In this mini-course, I’m going to share with you the most important lessons from manually creating 4000+ flashcards…
…so that you can remember more while studying in less total time. (i.e. cram weeks won’t be necessary anymore)
And all that without the confusing features.
Look, if you ever feel Anki just takes you forever because:
- The flashcard creation process just takes too long; or
- You’re stuck in a state of permanent catch-up with mountains of due reviews
…then here’s a quick advice from me:
STOP trying to “use Anki faster”.
Woah…
Wait a minute.
“I don’t get it, Al. If someone’s using Anki inefficiently, then the simple solution is using it faster, right?”
Not necessarily.
I understand if that sounded surprising, because if it’s really easy to think about, then you probably won’t be here, anyway.
“Anki Takes Too Much Time” Is A Symptom, Not A Problem
You see, many Anki beginners who joined my newsletter tell me that “Anki takes too much time”—often in different forms:
- “I want to become faster at creating useful cards”
- “I’m spending too much time creating my flashcards, and I feel even more behind of what I have to study”
- “Making flash cards in Anki is a very cumbersome process.”
- “I can’t keep up with my reviews”
- “Making flashcards take me a really long time”
- “Reviews take too long”
- “I’m making too many flashcards”
- (…and perhaps the most indirect) “How much time should you spend in Anki review?”
Perhaps you’re one of them.
In that case, let me unpack the only 2 reasons why you might be inefficient when using Anki:
First reason: You still have underdeveloped formulation skills.
Many people don’t even realize this. It’s like they’re treating Anki as a magic bullet that will solve all their problems. It’s not.
It’s totally normal to be slow at creating flashcards AT FIRST.
If you feel like that applies to you, then let me guess…
Maybe you don’t know what your flashcards should look like — specifically, what criteria to base them on.
Or maybe you don’t know how you should think about flashcard creation. (After all, mindset changes everything. Later in this series, I’ll show you why.)
Or maybe you don’t trust the flashcards you create.
Second reason: Using the wrong optimization strategy.
Specifically, this one:
(I’ll reveal them later, don’t worry.)
You may not even realize how this optimization strategy is messing you up.
Listen, if any of these sound true to you…
- You have a lot of knowledge, but you find it hard to bring them together in a coherent, “big picture” way
- You perfectly remember a specific flashcard, but when you’re asked about the same concept in a different angle, you fail to recall it
- You can complete a Cloze flashcard, yet you’re not able to use the idea behind it to understand higher-level concepts
…then you’ve already fallen into this exact trap.
Wanna know the solution? Here’s a quick hint:
It’s outside of that box.
It requires a different frame of thinking about “efficiency”.
It has to do with flows rather than doing things faster.
Actually, let me show you just how different this solution is:
Now, don’t worry if none of these makes sense for now; you’ll learn all about them in the next lessons.
Before we continue, though, I want you to know that this course is NOT for everybody.
I made this for people who:
- Are tired of constantly getting behind in their workloads
- Are preparing for upcoming exams — especially professional exams that expect you to remember massive amounts of crucial information
- Are looking to change to new careers faster
- Are spinning their wheels regarding what specific study tactic to employ just to remember information effectively
Also, I have to emphasize that this course is written for people who:
- Are willing to radically change the way they study so they can be more effective
- Are willing to spend MENTAL EFFORT in order to learn better
- Are willing to take 30 minutes of their time to learn from someone who’s done it already
I guarantee you that if you’re someone who constantly seeks instant gratification, more tools, more hacks, this course is going to make you uncomfortable.
What you’ll learn will be incredibly hard to swallow. I guarantee it.
Now let’s get started with a big picture view of everything.
The Big Picture
Here’s what you’re going to discover:
- Lesson 1: How the specific way you’re optimizing Anki for efficiency — called “Tool-first thinking” — makes you spend even MORE time in the long run
- Lesson 2: How to use Toyota’s efficiency secret to TRULY cut your study time, permanently
- Lesson 3: How to build an efficient Anki workflow
Expect that this course will take you a couple of minutes to finish. These lessons aren’t your ordinary article—you have to read them a bit more deeply if you like to get the benefit.
Now, when you’re ready to invest a bit of time, just hit the button down below: