Strategies, Tips, and Tricks for Anki

For the past few years, Anki has acted as my digital memory storage (albeit, imperfect). If I searched in StackOverflow, I'd add it to Anki. Wikipedia? Another Anki card. It's the one important secret that has helped my software engineering career. My total deck recently passed ten thousand cards (EDIT: now 14k). In this guide, I'll explain the avoidable (dumb) mistakes, but also provide the effective strategies I found along the way.

This Anki guide assumes the reader is familiar with these topics:

• spaced repetition
• Anki
• how to add cards to Anki
• Anki decks

For an introduction to Spaced Repetition and Anki, please read this earlier article - How Anki Saved My Software Career. While I focus on Anki a bit, principles from this guide also apply to SuperMemo.

I will continuously update this from feedback and suggestions. If any bullet points need elaboration, please let me know. A lot was shortened for readability.

Beginner's Guide

For Anki beginners, habit & friction is your enemy. Maintaining a daily routine is critical. Read the Beginner's Section below and visit after:

1. you've maintained Anki for 21 days
2. have more than a hundred cards

I'm not saying beginners to stop reading this guide ... just the rest can be a little overwhelming.

Adding Cards

• Most Anki beginners quit. You'll only keep a Anki routine if you quickly see benefits. Focus on adding work or study related cards for an immediate benefit.
• Use a computer to add cards to Anki. It is hard to add cards on mobile.
• In the beginning, try not to add more than twenty cards a day. It's very easy to desire to "remember everything" and find yourself overwhelmed.
• Add simple cards.

Reviewing Cards

• Download (and review using) the mobile apps. This is probably the most important tip.

  • The Android (free) version is amazing! There is also a iOS version ($25).
• Keep a daily habit to review all your cards. In the beginning, reviewing take two to four minutes. It's easy to skip and then catch up, but having a routine will be critical later.
• Aim to make reviewing Anki as easy as possible.

General Guide

Card Types

Anki comes with three default card types:

• Basic Type (shoutout to Bunny_Wabit for more clarification)

• Basic + Reversed Type. Similar to Basic, except both sides of the Card are used to quiz your knowledge.

  

• Cloze Card Type

  

  Card Types have have certain advantages based on categories and user preferences.

• You can change the prompts of a cloze card by modifying c1, c2, etc.

  

• Some plugins add Custom Card Types like Image Occlusion (Also referred as graphic deletion). Great for anatomy.

• I prefer creating cloze cards. Proper cloze cards add meaningful context and improve fundamental understanding. Takes slightly more time to add.
• You can also make custom card types.

Categories and Recommended Card Types

• Avoid adding Basic type cards. If you can make a basic card, you can probably make it a Basic + Reversed (BR) Card. BR Cards help avoid the tip of the tongue phenomenon.

  

• For definitions (example: provenance), the basic+reversed type isn't helpful. I want to know a word's meaning, but trying to recall something that means "origin" has too many answers (immemorial, provenance, inception, etc).

  

• Cloze cards are great for adding context to understand a topic. Most basic+reversed cards can be made into cloze cards. Over time my preferences have gone from Basic —> Basic + Reversed —> Cloze.

  

Adding Cards

• Each question should have a single succinct answer.

  

• Add images. Our brains are wired visually, so this helps retention. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT. IF POSSIBLE, USE A VISUAL CUE.

  

• Don't add things you don't understand. Otherwise, expect frustration. The same card will be wrong multiple days, marked as a leech and a waste of time. [See Antipatterns, Useful Links]
• Most of your Anki cards should be as simple as possible.

• Add additional context for hard questions. If you get a card wrong, it's helpful to know more about the topic. I prefer adding in the extra info with cloze cards. For basic or basic + reversed cards, I'll have a succinct answer on Line 1, line breaks, Lines 3+ will be additional information.

  

• If you have a card with multiple answers, add hints (HINT: Begins with a P...). When adding, you won't realize a question has multiple answers, but when you're reviewing, you'll know. Try to avoid this and write better questions with single answers.

  

• Don't Add Cards Memorizing Entire Lists. Too easily forgotten. You might remember Points 1, 2, 4 today and tomorrow only remember Points 1, 2, 3.

  • If necessary, use a cloze to memorize lists.
  • Lists can be memorized using the loci method. [See: Learning Strategies]

  

• If I added the above into a single basic card — Q: "What are the dates and milestones of Deep Learning Ideas?" A: Long forgettable list. A cloze is a better approach. I can get one or two facts wrong and still continue with progression with the card (and without having to redo the card).

  

• Avoid importing online Anki decks. Similar to note taking, your own materials have better retention and comprehension.

• When studying offline material, don't simultaneously create cards. Instead, highlight/circle the topics, write the Anki question you would have asked and finish studying. After the study session (or tomorrow) review your circled questions and add it to Anki. This is referred as the Cornell Notes system. [See: Studying and Learning]

  • Adding cards when studying online is risky, it's too easy to end in a Wikipedia rabbit hole.
• If you've added cards, sync Anki (keyboard shortcut: Y) before leaving your house or office. Review during commute. Make this a habit.

• When watching online videos/lectures, I frequently create Basic cards and use screenshots as answers.

  

• For sites that have a detailed explanation (StackOverflow answers), I also use a screenshot instead of dealing with formatting. I'm lazy.
• A tradeoff of screenshots is they can't be easily searched.

• If you forget an Anki card (that you've already added and should know) add a similar question worded slightly differently. Spaced repetition isn't perfect, so asking the same question in a different way helps drill an answer.

  • Another alternative is to add an Anki card asking "what term did you forget about when you were talking to [person]?"

  

• I don't care about grammar, formatting or spelling (apologies about some card examples ...). You shouldn't either. Only you review your cards.

• Include where you learned it. Helps links back visually. Human brains are weird. Personalizing a card helps recall.

  

• If you're going to paste a paragraph that uses a cloze term multiple times, use a find and replace (I like using Sublime to do this).
• Add names to faces. Thoughtful teachers add an entire class of student faces to names prior to the first day.
• I prefer cards in random order. Randomization helps prevent being able to recall cards only in a specific order.

Improving the Anki Experience

Add-Ons / Plugins

• Note: These addons are only applicable for the desktop version.
• BACKUP YOUR ANKI DECK BEFORE INSTALLING ADD-ONS.
• The complete Anki add-ons list is here. Normally sorting by ratings is a reasonable heuristic (sorting is currently broken). Avoid add-ons that are less than a year old; there are stories about add-ons accidentally deleting cards.
• Not all add-ons play nicely with each other.
• Uninstall an add-on if you don't intend to use it.
• Seriously, back up your deck first. I normally review the source code before installing any add-ons. Many have dubious code quality.

• Night Mode

  • Saves your eyes, seriously.

• Syntax Highlighter for Code

  • Makes it really really easy to highlight syntax code. I use an earlier version.
  • This makes it much easier to add cards related to Coding Snippets

• Automatic Cloze Plugin

  • Incredibly helpful to just use the create cloze shortcut (Cmd + Shift + C on Mac). You don't have to switch the card. Shaves a few seconds off creating cards.

• Power Format Pack

  • I like Syntax Highlighter for ease-of-use, but this is another common way to format your Anki cards.

• Image Occlusion

  • If you're a medical student, this is for you.

Desktop Keyboard Shortcuts

• Memorize shortcuts to add Anki cards faster. Meta-Anki: Use Anki to memorize Anki shortcuts.
• Another Link about Shortcuts from the Manual : https://apps.ankiweb.net/docs/manual.html#keyboard-shortcuts
• Sorry, I don't have Windows examples, but similar strategies apply.

Shortcuts Example : How To Quickly Add An Anki Card on Mac

1. Alt + Tab to Anki
2. Hit A to enable Add A Card
3. Type the card front
4. Tab
5. Type the card back
6. Shift + Enter to enter the card
7. Esc to main screen

8. Alt + Tab to go back to what I was working on.

   

You want to make adding cards seamless!

Anki Shortcuts (Mac)

• Use keyboard keys. 1 (Again), 2 (Hard), 3 (Good), or 4 (Easy). Easier than using mouse.

  

• Hitting Spacebar defaults to Good.

Make Reviewing Easier

Mobile Tips and Tricks

• I prefer reviewing on Mobile. Since I normally review during my commute, mobile is imperative.

• Enable App Gestures.

  • Set Swipe Left to Answer button 1. "Again / Fail".
  • Set Swipe Right to Answer button 2. "Hard".
  • Make all the taps to Show answer.

• This makes it really useful on the train / bus since you can review Anki with one hand.

  • Credit to minh0: Brought up a valid criticism about Swipe difficulty. While my default Swipe Right - Correct is "Answer Button 2", which means Hard. Some users (especially those with large medical Anki cards) may prefer to have it to be "Answer Button 3" which means Good. Otherwise, the amount of cards to review doesn't decrease fast enough.
• Buy a phone ring. You can now swipe left and right on one hand easier.
• Make It A Favorite / Docked App for Easier Access.
• Turn on Autosyncing. The app will now sync when you open or when you've finished a deck (per 30 minutes).
• Turn on Nightmode. Both the Android and iOS app have this feature.
• If you have more than fifteen minutes of Anki, turn on airplane mode first. Your phone/tablet's notifications were made to distract you. Turn back on after reviewing.

General Reviewing Tips

• I prefer using mobile (Phone / Tablet) to review.
• If you have time, think about where you learned the card.
• After you're finished a deck, you have the option to review any forgotten cards in the last X days.

• Review forgotten cards in decks that you're willing to overstudy and improve.

  • Reviewing forgotten cards is a great way to use mnemonics and visual imagery to remember. Because visual imagery takes a bit longer to think about, I save it for cards that I'm forgetting.
  • Reviewing forgotten is useful when you've finished reviewing and want to burn some time.
  • Depending on your deck, try not to reviewing forgotten cards too many days back.

• If you have a reasonable amount of Anki cards and you're committed to Anki — I recommend buying an android tablet. It makes reviewing easier. I know this is ridiculous. A tablet has a few benefits over your phone:

  • Larger reading space. The 8'' is a perfect tablet size to review.
  • I prefer the Android App over iOS. I've tried Anki on a Samsung and Apple tablet.
  • Tablets have less distractions than your phone. (Less calls, texts and emails).
  • Update (Oct. 2020) - I recently purchased a Galaxy Tab S7. It's been a huge game changer. Using the tablet's stylus to review notes has been a cathartic experience and has helped significantly when studying. The tablet is much larger than what I'm used to, but it allows an amazing experience when reviewing Anki cards.

• During a review, you might find something wrong with a card. If it's not easily fixable, star it. Don't edit it now, finish your review session and batch fix incorrect starred cards later. On a weekend, you can open up Anki via desktop and select "All Starred Cards" and make edits.

  • Sometimes you'll forget why you starred a card for an error. I will write a little note next to the card what's missing (cloze, formatting, etc).
• If it's the last card in a Deck, and you've gotten it wrong a few times, be careful. You're likely think you remembered it because of the recency. I recommend slowly reviewing or making an extensive mental image of the card.
• Use Spacebar to go to the next card. [See: Shortcuts]
• Use the Night Mode Add-On. Your eyes thank me.
• Use learning strategies. [Learning and Study Methods]

Finding Time for Anki

• Dead Time is Anki Time

  • If you want to go on Reddit, HackerNews, social media, etc. finish your Anki deck first. Or at the very least, try to do five cards. Use Anki as a source to procrastinate.
  • My friends are frequently late. I do Anki when waiting. If they're really late, I'll start a review forgotten session.

• Other Times To Do Anki:

  • Commute
  • Non-productive meetings.
  • Waiting in line.
  • Elevators.
  • The twenty minutes of movie trailers before a movie.
  • Etc.
• If you're having trouble with Anki, I recommend printing out a calendar, putting it on your fridge and writing an X everyday if you attempted 10 minutes. Don't make the goal to finish your entire deck, but just that you spent 10 minutes. Having low expectations of a task is a great way to avoid anxiety and just start. Known as Seinfeld Method / Don't Break the Chain. Habit Tracker is another app that is great for tracking.
• Locking yourself in a room without WiFi is another sadistic, but effective method.
• I'm frequently pulled into non-productive meetings (classic engineer gripe). I'll just do Anki on my laptop.
• Change your commute style. I found myself preferring a bus over a train that added fifteen minutes to my commute. The bus gave me a seat and uninterrupted time to review. On the other hand, New York trains were too chaotic to get into a good rhythm to review.
• I find Anki + Tablet + Notebook + Good Food at a Restaurant is a really enjoyable way to review. I'll normally write down any answers I get wrong into the notebook, ponder about why I got them wrong and enjoy some really good food. Since I'll normally go to the same restaurant, I always end up being friends with the restaurant stuff. This tactic is referred to as temptation bundling, combining something really good (food) with something that's work (reviewing). The making friends is optional.

Managing Your Cards

Deck Strategies

• The community advice is to have all your cards merged in one deck. This has two main benefits:

  • It reduces the Anki context problem - this happens when you can only remember the answer from an Anki app, but not in real-world situations. Similar to below. This is also referred to as interleaving.

  

  • It boosts creativity. Having two completely unrelated cards helps think about problems in different ways. Quizzing about tornados and binary-tree algorithms makes me visit the problem in a different way.

• That being said, I have multiple decks. There are some benefits:

  • Very useful for new jobs: Have a new job deck and add all your work related cards in there. Review it at a much higher frequency (+ use review forgotten). Your learning rate and the speed of recall will improve.
  • I can accelerate learning on a particular topic if I make a custom deck for it. Spaced repetition algorithms maximize efficiency of memory, sometimes I don't care about efficiency and want to brute-force improve at underlying material.
  • If I'm debating trying a new topic (math, music, etc), I will add that material to a new deck. That way if I decide I hate this topic, I can delete/avoid the entire deck.
  • Much easier to avoid decks you don't have enough time to do.
  • You can listen to different types of music depending on decks. For easy decks I listen to pop music. Harder decks require music with a slower cadence. My "definitions" deck is a relatively easy deck; I listen to fun music there.
• If I'm learning one new topic, I will throw everything into the default deck. If I'm learning two different topics, I will have two different decks.
• Apparently, at 20-25 decks it gets a bit messy. Probably merge some at that point.
• A lot of deck decisions are based on your learning and studying habits. It's trivially easy to combine everything into one deck later, the inverse isn't true.
• Personally, It's useful to create a new deck for a new job/employer and adding work related cards. This gives more control over the cards I want to review. If I'm trying to learn quickly, I can review this deck at a faster interval.

Tags

• A lot of my deck strategies can be done similarly via tags. Personally, tags weren't really as useful as decks. They required more time to make, and the way to review specific tags required too much customization. I also felt that the mobile apps weren't really good for tags.
• Each person varies. If you find yourself using a tagging system in Evernote, OneNote, etc. then you may want to approach Anki with tags. If you don't (myself personally), then tags probably won't work for you.

• Some useful advice by redditor cubicpillow about the benefits of tags vs. decks

  • I don't review by tags but I use them to keep my cards organized. Tags have the advantage of being able to have multiple tags (i.e. I might have a card with the tags music theory, banjo, banjo exercise).
  • I do like to keep as many cards in one deck as possible, but I'll break out separate decks if I require a specific tool or setting to review them. BJJ cards are best reviewed with a training partner to drill with. Banjo cards require a banjo. Slight of hand cards require props, Spanish cards are better with sound.

On Deleting Cards

Get over your gripe about deleting cards. If you find yourself forgetting a crappy card or just never want to see the card again, delete it.

• Delete Cards That Don't Make Sense

  • If you can't fix it with a batched star (and edit later), delete.
• If you're having issues with a particular card for multiple days, it may be a poorly written card. Delete and write it in a clear way.

• Delete Bad Programming Languages You Don't Use

  • After a few years, I can safely say I won't need PHP.
• Delete Things You Don't Want To Remember Anymore

• Avoid the Sunk Cost Fallacy

  • Don't feel bad that you studied a card months ago and forgot it. It happens. If you no longer care for the card, delete it.
  • If you're still too scared to delete, you can also suspend cards to edit later.

Anki Learning Strategies

Learning & Study Methods

What I cannot create, I do not understand. — Richard Feynman

Most people use Anki as a way to amplify memory. I use Anki for memory AND to fundamentally learn.

• Use multimodal study strategies. Using different modes of learning can enforce an idea.

  • Read the answer out loud.
  • Write it out. For wrong answers, I'll write it on paper. The act of writing is meditative. I really enjoy this.
  • Study in a different location than normal (different coffee shops, public locations).
  • Visualize the answer (see below).
  • Many others. The point is changing your study patterns helps.

• Learning: To become world-class, you need first principles. That requires expertise in fundamentals.

  • This strategy only applies to topics you want long-term mastery. I only use this for a subset. Be picky. It's impossible to apply first principles thinking to your entire deck.
  • If I'm trying to learn from first principles, I'll write and draw mind maps & diagrams. This takes considerably more time to review, but makes similar concepts easier to grok. Mindmaps are a great way to stabilize topics.
  • Keeping on asking yourself why? why does this work? why does it work this way? Force yourself to understand the root of a topic.

• Cornell Method

  • When reading a topic, write out questions on the margins to quiz yourself.

• Pretend You Have to Teach It

  • Works incredibly well. Help realize knowledge gaps.
  • Pretend you have to explain it to a five year old for extra difficulty. Only allow yourself to use basic vocabulary and concepts. If you can't explain it simply, then you don't really know it.

• Use Exquisite Visual Imagery

  • If you make very intense mental visual images, you'll remember it for life. he visual image doesn't have to make sense (most of my don't). Q: What's the capital of Romania? A: Bucharest. I have a disturbing image of Romans being conquerors and butchering an innocent village at rest. butcher-at-rest, butch-at-rest, Bucharest. I know this sounds very silly, but visual imagery really works. Don't worry, you won't fool yourself into thinking Romania are Romans.
• Use mnemonics phrases like PEMDAS for lists and other hard-to-remember topics.

• If you don't know an answer, try to force yourself to reason what the answer could be.

  • Slow and hard, but very useful in first principle thinking.

• Memory Palace / Loci Method

  • Think about the room you grew up. Weird how you can still remember ... Now put an Anki term interacting with an object from the room. Visualize the term really hard. When you wake up tomorrow, you'll still remember the term.
  • This is useful for memorizing extensive lists. I will go counter-clockwise in a room and make every item in a list interact with something from my childhood bedroom.

• Studying Before Bedtime

  • Useful for reviewing forgotten cards. I don't recommend trying to do your daily review session at night though, it's too easy to fall asleep and be backlogged.
  • Useful if you suffering from insomnia and want to get your mind on something else.
• Pretend the word makes a sound describing something else. Q: 'How do I use Python's DictWriter to output a line?' A: writer.writerow(). I like to make this stupid sound of "ruh row", like a sad "oh no!". It works. This example is so embarrassing and ridiculous.
• I use a checklist of first principles reasoning and meta-learning tactics when reviewing Anki. I'll write about it sometime later, but it didn't fit in this guide.

Dealing with Spaced Repetition Burnout And Backlogs

Burnout is when you feel overwhelmed and don't want to review cards. It frequently happens when you've added too many cards quickly. You've missed a few review sessions and now have a couple of hundred cards to review. Or you have too many cards you don't understand.

• Find a way to just start: Leave your location and commit to one Pomodoro (25 minutes) of Anki at your favorite coffee shop. Turn on airplane mode. Jam to your favorite music.
• If you're feeling overwhelmed, go out for a ten minute walk. Then when you come back, if you still don't want to do your daily Anki, don't. The mental agreement helps me start.
• Be comfortable with deleting cards that cause you frustration. [See: Deleting Cards]
• If possible, only review a deck you're passionate about until you can get back into a daily rhythm.

• To avoid burnout:

  • Avoid adding too many cards too quickly.
  • Don't fall too far behind on Anki reviews.
  • Avoid adding too many cards that you don't fully understand. Too many difficult cards causes frustration.
  • Be comfortable deleting / suspending frustrating cards.
• The Anki Manual has a section about catching up to large backlogs. https://apps.ankiweb.net/docs/manual.html#catching-up

• Another tip I received from an email (thank you!) was if you're backlogged (which can feel overwhelming) to build filtered decks to attack the problem. Doing this helped a user come back after 5000 reviews piled up.

  • deck:"deckname" is:due prop:due>-7 # anything due this week, use this to build a routine
  • deck:"deckname" is:due prop:ivl>=365 prop:due<=-7 # this is a mature backlog, which will probably be easier to complete, use to build back confidence!
  • deck:"deckname" is:due prop:ivl<=365 prop:due<=-7 # this is the young backlog, you can expect to be harder, but expectations can be managed

Don't Do This

• Don't try to trick yourself w/quirky questions. You may think you can ask a question in a misleading way to trick yourself will make you remember the topic better, but it just trips me in the long-run.

  • Normal Example — Q: Programming: How do I commit and add all messages and files? A: git commit -am
  • Tricky Example — Q: Programming: How do I save and add all messages and files? A: git commit -am
  • The problem now is your brain remembers the word "save" and the next time you think of commit, your brain goes "wait, did you use save as trick term or was it commit? ARGH"
• Don't keep forgetful cards even if you've spent time trying to remember (sunk cost fallacy). You'll find certain cards you remember for a few months and then inevitably forget. Some cards aren't worth it. Delete.
• Don't turn on the Auto Next Card feature. Way too easy to mess up.
• Don't explain Anki to a newcomer by showing the first card of your deck. Luck says it will always be of something embarrassing you read from an article.

Music When Studying

Different types of music will subtly change your review speed.

• EDM/POP Music? I feel like "I KNOW EVERYTHING TODAY". I then review cards a little too quickly ... the euphoria makes me overconfident.
• Classical Music? Slows me down, makes me more thoughtful. Not as fun tho.

Community Tips from Reddit and Other Social Media

• I use Anki to memorize vocabulary as well. So what I do instead of asking What word means {{Definition}}, I use colons to introduce a definition like : {{Definition}}. That way I could add two or three meanings, which also helps to differentiate words that have similar definitions. Credit: plain_tshirt

Antipatterns / Applicable Only To Odd People Like Myself

• I frequently add entire Wikipedia descriptions as cloze cards (about a topic I don't understand yet). Because I also use Anki as my learning pad, I know I'll sit down and study this knowledge. THIS IS NOT A GOOD IDEA UNTIL YOU KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING.

  

• At some point, it's trivially easy and intoxicating to add facts from articles. Previously, if the Wall Street Journal mentioned a person's background and alma matter, I added it. This was useless. Add knowledge if helpful; if not, it's probably not worth knowing.
• If you're having trouble with remembering cards (my brain ignores certain topics), delete them. Spaced repetition isn't about spaced torture.

• Useless Things I Don't Add Anymore

  • Birthdates
  • Phone Numbers
  • Raw Numbers. Like 2016 United States GDP
  • Politician Names / Faces
  • Pop Culture

Misc

Explaining Anki

• From time to time, people will ask random sorcery is Anki. It's hard to explain verbally spaced repetition, but drawing out the memory curve is effective for the person to get the "aha" moment.

  

Handling Sync Conflicts

• Sync Conflicts. If you get a sync conflict like the below ... pick the source that has the most cards. You might have to repeat a daily review, but it's better than losing cards you created.

• Sometimes I'm a lazy buffoon. I tried adding motivational techniques in Anki, but that doesn't help. Q: How should you get out of bed when you don't feel like it? A: Use a five second rule. Five, four, three AND THEN GET OUT OF BED. Result? I remembered the five second rule and continued snoozing.
• I've had random issues with syncing at precisely when a "new" day starts for Anki. As a whole, I try avoid syncing at that time. For most people, a new day is set at 12AM.

Learning Strategies I've Been Meaning To Try (But Haven't)

• Let your mind wander after studying.
• Dual N-Back Training
• Trying to randomly recall the cards I got wrong can boost long-term memory. I never really made this a habit.

Concluding Thoughts

Most of these aren't hard truths. Your brain is different (and probably smarter) than mine. You'll devise your own strategies based on how you study and learn. Visual imagery though - that tip is GOLD. Anki has changed my life for the better, I'm hoping these tips help you on your journey.

Future Articles Per Request

• Meta-Learning — First Principles and Foundations Checklist
• I'll be releasing a program that correlates Sleep, Nutrition, and Supplements on Anki and memory in the two months. I'm a quantified-self fan.

Other Useful Links

• YouTube Videos of Anki Tutorials and Tips by The AnKing
• 20 Rules About Memory - SuperMemo
• Learning How to Learn - Coursera, Dr. Barbara Oakley
• Anki Essentials - Alex Vermeer
• Anki Tips - What I Learned Making 10,000 Cards
• Anki Manual
• Anki Guide