This is a lesson for using "STEPS" cards for doing what we are called "routine procedures."  When we use the term "routine procedure," we are talking about things we do over and over again (as in "routinely"), and when we do, we follow the same basic steps.

Following a brain injury, we can often miss steps -- even when we do simple things we think we have memorized the steps for.  Depending on our injury, and the stage of recovery we are in, we may need to look at a STEPS card for doing things like "brushing my teeth" to things like "logging onto the 
Internet."

Other examples of routine procedures that we write on STEPS cards include:
getting ready for work in the morning
getting ready to pay monthly bills
logging onto the computer
closing down your desk at work, before going home

STEPS section of the BRAIN BOOK®
In the BRAIN BOOK® System, we use a handy little section, called "STEPS," where we keep all our STEPS cards for easy reference for procedures like this. It is located to the left of your TODAY tab, when your book is open to TODAY's "SCHEDULE and Memory Notes" page. It is blue green in color.

Two kinds of STEPS sheets
In the BRAIN BOOK System, we use two different kinds of STEPS cards. The light blue green one, printed on lighter-weight paper, is called the "Practice STEPS" page. The darker blue green one, printed on heavier card stock, is called the "Final and Tested STEPS" card.

This is what the "Practice" STEPS page looks like: 

This is what the "Final and Tested" STEPS card look like:

Examples of "routine procedures"
Routine procedures come in all shapes and sizes. They can be"getting ready  for bed" or they can be "getting ready for surgery". They can be "doing 
the dishes" or they can be "forecasting 3rd quarter sales".

The process for doing "routine procedures" is the same -- doesn't matter how simple or complex the procedure is.

"Practice" STEPS pages
You would use the lightweight (lighter colored) "Practice" STEPS when you are testing out the steps for doing a routine procedure, and are not 100% certain your steps are in final form.

"Final and Tested" STEPS cards
When you are SURE you have all the steps for a procedure written down, in a way that works for you (and the timing is all worked out too), you would use a heavier, darker blue green card to write down all the steps.

By having two different colors to pick from, when it comes time to reach for a STEPS page or card, you will know if the steps are 100% accurate, or 
if you perhaps want some extra time to allow for "tweaking" them.

Example: "Getting ready to go swimming"
Let's assume you want to follow ("remember") all the steps you normally need to take to get ready to go swimming once a week. Don't know about you, but sometimes things like this can be a "iffy" following a brain injury -- remembering all the steps, I mean.

For example, remembering to pack the towel, being sure you have change (if you will want to get a soda), or remembering to take your nose plugs! Now, if this kind of example wouldn't apply to you (or you think it's too simple), imagine a procedure that you *would* need to write the steps down in order to do consistently. An example that comes to mind from my life is "Scanning an image to insert into an e-mail message." This procedure has no less than 30 steps.  Before my brain injury, I would have been able to remember how to do this after doing it a few times. Now I cannot. When I was first injured, I did not know how to dress myself in the morning.  Now I do.  Depending on where you "are" in the memory impairment continuum, pick something that makes sense to work on.

Principle
The principle behind using a STEPS card is identical for all procedures.  Draft out the steps you *think* you need to take on a blue-green "Practice STEPS" card, fiddle with it for a while until you get all the steps straight, make sure you haven't missed any, and have the time estimated
realistically. Your practice STEPS card might look something like this:

If we work on the example of "Getting Ready to Go Swimming," using a Practice STEPS page, this is what your page might look like:

When you know all the steps are in final form (no guesswork needed any longer), the information you wrote on the Practice page would be transferred (re-written) onto a darker blue green
"Tested STEPS" card. It would look something like this: 

Compare "Practice" vs. "Tested" STEPS sheets

Compare the information written on the practice STEPS page and the tested STEPS card and you will see it's a little different.

For one thing, the person has decided that it takes more TIME to do all the steps than he or she first thought. This is common. With practice, you will re-learn how to estimate time better (don't know about you, but this was/is a problem for me).

On the "Final tested" STEPS card, the order for the steps will be in final form, and the total time needed will be in final form too (because it's no 
longer an estimate -- you KNOW how much time this particular procedure takes).

Code in the upper right-hand corner
Note that there is a little code in the upper right hand corner. In this case, the person selected "GRS" for "Getting Ready for Swimming." This code comes in later, when the person does his or her scheduling. For now, just note that the code is there.

OK, now let's say this person decides that they want to go swimming tomorrow, Saturday, May 3rd. Their SCHEDULE page for May 3rd would look like this:

Do you see where the "GRS" code is entered? We use codes like this in the BRAIN BOOK System because it would take up too much space on the SCHEDULE page to write all the little steps for "getting ready for swimming". Yet, you don't want to miss any steps.

So, the idea is to write the steps on a STEPS card and then cue yourself on the SCHEDULE page entry for where to look for all the steps. Pretty nifty, eh?

Any questions or comments, please e-mail me at teachers@brainbook.com