Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Anki Suggestions, Tricks, Hacks, And Other Minutae





Okay. So. Anki. Spaced repetition. Learning. Jeopardy. Medical school.

Stuff like that.

Here are some of my rambling thoughts (although I mostly agree with this article on Anki tips. Turns out, use Anki a lot and you'll learn a thing or two.)

1. Use Anki to promote behavior change. There are many novel ways to use Anki. Here's one. Use it to promote behavior change.

The hardest part of implementing some new habit is making it concrete, actually instilling it. You forget when to execute the habit, especially if it's intended for something that happens not very often.

Instead, try this: make a flashcard reminding you of the change you want to make. Structure it as active recall, like you would anything else.

2. Systems must be designed with humans in mind. Ultimately, you will find, during your journey, many suboptimal things about your Anki usage. It would be better if I work through more problem sets on paper, for instance, when reading a textbook.

I never do this, because I am both human and flawed. This is okay -- it just means that many plans collapse when they come into contact with the human element. It has to be accounted for.

3. Concentrate during reviews. The point of Anki is to learn and remember. Okay. To learn anything you need to concentrate. During your review, you should adopt a solemn attitude of extreme focus.

If you spend your reviews watching television, or whatever, you aren't going to learn that much. But if you stick some noise-cancelling headphones on, sans music, and get really into the zen of it, your brain is going to expand and grow.

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