I Reviewed 28,655 Flashcards Every Day for 17 Years. I Barely Had to Study.

Key wellness / self-care / productivity takeaways

• Use spaced repetition to prevent forgetting (reduces “re-study” pain)

  • Treat the method as a spaced repetition system (not just a flashcard deck).
  • The app shows cards right when you’re most likely to forget, so retention stays high with less ongoing effort.

• Understand principles first; memorize details only as a consequence

  • Don’t create cards that are just isolated facts to “cram.”
  • Prefer cards that force application/usage of an underlying principle (better transfer to new question formats).
  • Example pattern:
    • Instead of: “Ort-ho means ____”
    • Use: “Using the meaning of ortho, explain orthodontics/orthopedics.”

• Commit to consistency: do it 100% of the time (reduce decision fatigue)

  • Habit over willpower: once it’s “non-negotiable,” you don’t have to debate whether to do it.
  • If you fall behind, the next day becomes disproportionately worse—so catching up quickly matters.

• Start tiny to avoid overwhelm

  • Start with 5 cards in 5 minutes (not thousands at once).
  • Premade giant decks can lead to overload and abandonment—build a manageable system around what you are learning.

• Use the review buttons in a way that matches the algorithm

  • During review, choose “again” or “good”, and avoid overusing “hard” (the subtitles suggest it reduces how well the algorithm works).
  • Aim to mark “again” only about ~10% of the time.

• Time investment stays low as cards “mature”

  • Reviews for older cards become fast; adding new knowledge doesn’t increase workload much.
  • The creator emphasizes daily studying can shrink to ~20–30 minutes over time as the system works.

• If you miss a day, don’t spiral—temporarily stop new cards

  • Suggested approach:
    • Set new card limit to 0
    • Keep doing old reviews to catch up
    • Optionally cap maximum reviews per day (e.g., 100) to reduce psychological overwhelm
  • This prevents “falling off the wagon” from becoming permanent.

Implementation quick-start

Steps

1. Download Anki
2. Pick one thing you’re actively learning that you tend to forget
3. Create 5 cards
4. Do reviews the next morning (takes 5–10 minutes)
5. Add 3–5 new cards per day after that

Presenters / sources

• Alec (the video narrator; first name appears in subtitles as “Alec”)
• Ricardo Dolmetsch (Stanford neuroscience professor; introduced the spaced repetition teaching)