"We become what we remember, so we must be careful what we remember." - Michael Nielsen (from Augmenting Long-term Memory)
To start this newsletter off, I want to reemphasize how important practicing my self-care routine is to making me feel better on a daily basis. Defining what daily tasks make up your self-care routine is a critical process to go through.
It’s a question of asking yourself: what habits make you feel “good” after completion?
Here is what my morning self-care routine for starting the day off right entails.
Writing a page in my personal journal.
Meditating for 10 minutes.
Getting a good workout in.
Reviewing my Anki Terms.
Today, we are going to double-click on that last activity.
Reviewing Anki Terms
You’re probably wondering what the heck is Anki? Here is my definition from my writing: Sustained Attention is Cumulative.
1) Anki: a flashcard app. I treat my Anki as a Digital Dictionary where I continually challenge myself to learn more about unfamiliar terms I come across. Anki uses Spaced Repetition to ensure that I don’t forget the concepts I am learning overtime.
Here is Anki’s Definition for what using their application does.
“Anki is a program which makes remembering things easy. Because it's a lot more efficient than traditional study methods, you can either greatly decrease your time spent studying, or greatly increase the amount you learn.”
I am of the belief, that the first thing(s) you pay attention to while online, dictates your day online. Anki works as an excellent tool to not only provoke curiosity, but also in keeping you intellectually balanced.
Anki helps you intentionally direct your attention towards learning more efficiently than any other place online.
What does Anki look like?
Every morning when I first open up my Anki app (on my desktop), I am shown a screen similar to this.
16 = Signifies the new flashcards I am set to review today (from the terms I added yesterday).
80 = Signifies the flashcards that I am now going to review for the (n)th time.
80 + 16 = 96 terms that I plan on reviewing today.
96 terms?
As I’ve adapted the ways in which I learn online.. I have recognized the veracity of Anki and how it amplifies my learning on just about any topic.
The part that is really powerful about Anki is that you, in essence, shape what it is you would like to review all on your own. No one else dictates what you actively want to learn but yourself!
Want to learn about cryptocurrencies? Neuroscience? Personal finance? Music production? Real Estate? Inspiring quotes?
I like to treat Anki as my video game for learning.
How to make a flashcard on Anki?
Let’s use the "Treat Anki as your video game for learning” quote as a prompt to plug into my Anki database.
You start by simply clicking “Add” from the Anki Main Menu and then filling in the following Front/Back Fields on Anki.
The Front Field: The prompt that you would like to guide you to your answer. I typically write a question for this.
The Back Field: The answer to your prompt. Be specific!
Then pressing “Add” once your flashcard is complete.
What do the flashcards look like?
Here is a screenshot of once you have successfully added your flashcard to your deck and are actively reviewing it.
As you can see, you have one of four selections to measure your understanding of the term you have quizzed yourself on.
1) Again (review again <1 minute): bruh what is this?
2) Hard (review again <6 minutes): it kinda makes sense, but can I get it again plz
3) Good (review again <10 mintues): ooo now we feeling nice, I think I’m ready to study the next term.
4) Easy (review again in 4 days): get this card outta my face I got this down now!
After you pick from the choices of your understanding of the term… Anki will drive that term to you again when your flashcard is due for quizzing next.
Based on your selected understanding level… you may be learning a topic on a daily basis, or reviewing it deeper into the future due to your understanding advancing so quickly on a topic.
This ensures that you are actively partaking in spaced repetition for learning.
Spaced repetition: re-testing yourself on concepts you’ve learned over expanding intervals, allows you to reliably and cheaply transfer libraries of information from your short-term memory to your long-term memory.
In other words, quizzing yourself incrementally unlocks a superpower for learning, which makes your knowledge more concrete. This helps migrate knowledge from your short-term memory to long-term memory as the durations in between your quizzing extends the better you understand a topic.
Anki is the tool to further enhance your learning.
Why utilize Anki?
Anki is a safehaven for your attention and an intentional online learning tool.
More and more, we can be so easily distracted with the next notification, latest like, or newest topic that pops on our horizon. Using a tool like Anki as a vehicle for learning, is critical if you are trying to do any sort of knowledge work while online.
The true power of Anki is felt after spending a vast amount of time dedicated to learning, using Anki’s learning software.
I have been using Anki over the past year, and I am super excited to revisit the terms I initially laid out to learn. Ideally, these are term in which I now integrate into my every day language as a result of my understanding becoming more stronger over time.
Here is a screenshot of the amount of time in which I have between reviewing my next Anki Terms.
The X-Axis = Time to study (in days)
The Y-Axis = Terms to study
I have made 849 cards in total to study (only in the past year or so).
Imagine what this will look like in 1 year? 3 years? 20 years?
Wielding Anki while you read an article, highlighting a particular passage that you would like to understand better is a good start.
From there, grabbing a particular word you don’t understand like: DAOs for example.
Then asking the simple question of: What is a DAO? Finding that definition, then progressing onto creating a flashcard on Anki for this term and reviewing it daily.
Your research from there may even you lead you to write an article on that topic as I did recently with DAOs in my piece: DAO Excitement. Three-four months ago, I can legitimately say I didn’t understand a spec in the crypto space, but using Anki to build my rabbithole has made the terms from this field much easier.
I am convinced Anki should be used as a tool for thought, in constructing your understanding in fields you have been meaning to learn about, but previously felt you lacked the patience to learn.
Using Anki as a base for understanding as you initially engage in the introductory content, progressing onto more advanced content… puts you in a position to develop an expertise in your learning and curiosity on a topic like DAOs.
Anki does a brilliant job in helping aid your learning, resurfacing concepts we used to engage with regularly, while also blending the new and exciting terms.
Let’s call it for what it is. Human Memory is a tough thing to practice and the tools out there (especially online) are lacking for the time being.
In the meanwhile, hacking away with Anki in terms of programming your “thought-space” is an excellent way to kickstart the ways in which you test your memory.
The crazy part is all of the time I have spent utilizing Anki I haven’t paid a single cent for the product. (Bear in mind, this is only possible while using the Desktop app.)
Writing this post today convinced me to fork over the $24.99 cost for the iOS app (in addition to the free desktop app). Any app like this wielded on your smartphone, is one of those (unfortunately) rare moments in which technology can truly enhances one’s memory, rather than fragment it.
Anki is a safehaven for attention.
I suggest Anki to be your headquarters for intentionally learning a topic in which you would like to become an expert in.
One card at a time.
Cheers to lifelong learning,
PARTING NOTE
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Double-Clicking on Anki
Anki is cool! Useful for so many topics, but I only used it for languages so far. Do you also have other tools to help you learn about the fields you're diving into? More elaborate comment on Readup https://readup.com/comments/the-freelance-graduate-student/double-clicking-on-anki/VXdeoV
Good stuff, man! Hadn't heard of Anki but definitely gonna try it out for a few topics I'm learning...