This article assumes you have already tried spaced repetition but either still struggle to do it regularly or gave up on it altogether because it was too boring. If you haven't tried it before, go sign up for Memcode.com right now (or download Anki if you hate yourself), create four flashcards on something you're currently learning, and come back in three months.
Making and reviewing your flashcards can—and should—be enjoyable, provided you actually want to learn what you're trying to learn. If it isn't enjoyable, you're probably doing something wrong. Here are a few tips that work well for me:
Make it pleasant
- Effort is (generally) unpleasant—minimize it.
- Don't rate a card 5/5 until it's completely automatic, the answer should pop into your head as soon as you see the question.
- Don't learn too many flashcards at once, 5–10 at a time is optimal. Learn more after you've reviewed the previous ones.
- Try to really feel each flashcard when learning it, don't just press "learn" mindlessly.
- Use colors to highlight important words so you don't need to read the full flashcard every time.
- If you're procrastinating reviewing a course/deck, there are probably at least a couple of flashcards that are too complicated. Split them into smaller parts. Or maybe this particular course/deck just isn't inspiring at the moment, that's okay; see the last point in this sub-section.
- Using pretty things is (generally) pleasant.
- Make cards nice to look at. Controversial I know, but even if you're the kind of person to tweet in all lowercase, proper capitalization will probably make your cards more pleasant to look at.
- Consider full-screen mode.
- You can set a custom background on Memcode now! This one is nice.
- Stop immediately if you're bored or annoyed. You won't want to come back to an activity that your brain remembers as being unpleasant.
- Only review what's important to you at the moment.
Based on how memory works
- Don't make cards that reinforce wrong associations. "Is this fact true or false?" cards are forbidden.
- Add as many positive associations as possible. For languages: add pictures, translations to other languages (I would add etymology but I haven't figured out how to use it in "fill-in" mode without giving out the word).
- Don't put two concepts on one card (except if you already have two separate cards for those concepts, then it's useful to make one card that combines them).
- Split cards into different decks generously (memory palace thing).
- Silly/infuriating/horny examples are easier to remember.
Special cases
"Fill-in" flashcards are useful when you don't need to understand the concept but instead need to train automaticity (e.g., for learning languages).
Here are some flashcards illustrating the main points.
