3. EMAIL YOUR MEMORY

  4. by Georges Duverger
  7. A couple of months ago, my friend Jonathan introduced me to spaced repetition. Spaced repetition is a method to augment your long-term memory. This is how I have been using it to learn the NATO phonetic alphabet (Alfa, Bravo, Charlie…).
  9. Spaced repetition (SR) is essentially flashcards that you review at the right time, i.e., when you are about to forget them, to improve long-term retention.
  11. Forgetting curve
  13. The problem is that you don't realize when you are about to forget something. That's where software comes in handy.
  15. After having tried popular SR apps, I believe email is the simplest, most natural way to implement spaced repetition for yourself. To test that, I set up an email address and sent it the NATO phonetic alphabet (A as in Alfa, B as in Bravo, C as in Charlie…).
  17. The subject of the email is the front of the flashcard and the body is the back. The service emailed me back to review my cards after 3 hours, 1 day, 2 days, 4 days, etc. and helped me remember it forever.
  19. Compose and review
  21. It's like emailing your memory. ✉️ ➡️ 🧠
  23. To learn more about SR:
  25. Augmenting Long-term Memory by Michael Nielsen
  26. How To Remember Anything Forever-ish by Nicky Case
  27. Spaced Repetition for Efficient Learning by Gwern Branwen
  31. Made in Arlington, MA. Generated with Ivy. Styled with Backslash. All emojis designed by OpenMoji – the open-source emoji and icon project. License: CC BY-SA 4.0