I figured I would throw this out even though it seems exceedingly obvious in retrospect, but took me a while to figure out:
If you use Anki (or other SRS software) you can save a lot of time adding new cards by using screen shots. Not whole screen shots but selecting only important paragraphs/pictures/equations from an ebook or website. On a Mac this is command-control-shift-4 and then drag the part of the screen you want to copy to the clip board. Just paste it into Anki.
This saves me so much time when making cards out of books/papers that I almost exclusively read on my computer now.
I disrecommend this practice for text and equations. It will save you a small amount of time up front, but may cost you more overall. First, your ability to search is compromised depending on how much is a graphic. I search fairly frequently, especially when I want to update a card. That’s the second disadvantage: you can’t update a card so easily now. There’s a third disadvantage: Typing up a paragraph from a book (in your own words) has additional learning benefits.
A fourth disadvantage is that different sources may have different notation. I’ve struggled to keep consistent notation for a number of my decks. You don’t have much of a choice in the notation if you just take screenshots. It is a good idea to have multiple notations in your decks, but my suggestion would be to have consistent notation for the main cards and have extra cards about the less common notations.
In my experience, deciding what to add takes much more time than adding it. I make this as easy as possible by noting what I think is important when reading, reviewing, etc. I have lists of text files of things to add along with where to find more information. I have a Beeminder goal to add 3 cards daily that I don’t mark as easy right off the bat, and I generally think about what would be most useful to myself and take them from my text files. (What I add tends to be technical, e.g., I am relearning combustion theory at the moment. 3 a day is reasonable for this, but the rate should depend on the subject and how much time you can invest.)
Graphical things are okay to take from books. However, I will frequently make my own graphic for the learning benefits and because I want to tweak/improve what I see.
These are good points I’m glad you posted it, it’s interesting to see the work flow of someone else.
We apparently have very different philosophies when it comes to SRS, you seem to be more of a ‘quality over quantity’ person. Where as I find that the biggest barrier to me using SRS at all is entry, and so all of the disadvantages you’ve mentioned still don’t outweigh the advantage of speed for me of using images. I prefer to err on the side of adding too many cards too quickly and just deleting as I go if I find they’re trivial.
Just as a side note: notational changes have never been a problem for me as long as I ask the question in the notation of the answer.
I have about 300 cards in my deck right now, and I’ve had this deck for about 6 months. I try to do a few cards each morning without forcing myself to complete all cards that are due (although often I do). This is because I’m trying to build the habit into my work flow and I find if I give myself the option to quit after 3 cards if I’m really busy that it’s better than losing the habit altogether for a month.
I want to warn you that I don’t think this number (300 in a 6 month time span) very accurately represents how many cards I add when I find something interesting. I’m a PhD student and the last 6 months I’ve been mostly tweaking a program and writing my thesis (so doing things that I don’t get a lot of new knowledge to add into the system). So most of those 300 cards are from short spurts of reading interesting books, rather than what it would be if I were in the midst of researching something new. (I also usually make multiple cards for a single image that I add, asking the question in different ways that emphasize different things I think are important)
For context: I have had larger decks in the past, multiple deck systems, etc etc., but all previous attempts were eventually abandoned because of something like: it takes a long time to add new equations or transcribe text from a book by hand → therefore I slowly add fewer and fewer cards, and the ones I do are of lower quality because I would cut corners to save time → the deck becomes less useful because I’m just not adding things that are important → as the deck becomes less relevant I stop studying it → once I miss a month of studying catching up seems useless.
I’m surprised that I’ve added about twice as many cards as you have (621) in the past 6 months. I too am working on a PhD, but to be fair, I’ve set aside time especially for Anki.
At the risk of other-optimizing, I might suggest adding a small number of quality cards daily. I used to add cards in bursts, but I’ve found adding a small number daily to be much easier. I also would recommend revising cards later, rather than starting over.
That’s what I was trying to explain in the last paragraph: before I started using images I would get lazy and either not add cards or the ones I did add were of low quality because I was trying to do them so quickly. In the end instead of deleting large swaths of poorly made cards I just started over.
I wasn’t asked, but thought I would answer anyway. I have 802 cards at the moment. 147 are suspended.
I first became aware of SRS in 2005 or so, and I started using it in fall 2009 for a mechanical vibrations course. There was a considerable speed advantage on the exams if you memorized the Laplace transform table and a number of differentiation and integration rules. After that course I fell in and out of the habit. I started using Beeminder to force myself to do my reviews and add new cards regularly in May of this year, and I’ve added the vast majority of the cards I have since then.
Beeminder and Anki are an amazing combination. I highly recommend this if you are not good about regularly reviewing or adding new cards. Right now I review daily, and I can earn a 1 on Beeminder if I finish all cards (including new ones) or spend half an hour reviewing in total. An average review involves around 50 cards and takes roughly a half hour (the time limit is mostly for when I am very busy, and it is rarely invoked).
I figured I would throw this out even though it seems exceedingly obvious in retrospect, but took me a while to figure out:
If you use Anki (or other SRS software) you can save a lot of time adding new cards by using screen shots. Not whole screen shots but selecting only important paragraphs/pictures/equations from an ebook or website. On a Mac this is command-control-shift-4 and then drag the part of the screen you want to copy to the clip board. Just paste it into Anki.
This saves me so much time when making cards out of books/papers that I almost exclusively read on my computer now.
I disrecommend this practice for text and equations. It will save you a small amount of time up front, but may cost you more overall. First, your ability to search is compromised depending on how much is a graphic. I search fairly frequently, especially when I want to update a card. That’s the second disadvantage: you can’t update a card so easily now. There’s a third disadvantage: Typing up a paragraph from a book (in your own words) has additional learning benefits.
A fourth disadvantage is that different sources may have different notation. I’ve struggled to keep consistent notation for a number of my decks. You don’t have much of a choice in the notation if you just take screenshots. It is a good idea to have multiple notations in your decks, but my suggestion would be to have consistent notation for the main cards and have extra cards about the less common notations.
In my experience, deciding what to add takes much more time than adding it. I make this as easy as possible by noting what I think is important when reading, reviewing, etc. I have lists of text files of things to add along with where to find more information. I have a Beeminder goal to add 3 cards daily that I don’t mark as easy right off the bat, and I generally think about what would be most useful to myself and take them from my text files. (What I add tends to be technical, e.g., I am relearning combustion theory at the moment. 3 a day is reasonable for this, but the rate should depend on the subject and how much time you can invest.)
Graphical things are okay to take from books. However, I will frequently make my own graphic for the learning benefits and because I want to tweak/improve what I see.
These are good points I’m glad you posted it, it’s interesting to see the work flow of someone else.
We apparently have very different philosophies when it comes to SRS, you seem to be more of a ‘quality over quantity’ person. Where as I find that the biggest barrier to me using SRS at all is entry, and so all of the disadvantages you’ve mentioned still don’t outweigh the advantage of speed for me of using images. I prefer to err on the side of adding too many cards too quickly and just deleting as I go if I find they’re trivial.
Just as a side note: notational changes have never been a problem for me as long as I ask the question in the notation of the answer.
How many cards do you have in your deck and for how long do you use it?
I have about 300 cards in my deck right now, and I’ve had this deck for about 6 months. I try to do a few cards each morning without forcing myself to complete all cards that are due (although often I do). This is because I’m trying to build the habit into my work flow and I find if I give myself the option to quit after 3 cards if I’m really busy that it’s better than losing the habit altogether for a month.
I want to warn you that I don’t think this number (300 in a 6 month time span) very accurately represents how many cards I add when I find something interesting. I’m a PhD student and the last 6 months I’ve been mostly tweaking a program and writing my thesis (so doing things that I don’t get a lot of new knowledge to add into the system). So most of those 300 cards are from short spurts of reading interesting books, rather than what it would be if I were in the midst of researching something new. (I also usually make multiple cards for a single image that I add, asking the question in different ways that emphasize different things I think are important)
For context: I have had larger decks in the past, multiple deck systems, etc etc., but all previous attempts were eventually abandoned because of something like: it takes a long time to add new equations or transcribe text from a book by hand → therefore I slowly add fewer and fewer cards, and the ones I do are of lower quality because I would cut corners to save time → the deck becomes less useful because I’m just not adding things that are important → as the deck becomes less relevant I stop studying it → once I miss a month of studying catching up seems useless.
I’m surprised that I’ve added about twice as many cards as you have (621) in the past 6 months. I too am working on a PhD, but to be fair, I’ve set aside time especially for Anki.
At the risk of other-optimizing, I might suggest adding a small number of quality cards daily. I used to add cards in bursts, but I’ve found adding a small number daily to be much easier. I also would recommend revising cards later, rather than starting over.
If the problem is only in adding new cards why did you abandon old decks? Reviewing them doesn’t need you to add new cards.
That’s what I was trying to explain in the last paragraph: before I started using images I would get lazy and either not add cards or the ones I did add were of low quality because I was trying to do them so quickly. In the end instead of deleting large swaths of poorly made cards I just started over.
I wasn’t asked, but thought I would answer anyway. I have 802 cards at the moment. 147 are suspended.
I first became aware of SRS in 2005 or so, and I started using it in fall 2009 for a mechanical vibrations course. There was a considerable speed advantage on the exams if you memorized the Laplace transform table and a number of differentiation and integration rules. After that course I fell in and out of the habit. I started using Beeminder to force myself to do my reviews and add new cards regularly in May of this year, and I’ve added the vast majority of the cards I have since then.
Beeminder and Anki are an amazing combination. I highly recommend this if you are not good about regularly reviewing or adding new cards. Right now I review daily, and I can earn a 1 on Beeminder if I finish all cards (including new ones) or spend half an hour reviewing in total. An average review involves around 50 cards and takes roughly a half hour (the time limit is mostly for when I am very busy, and it is rarely invoked).