What is Spaced Repetition?

Next to quizzing, spaced repetition is the most important technique for learning efficiency. 

Our brains learn best when we see information over and over again, spread out over time. If you want to learn something new, learn about it on Monday, then quiz yourself and review it  on Wednesday, then quiz yourself and review it again on Friday. 

Seeing the information on Monday, Wednesday, Friday is what you’d call a simple spaced repetition schedule.  We see “repetitions” of the information we’re trying to learn “spaced” out over time. 

Most spaced repetition scheduling comes with an increasing interval between review periods. You see the information on day 1, then again on day 3, then again on day 7, then again on day 14, etc. 

The goal is to refresh your memory with the information when you are close to forgetting it, sometimes called the “forgetting curve.” 

Implementing spaced repetition schedules is a perfect use case for software. Two popular software programs for flashcard review, Anki and Super Memo, implement their own spaced repetition schedules. 

Their approach is to ask the user for feedback when they are reviewing on how easy or hard it was to recall the information. Depending on the user’s response, their algorithms will show the information sooner or later. 

I’m on the lookout for an easy way to apply spaced repetition in my learning system. Creating flashcards for things I’m learning, a popular route for students, is too tedious for me. I learn while reading blogs, listening to podcasts, etc. and I write down reflections and insights in my learning journal. 

I’d love to be able to leverage my learning journal directly with a spaced repetition scheduling system automatically applied.