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Hi! I'm Al Khan.

How to use Anki to get better at any skill (ALP update)

Published 7 months ago • 1 min read

Hello Reader,

If you're trying to learn a new language, learn programming for your big career shift, or just become better at problem-based subjects so you could get into your dream school...

Anki could help.

But it's not in the way you'd expect — most people would use it in this way:

  • memorize an entire freaking dictionary and drown doing reviews with 9000 cards
  • try to remember the entire python documentation
  • cram a ton of math formulas into their head

...and then wonder why it's not working.

The key is in the strategy. If you want to use Anki for skills, this is your new strategy:

  1. Use Anki for the "ingredients" — to remember all the "need to know" parts of the skill
  2. Ship an end product so you could expose yourself to feedback (i.e. deliberate practice)

The benefit is similar to doing Retrieval Practice!

There's ZERO bias — it's based on output rather than feelings.

You're getting feedback much faster...

And best of all, you're also performing "the only thing that leads to skill improvement".

Try it out because this is battle-tested already. I don't really care much about the explanations — it just damn works.

Quick heads up:

I just uploaded a new video talking about this in Anki Like a Pro:

If you're already a member, just go to the course area to check it out.

Otherwise, if you want a complete roadmap for starting Anki the right way, creating high-quality flashcards quickly, and enjoying your reviews...

I strongly recommend you join Anki Like a Pro because it's the best way I know of to integrate Anki into your studying.

Anyway...

It's been quite some time since I last published here on LeanAnki, and if you're reading this, I just want to appreciate you for sticking around.

In the past few months there's just so much going on in my life (in a positive way) and I just felt this longing to write...again.

So I want to publish a bit more here or probably create a personal website as my creative outlet...but I'd love to know where to start:

What topic would you like me to talk about in-depth? Or what's the biggest challenge you'd like my support with?

Just reply to this email if you want to share :)

To smarter studying,
Al Khan

Hi! I'm Al Khan.

Helping serious learners build their dream careers using a "3-step study workflow". If you're a serious learner yourself, this newsletter will help you become a top-performing student and get into your dream job while having loads of fun studying :)

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