Every system that runs for years has a maintenance schedule. This one's is short. Ten minutes, once a month, same day every month. Here's the entire checklist.
One: write down the line's balance and compare it to last month and to the same month last year. The month-over-month number tells you whether the engine is running. The year-over-year number tells you the truth, because it smooths out the lumpy months. Down both ways, you're fine. Flat or rising two months in a row, stop and find out why before doing anything else.
Two: recount your surplus. Income minus everything going out. Not the surplus you had when you started, the one you have right now. Raises, rate changes, new subscriptions, a kid starting daycare, all of it moves the number, and the whole strategy runs on that number. If it shrank, deal with the shrink before it deals with you.
Three: check the rate and the room. Variable rates move, and your lender won't send a greeting card when yours does. Confirm what the line is charging today. Then confirm your cushion is intact, that gap between balance and limit that the never-max rule exists to protect.
Four: ask whether a chunk is due. If the line is nearly cleared and the cushion is comfortable, it may be time to bite off the next piece of the mortgage. If not, do nothing. Doing nothing on schedule is a legitimate move, and it beats improvising.
That's the whole job. People who stall out with this strategy almost never got the math wrong. They stopped looking, and drift filled the space where attention used to be. Ten minutes a month keeps it out. If your review keeps surfacing questions you can't answer alone, the next step page covers where to get a second set of eyes.