I've been in a similar boat - wanted to share what I found worked for me, perhaps it helps.
I constantly found myself in the following loop:
1) Motivated to study, study productively
2) Several days / weeks later productivity stops (for any number of reasons)
3) Quickly forget everything I learnt over the next month or so
4) Back at stage 1, feeling I have 'wasted' the last few months.
My big problem was the _forgetting_. Life is always going to get in the way, and I needed to 'drop anchor' when this happened, so I could resume where I left off, not start over.
I use Anki [1] to do this. I learn things, make flashcards, and spend dead time on public transport keeping up with them. As Anki uses spaced repetition, you can input a LOT of cards without this becoming overwhelming.
This gave me a sense of progress even when I did not study for a month, and massivly increased my motivation.
My main problem with spaced repetition programs like Anki is getting the motivation to stick with them long-term. This also dovetails in with my problems with procrastination. I've never seen a good solution. Most of the proposed solutions boil down to "just do it". It doesn't work for me.
Look into spaced repetition, and more specifically Anki. It would seem it's the ideal tool for the problem that you're facing : studying for exams, not for the long term.
I am still working on being consistent on my learning but the one thing that I find very discouraging. My study schedule is very errant due to my varied external commitments and inevitably I end up having long gaps in my study. When I get back, I find that what ever I have picked up two months ago are again new to me :(
So one of the biggest stumbling blocks in independent learning is to actually retain what you have already learnt over a period of time. I am in the process of putting anki ( spaced repetition memory training program) to the task but I am not sure of the effectiveness yet.
Of course, I would be very happy to know if anyone has faced this issue and solved it!
I stopped using anki because the stuff I chosen to remember and study are often of no applicable value or they are of use but does very little toward developing the skills I want.
I have no doubt that spaced repetition is a biological reality in how our memories work but I haven't found a way to make it resonate for me.
If I really need to remember something I use spaced repetition, Anki being one of the more well known tools for that. Spaced repetition is particularly useful if you need to retain information indefinitely; you can do so as long as you stick with the process. The downsides to it are the upfront cost of ingesting whatever information you're looking to memorize into what is usually a flash card like system.
Anki (or similar). Spaced repetition is the most underrated tool I know of. And I barely use it: 8 cards per day, probably 1.5 minutes total with a noticeable bump in ease of professional life
I've somewhat shifted my focus from plain note taking to making spaced repetition flashcards (using Anki). I find it to be a lot more effective in aiding memory retention of details.
Use a spaced memory repetition app, like Anki https://apps.ankiweb.net/ or SuperMemo. (I am most familiar with Anki, which is free and easily syncs across phone and PC and web).
You can easily take notes and then there's a built in reminder system which is most efficient for keeping things in your brain's long-term memory.
I notice the reminder system also ends up making me much more creative, since I can more easily combine things together to make new ideas. That is a huge bonus.
I had considered using spaced repetition software for a while after a long time of being frustrated with my poor memory. I finally started using Anki last September after reading Augmenting Long-term Memory[1].
I started off with just putting in a new vocabulary word every day and have been gradually ramping up the amount of info that I put into it. Now, I will add anything from programming details (e.g. how do you get the number of characters in a Rust string?) to key facts from the books I read (e.g. in The English Patient, who does the patient have an affair with?). My review sessions only take 5-10 minutes a day, and my only regret is not starting this habit earlier (especially in school). It's incredibly gratifying to review something, know the answer, and be very aware that without Anki, I would have forgotten it a long time ago.
This is NOT what Anki is for. It's called space repetition for a reason. The whole raison d'etre of spaced repetition is that you can memorize information in a fraction of the time by reviewing the information at progressively increasing intervals. If you had practiced spaced repetition, by the end of the term you would have spent a fraction of the time studying and would retain the vast majority of the information for months. If you spent a few minutes per week reviewing, you would still remember those facts today.
I first heard about spaced repetition and Anki from some "Best Study Habits" listicle a few years ago and it has had a profound impact on my ability to retain information.
Spaced repetition is working. I've been a fan since I started using Anki to learn my Czech language. I also made a similar system a part of my knowledge management system (https://rekowl.com/) to keep thing fresh in my head
Hey! As many have already mentioned in this thread, you might want to look into spaced repetition if you haven’t already. To summarize, it’s a simple algorithm that forces you to recall something at an increasing interval until it is committed to long term memory.
Anki is a popular app that uses spaced repetition. I personally wasn’t quite satisfied with any of the options out there so I decided to build a new app to solve this problem. Feel free to check it out: https://activerecall.com/ It allows you to create flashcards using a rich text editor with support for things such as code and latex blocks. I’m using it daily both to learn new software development concepts and for general knowledge.
Even with a spaced repetition-tool however there is a lot of nuance that goes into the process of acquiring new knowledge. A couple of pointers here:
1. It’s important to distinguish the learning step and the act of remembering what you’ve learned. Learning for example means using a new programming concept to the point where you understand it. Now that you have that context, you can encode it in the form of question and answer in a spaced repetition based system to ensure that you will remember what you’ve learned.
2. Some things that you want to remember are purely factual, while some require deeper understanding. In the latter case, you’ll want to structure your flashcards in a way that you’re solving a problem when answering it rather than just stating facts. This ensures that you’re actually remembering how to solve something rather than simply stating what the solution is.
3. Some things that seem like they are worth remembering when you first put them into your system will later turn out to be time sinks. Don’t be afraid to just get rid of them or keep them for reference (in my app you can “suspend” cards so that you can still search for them etc, essentially turning them into notes).
If you end up trying Active Recall out please feel free to reach out with any questions or if you just want to chat more about learning!
The way I did this was I added a daily task to my todo list to do spaced repetition.
And I started small. Add a few flashcards, review. Don't add more than 5-20 cards per day (Anki and Mochi have new card limits to enforce this for you).
If you use it daily, and add cards at a slow trickle, they won't pile up and you won't get discouraged.
I constantly found myself in the following loop:
1) Motivated to study, study productively
2) Several days / weeks later productivity stops (for any number of reasons)
3) Quickly forget everything I learnt over the next month or so
4) Back at stage 1, feeling I have 'wasted' the last few months.
My big problem was the _forgetting_. Life is always going to get in the way, and I needed to 'drop anchor' when this happened, so I could resume where I left off, not start over.
I use Anki [1] to do this. I learn things, make flashcards, and spend dead time on public transport keeping up with them. As Anki uses spaced repetition, you can input a LOT of cards without this becoming overwhelming.
This gave me a sense of progress even when I did not study for a month, and massivly increased my motivation.
[1] https://apps.ankiweb.net/
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