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…).
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.
The problem is that you don’t realize when you are about to forget something. That’s where software comes in handy.
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…).
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.
It’s like emailing your memory. ✉️ ➡️ 🧠
To learn more about SR: