Practice
Missed and late doses
Last reviewed · Written by the PepCycle team
A missed or late entry is information, not an inconvenience. Record it with its actual date and time and mark it as late or skipped. The alternatives — deleting it, or logging it as though it happened on schedule — both corrupt the interval data, which is usually the most useful thing in the whole log.
Three different situations
| Situation | What happened | How to record it |
|---|---|---|
| Late | Taken, but outside the intended window | Actual date and time, flagged as late |
| Missed | Not taken at all | An explicit skip entry on the scheduled date |
| Logged late | Taken on time, recorded afterwards | Backdate to the actual time; not late at all |
Conflating "logged late" with "taken late" is the single most common way a good log develops fictional intervals. If you took it on Sunday morning and recorded it on Monday evening, the entry belongs at Sunday morning.
Why backdating has to be first-class
Nobody logs everything at the moment it happens. A tracker that only allows "log now" forces one of two bad outcomes: a wrong timestamp, or no entry at all. Both are worse than a slightly more complex entry screen.
- Backdating must recalculate downstream consequences — a vial's remaining contents, adherence figures, next-due dates — rather than leaving them stale.
- It must be possible to backdate more than a day or two. People reconstruct a week at a time.
- Editing an existing entry's time must be as easy as creating one, because corrections are common.
- The record should show that an entry was logged after the fact, without pretending that changes when it happened.
Recording a gap honestly
- Mark the skip explicitly on the date it was scheduled, rather than leaving a blank.
- Record the reason if you know it — travel, illness, supply, an instructed hold. Reasons turn a gap into a story.
- Do not adjust surrounding entries to make the pattern look smoother.
- For an instructed hold, record who instructed it and when it ends, and treat it as a distinct event rather than a series of skips. See GLP-1 titration tracking.
What a log cannot tell you
A tracker records that you missed something. It cannot tell you what to do about it, and no reputable one will try. What to do after a missed dose depends on the product, how long ago it was, and your individual situation — which is why every approved medication's patient information addresses it directly, and why your prescriber is the right person to ask.
PepCycle deliberately has no "catch-up" logic and offers no advice on missed entries. It records what happened and reminds you what was scheduled.
Frequently asked questions
Should I log a dose I forgot to record last week?
Yes — backdate it to the actual date and time it happened. Logging it as today would create a fictional interval, and leaving it out would create a fictional gap. Both are worse than an entry recorded after the fact.
What is the difference between a missed dose and a late log?
A missed dose was not taken. A late log was taken on time but recorded afterwards. They should look completely different in a record, and conflating them is the most common way interval data gets corrupted.
Should I delete an entry that breaks my streak?
No. Deletion is for genuine mistakes — a duplicate, or an entry against the wrong compound. Deleting accurate entries to preserve a streak turns the log into a record of your intentions rather than your behaviour.
What should I do after missing a dose?
That is a clinical question, and it depends on the product and how long ago it was. Check the product's patient information and ask your prescriber. A tracking app should record the miss and never advise on it.
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