Learning & thinking · a life skill
Deliberate Spaced Repetition
a month of reviews, kept honest by one tally
The simple box runs on trust: you move cards and hope they stick. The deliberate version keeps score. Mark every answer, count once a week, and let the count tell you whether to fix cards or add more.
- Moderate to start
- High impact
- Learn it in 2-4 weeks
- A pen and one sheet a week
The count decides, not your mood. Fewer than 4 in 5 right means the cards need work before the box gets bigger; 4 in 5 or better means it can take more.
Start this week
Try it now.
Keep the box you already have, and add a sheet of paper beside it. Each step below is one part of the chart.
-
Do today's reviews first
Every card that is due, before any new ones. Then add at most five new cards.
today's reviews -
Mark every answer
One tick or one cross per look, on a sheet you keep with the box. A card you had to think hard about still gets a tick if you got it.
today's reviews → the tally → next day -
Count on Sunday
Ticks out of all the marks. 42 ticks out of 60 marks is 7 in 10, which is under 4 in 5.
the tally → the weekly check -
Under 4 in 5: fix before you add
Look at the crosses. Rewrite vague cards, split ones that ask two things, drop ones you no longer care about. Pause new cards for a few days.
the weekly check → fix the misses -
4 in 5 or better: add a few more
Raise your new cards a day by two or three, and count again next Sunday.
the weekly check → add a few more
For example: learning Spanish verbs? On your first Sunday you count 42 ticks out of 60. You keep crossing out “to know”, because Spanish has two verbs for it. Split it into two cards: “to know a fact” → saber and “to know a person” → conocer.
Four Sundays
One sheet, a month long.
Here is one learner's month, a row per Sunday. Each bar is the week's looks cut into tenths: blue for right, pale for missed. The dashed line is 4 in 5.
Below the line. Rewrote six cards and added no new ones for three days.
On the line. Kept to five new cards a day.
Above it. Went up to eight new cards a day.
More cards, the same share right. Nothing to change.
Looks went from 60 to 100 a week, and the share right went up and then held. That is how you tell it is working: more cards in play, and you still get most of them.
The idea
Why it works.
A recall that takes some effort does more for memory than an easy one. The psychologist Robert Bjork calls these desirable difficulties. But the effort only pays when you mostly succeed: miss too often and you are relearning, not remembering, and the box starts to feel like a chore.
The tally tells you which side you are on. The 4 in 5 line is this page's rule of thumb, not a law; spaced repetition apps such as Anki aim for about 9 in 10 by default. Pick a line, and keep it for the month so the weeks compare.
Keep it measured
Count, then change.
- Count looks, not cards. A card you saw three times this week is three marks.
- Fix before you add. A bigger box with the same weak cards only gives you more crosses.
- Change one thing a week. New cards a day, or the cards themselves, so next Sunday shows what helped.
Go deeper
Keep going.
- Simple Spaced Repetition
- Deliberate Spaced Repetition
- Advanced Spaced Repetition
Practise this in HourLife.
In Learning: Resurface to remember. Track the books, courses, podcasts, videos and articles you are working through, log where you are, and keep what you take from them.
