The three questions worth writing down before your next appointment.

You had a question. You had it on Tuesday, clearly, while you were making tea. By Thursday at 9:30 you are sitting in a chair, someone is asking how you have been, and it is gone.

This happens to almost everyone, and it is not a memory problem. It is that the question belonged to Tuesday, and Tuesday is four days of ordinary life away from the room you are sitting in now.

Why the question disappears

Appointments are short and they move fast. You are answering rather than asking, and the things you meant to raise are the ones with no obvious slot. So they wait, and then they are gone.

The fix is not to try harder in the room. It is to catch the question on Tuesday, in eight seconds, and bring it with you.

The three that matter

If you only write down three things, make them these. What is new since last time. What got worse and when. What you want to be able to do again.

That third one changes the conversation more than anything else. A dose is a number. Getting back to the garden by August is a goal your team can actually aim at.

Writing them where you will find them

A note on your phone works if you open it. A notepad by the bed works if you carry it. Care Journal keeps them beside the rest of your week, so the morning of the appointment they are already sitting at the top.

What to do with the answer

Write down what you were told, in your own words, before you leave the building. It takes a minute and it is the difference between remembering the plan and remembering that there was one.