For the first time in my life, I’m maintaining a daily study routine, and I’m shocked that it’s working. First, because I’ve tried many times in the past and always failed miserably. Second, because I attribute part of the success to an intricate assembly of tools, some of which I’ve built myself. It’s a mystery to me how so many moving parts work well together without stealing study time.

Regardless, if you’re curious, these are the tools I’m using.

Anki

What is it? A spaced repetition memory system. You enter facts you’d like to memorize, and Anki manages a schedule that helps you recall them. How is it helping? As I read, I write prompts and review them daily. I don’t open the same books every day; I might read a bit now and continue a few days later. Without Anki, this gap would be costly, but with Anki, it’s less noticeable.

Hypothesis

What is it?  An annotation tool that lets users gloss on the entire internet, including PDFs and videos. How is it helping? I try to get a PDF of anything I want to read. As I go through it, I input explanations to myself in Hypothesis. From these explanations, I derive spaced repetition prompts: I use a shorthand notation for that, so both the explanations and the prompts are colocated with their source. Plus, Hypothesis highlights the areas I annotate, and I get a motivating overview of the coverage.

Suppositio

What is it? A command-line tool written by yours truly that fetches the spaced repetition prompts that I write in Hypothesis and saves them into Anki. It tags each prompt in Hypothesis with a unique identifier, so my Anki prompts are always up-to-date. How is it helping? Without Suppositio, the prompts I embed in Hypothesis annotations wouldn’t be of much use. As an extra, Suppositio lets me bypass Anki’s abysmal prompt editor and use Anki mostly for reviews.

Zotero

What is it? A reference management software. How is it helping? In Zotero, I store all my PDFs, including the subset I’m currently studying, so I never have to ask myself where did I put that reference. I used to use DevonThink, but Zotero is so much better for books and articles!

Madaf

What is it? A web app I’ve built for integrating Zotero with Hypothesis. How is it helping? I want to be able to annotate my PDFs with Hypothesis, which is a convoluted process. Two years ago, I created Madaf to make it easier, but in earlier versions, I had to upload each PDF manually, and it was a mess. Madaf’s latest incarnation simplifies that: if it’s in Zotero, it’s in Madaf.

And there’s a bonus: though Hypothesis annotations link back to the source—a must if you want to review your annotations (and prompts!) in their context, you won’t be able to reach the source unless the PDF is hosted somewhere. Madaf is that somewhere.

Beeminder

What is it? A web app for tracking habits. It offers ready-made integrations, but you can also cook your own with their API. If you make a habit but let it go, you pay money. How is it helping? A significant number of my Beeminder goals are related to my study routine. Some track my Anki progress (see the next section), while some track my reading progress. Beeminder keeps me accountable for both.

Beemind Maintained Progress

What is it? An Anki add-on that maps a progress indicator to a Beeminder goal. How is it helping? It lets Beeminder know when I’m behind, so I can review accordingly.

That’s a lot, isn’t it? Setting it up was painful, but it’s paying dividends. A tool like RemNote might replace this all; however, I’m still figuring out how I learn best, and I prefer to stick with my modular approach and the flexibility it affords.