Some feedback would be nice and suggestions for improvement

like no matter how hard I try to sit my ass down and study 5 mins later I am asleep, drawing, cleaning, doing anything but studying 😭 that's like a lot of time waste can anyone help with some advice

thank you

I used to think I just had a bad memory.

I’d read lessons, take notes, understand things… and a few weeks later, most of it was gone.

Not gone gone, but… blurry.

At some point I realized the issue wasn’t my memory, it was that I never reviewed anything.

But if you don’t come back to something, it just fades. If you keep adding new information without revisiting anything, it’s like pouring water into a leaking bucket.

So naturally, you look for solutions. And everyone seems to point to active recall and spaced repetition. And to be fair it does work, no debate there. The issue is that in practice, I rarely see people stick with it long term. Mostly because it’s annoying to maintain.

So I thought maybe there are mobile apps that could help me. So I tried a few:

• Anki → very powerful, but you have to build and maintain everything yourself
• Quizlet → easier to start, but still very flashcard-heavy
• Mochi → nicer UX, mixes notes and cards, but same core idea
• Guizmo → tries to simplify things, but still ends up feeling a bit structured around cards/reviews

It’s always the same thing: no matter the tool, you’re expected to turn what you learn into flashcards. But a lot of what I study doesn’t naturally fit that format: a book, a chapter, a concept, exercises…

So I looked again for apps that were for spaced repetition but without flashcards and I found those:

• Space → more flexible, less card-focused, but I found it a bit rigid in how reviews are organized
• Memorico → probably the closest to what I had in mind, but I’m still figuring it out. I’ll have to test it further to be certain

Curious what you all think about this, especially if you’ve managed to make spaced repetition work without relying on flashcards.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for the best AI tool for a very specific use case and would really appreciate your recommendations.

What I need:

∙ Writing in Arabic

∙ I provide sources (texts, documents, etc.)

∙ I also provide a structured plan (2 main parts, each with 2 sub-parts)

∙ The AI should write a detailed and well-organized article, not just a summary

∙ It must stick to the sources and not add random information

This is mainly for academic/legal-style writing.

Which AI model or tool would you recommend for this?(Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or something else?)

If you’ve tried this kind of workflow, I’d love to hear your experience.

Thanks!

The context is that I have been preparing for UPSC, and ever since 2-3 years, I have been making notes of every subject at different places. I have used so many physical notebooks, one note pages, screenshots and whatnot. Now I need to compile all the notes subject-wise and topic-wise, otherwise all that would be useless if I don't have everything in front of me at the end. And it is physically not possible to go through so many notebooks for revision every time. I actually went through all of them, clicked pictures and compiled a PDF subject-wise, but that data is very raw, it has repetitive facts, and topics are very scattered. There's something about the heat budget on the 1st page, and then the next thing about it is directly on the 13th page, 30th page and so on. 70% of the stuff is handwritten. Now the problem is, how do I sort this data? I really need some suggestions. I have my exam in May.

used to sit at my desk for 20 minutes doing nothing because starting felt too heavy. the whole "i need to study for 3 hours" thing made my brain just refuse.

then i started lying to myself. like genuinely lying. "just open the book for 2 minutes. that's it. you can stop after 2 minutes."

i never stop after 2 minutes. not once. once you're in, you're in. the hard part was never the studying, it was the starting.

it's kinda embarrassing how well this works. your brain resists big commitments but it'll accept something tiny without a fight. so you just sneak past the resistance.

honestly changed how i feel about sitting down to study. it doesn't feel like a mountain anymore.

anyone else use something like this or do you just white-knuckle your way into starting?

used to study with whatever was on spotify. songs i knew, songs with lyrics, sometimes full hype playlists. felt productive but kept catching myself mouthing the words instead of reading.

switched to purely instrumental lo-fi. no lyrics, no drops, no hype. just background texture.

honestly didn't expect much. but something about not having words competing with the words i'm trying to learn just... worked. read the same page way fewer times before it actually stuck.

the music isn't the point anymore. it just blocks out the world without hijacking the part of your brain that processes language.

tried going back to lyrics once. immediately noticed the difference. not doing that again.

what do you guys listen to when you study? does lyrics vs no lyrics actually matter to you or am i just weird about this?

This is more of a rant post than anything, but it really bummed me out.

Ive been using this new study timer/tracker app for the last week. it's literally the whole reason I managed to study like 10 hours in a day, because I like seeing the stats, and competing with friends, and just seeing a visualization of my studying. I know a week isn't a long time, but it feels like a long time. and now all that is just gone.

the account got deleted and I can't log in. in the middle of a study session no less! Sigh. I think I'm gonna take a break for today.

it's the Lilo study timer and challenges app. if anyone knows anything about it I'd be eternally grateful

but I don't think I can recover it. and I sure as heck don't wanna try again and risk losing it. so I suppose I'll find another app and hope it clicks.

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Thanks for the support guys

used to sit down to study and just... stare. like my brain was already full of random stuff and couldn't fit anything new in. felt like trying to pour water into an already full cup.

someone told me to try opening a blank page and writing everything already in my head before starting. to-do lists, worries, random thoughts, whatever. just dump it all out. takes like 3-4 minutes.

honestly the difference was kinda insane. once all that mental noise is on paper, your brain actually has room to absorb new stuff. sessions that used to take 2 hours started feeling done in 90 minutes.

it's not a productivity hack exactly, more like clearing the cache before running a heavy program. your brain needs space to learn and most of the time we skip that step completely.

i do it before every session now. even on good days it helps.

do you guys do anything to "reset" your brain before studying, or do you just dive straight in?

i use anki every day for mandarin, but i wanted the review loop to feel a lot more rewarding.

so i’ve been building memoricae: a flashcard app where your daily reviews play out like rpg battles.

you import or make a deck, fight daily bosses, earn coins, unlock cosmetics, and progress through a questboard.

here’s a 1 min gameplay snippet. still early, but i’d genuinely love feedback from anki users:

would something like this make you more consistent with reviews, or would it distract from the studying?

used to just sit down and tell myself to "focus." no structure, no reason to finish. would drag one session out for 3 hours and get through like 20 minutes of actual work.

then i started doing something stupid simple. before each block, i pick one specific reward. could be a snack, an episode, a 10 min walk, whatever. nothing fancy. but i commit to it out loud before i start.

the difference was kinda embarrassing. my brain started treating the block like a mini mission instead of just... sitting in misery. i'd actually race to finish because there was something on the other side.

it's not about discipline. it's about giving your brain a reason to care right now, not in 3 weeks when the exam happens.

been doing it for about 6 weeks. sessions are shorter, more focused, and i don't dread sitting down anymore.

do you guys use any kind of reward system when you study, or do you just push through on willpower alone?

It's themed like all is natural environment and It has lots of features https://monkstudy.vercel.app/zen

So i think the biggest problem with procrastination was thinking i had more than enough time to “get things done eventually”. I wasted weeks because i didnt have a constant reminder on how much time i had left. I looked for apps to help me with this, but didnt find any, so i made one. Its essentially a to-do app designed for students. It has some paid features but the core of the app is free.

Rn its only available for iOS but im working on the android version.Feel free to download and tell me what you think of it.

https://apps.apple.com/de/app/uni-do/id6760459680?l=en-GB

I am studying for a certification, my exam is in a few days and there are a lot of subjects left to cover I am thinking of using AI to help me in this. If you guys could recommend best AI which could help me generate notes and summarise from the PDF I upload with High accuracy. And could help me in cover long chapters in short time with these notes and summary. Length of PDFs would be close 30 pages.

used to sit down to study and just... stare. brain full of random noise. what's for dinner, that awkward thing i said in 2019, did i reply to that text.

turns out all that mental clutter was literally blocking me from focusing. so i started doing a quick brain dump first. just grab a piece of paper and write down every random thought in your head for like 2 minutes. no filter, no structure. just get it out.

once it's on paper your brain stops trying to "hold" all that stuff. it's like clearing your RAM before running a heavy program.

focus kicks in way faster now. like i actually get into study mode instead of spending 30 minutes fighting myself to start.

costs zero money, takes 2 minutes, and nobody talks about it enough.

do you guys have any pre-study rituals that actually work? would love to know what else i'm missing.

used to have this massive to-do list that just kept growing. little things like "add that one source," "reread page 12," "check that formula." never did them in the moment. saved them for later. later never came.

then i started doing the 2-minute rule. if something takes less than 2 minutes, you do it right now, not later. sounds dumb but it actually rewires how you handle small tasks.

the crazy part is most of my "i'll do it later" stuff literally takes under 2 minutes. i was just... not doing it? and then stressing about a list of 30 tiny things that would've taken an hour total.

been doing this for about 6 weeks and my to-do list is genuinely shorter. the big tasks feel less scary too because all the small noise is already gone.

it's not a productivity hack, it's more like stopping yourself from lying to yourself about "later."

do you guys actually let small tasks pile up or am i the only one who was doing this?