Getting Started With Anki Flashcards (TYHTL guide 3)

Hi all!
Following on from my previous posts re: my website www.teachingyouhowtolearn.com, I’ve just posted the third of the key ideas guides—Getting Started With Anki.

I’ve written this to be a Pareto Principle-style guide covering the essentials of getting started and the key things I wish I’d known since day one.

I think a solid system for learning is essential for any EA and is an extremely powerful way to increase your leverage in you career & life, so would highly recommend following the guide and giving it a go :)

Let me know what you think!

Summary

Anki is free for desktop & Android, $25 for iOS. I spend almost all of my Anki time on desktop.
It’s very easy to pick up but there are some key things to do and avoid.
Using anki is split into making and reviewing flashcards.
You can create multiple decks. I recommend having decks for topics, all nested under a master deck.
- Interleaving.
- Allows overall new cards per day to be set via master deck (bottleneck).
Cloze deletion is the best card type.
Number of cards per day.
Anki as a daily habit.
Tips for starting strong.
- Make your flashcards in plain text document (!!!).
- Don’t make “orphan” cards.
- Master deck with subdecks.
- Make it clear what card is about.
- Recognise cards that won’t be memorable and make supporting cards.
- 20 rules of formulating knowledge, key ones:
  - First, Understand.
  - Start with big picture & build on the basics.
  - Simplify.
  - Use mnemonic techniques.
  - Optimise wording.