This is the system I use to learn technical material and actually keep it. It is
not a vague “review your notes” habit — it’s a structured recall system: every
topic has a stage, each stage prescribes a different recall method, and
passing or failing a review moves the topic up or down. The clock is driven off
last_reviewed, so the system tells me what’s due instead of me guessing.
The interactive schematic of the whole pipeline lives on the main site: Active recall →.
The two note types
| Note | Tag | When | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Write-to-learn | #write-to-learn | Day 0, while it’s fresh | Consolidate. Answer an AI-generated prompt in ~500 words and plug the gaps you find. |
| Active recall | #active-recall | Day 1 onward | The working doc that moves through the stages. Carries the dashboard frontmatter. |
Write-to-learn is consolidation; active-recall is the thing that gets tested. A topic graduates from the first to the second once I’ve written it up once.
Copy the templates
- Write-to-learn template
- Active-recall template — the one the dashboard tracks
- Recall dashboard — the dataviewjs block
- Flashcard generator — note → Obsidian SR cards, locally
The five stages
Intervals count from last_reviewed. Each stage forces a different mode of
retrieval — the variety is the point, because it stops me from memorising the
shape of one answer instead of the idea.
| Stage | Wait | Method | Why this method |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 day | Free recall | Blank page, write everything you remember. Hardest, most diagnostic. |
| 2 | 3 days | Q&A callouts | Answer your own collapsible questions. |
| 3 | 7 days | NotebookLM / flashcards | Externally-posed questions you didn’t write. |
| 4 | 14 days | Teach-back | Explain it to a beginner, no jargon. Exposes fake fluency. |
| 5 | 60 days | Free recall (maintenance) | Long-interval ping to keep it alive. |
No flashcards for a topic?
Set
has_flashcards: falseand the methods shift: stage 3 becomes Teach-back and stage 4 becomes Free recall. Some topics don’t lend themselves to cards.
Transitions
- Pass → advance one stage and reset the clock (
last_reviewed = today). - Fail → drop back one stage.
- Stage 1 failures stay at stage 1 (nowhere lower to go).
- A stage 5 (maintenance) failure drops all the way back to stage 3 — if a topic rotted over 60 days it needs real reps, not another long ping.
Weak topics therefore earn more reps automatically; solid ones drift out to the 60-day maintenance ping and stop costing me time.
How a topic flows
- Finish learning something (a course section, a doc, a post-incident write-up).
- Same day: a write-to-learn note — answer the prompt in prose, list gaps.
- Spin up an active-recall note with
stage: 1, today’slast_reviewed, atopic. - Generate flashcards from the write-up with the local generator.
- Open the dashboard each morning; do what’s due; bump
stageandlast_reviewed.
The only daily decision is “what does the dashboard say is due” — everything else is just doing the rep.