Ask HN: How to use Anki effectively for spaced repetition learning?

2 points by rschachte 3 years ago | 1 comment

Today, we are inundated with constantly learnings and context switching in tech. I have taken a lot of courses and read a lot of books, multiple times, on the same topic due to poor memory.

This is tiring as I get deeper into my career and would prefer to have more things stored long term.

I used Anki a couple times in college, but curious how you use Anki or other spaced repetition tools for learnings things like a new language, framework, software, theory, etc.

minhmeoke 3 years ago |

1. Find a good deck online on either AnkiWeb (https://ankiweb.net/shared/decks/), Reddit, or via a web search. For example, https://www.reddit.com/r/ChineseLanguage/comments/7mjmjc/bes... is excellent for learning Simplified Chinese and Mandarin.

2. Set aside a dedicated block of time to drill every day, about 30 minutes to an hour is sufficient. Try to build it into your day, for example I drill Anki flashcards while commuting to work on the bus.

3. Just keep persisting at it and turn it into a habit. Create a trigger to remind yourself to perform the habit every day (eg: maybe a reminder post-it or poster on your wall), and reward yourself (maybe with a snack like some chocolates or juice) when you complete the 30 minutes of drilling to make you look forward to the next session.

4. Recognize that forgetting is natural, but there are ways to minimize the losses. I like the idea of paraphrasing key concepts into Evergreen Notes (https://notes.andymatuschak.org/Evergreen_notes) based on what I've read, and occasionally reviewing those.

5. Eventually create your own Anki decks, using tools mentioned in https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32397162 like https://github.com/kerrickstaley/genanki or https://github.com/ankicommunity/ankidown/