Initial setup

What are you using Anki for? Is it for school or something else? Whatever it is, figure that out first. If you just want to learn trivia, Anki probably won’t work. I think you need some sort of core motivation besides just learning random facts.

Much of Anki boils down to one thing: can you keep at this day after day? Sure, you can get better at writing cards, buy a fancy remote, or install 100 plugins, but the only thing that will give you value from Anki is by showing up everyday. Optimize to survive. If that means you add 5 new cards a day and feel this is very slow but show up THEN GOOD! This is a good thing. This is how you use the tool.

This is a highly opinionated guide. A fool’s guide after all. You should have one deck. Name it something special, give it a name you will love for you shall see it til the day you give up Anki. All of your cards go into this deck now.¹ Will this suck? Yes. Is interleaved learning better for your retention? Also yes.

Not all of the rules here have to be followed. If you feel like you should break a “rule”, then do it! At least do it knowing that there are rules. ## Rules for writing cards

A lot of learning comes from making cards, so if you’re trying to find ways to automate card creation… I say don’t bother. There are lots of people who are trying to automate card creation with AI, but I have yet to see someone who is a serious Anki user who does. (happy to be proven wrong!)

My only exceptions to this are language learning vocab/mining decks and AnKing medical school decks.

Writing cards is a skill that you’ll get better at as you continue using cards. If this list is too overwhelming, just skim it and come back to the list later when you have written a few hundred cards and have a better feel for what a good flashcard is.

1. Only use the basic front-back, reversed front-back, cloze, and image occlusion types.
2. Each flashcard should only test one concept.
3. Each flashcard should only have one correct answer.
4. If you even think about splitting a flashcard, split it.
5. Only add cards to memorize after you’ve learned something.
6. T/F or any multiple choice cards are generally bad and allow for shortcuts.
7. Create cards that don’t allow for any mental shortcuts.
   1. This sometimes means creating “confounding” cards that have a similar structure but different answer.
8. Write more cards than you think. If they’re too easy, they’ll just be remembered and take ~0 time.
9. More to come!

Specific techniques

How to learn with anki

1. Go to class/read a textbook or paper/watch a lecture
2. Write down questions
3. Answer afterwards
4. Turn your newfound Q/A pairs into flashcards
5. Return to Step 1

Sources

• Effective learning: Twenty rules of formulating knowledge - SuperMemo