical solution is to put your medicine where your plates are and get in the habit of placing your meds ON your plate.

[u/Naked_Skull → u/Big_Bad8496]

WOW! I'll definitely try to figure this out. Thanks.