Using the SRS Memory Planner | Optimize Your Brain!

This is the Spaced Repetition System (SRS) planner on PolyCast5, which is an awesome tool to help you remember lots and lots of information.

Here's how it works: It's based on the concept that if you revisit something, you remember it better. I think we can all agree on that. Whether it is something you encounter day after day, or a thought you revisit again and again in your mind. But as it turns out, this isn't a coincidence but rather the result of long-term potentiation strengthening the synapses between neurons. This results in stronger connections between them (better memory). There's even an equation to describe this as memory retention (%) over time:

Ebbinghaus forgetting curve.

So what can be done about this to retain the information better? Well, turns out something pretty interesting happens when you repetitively review information:

When you review the information again and again, the information becomes far harder to forget as you may notice from above with the slope becoming less steep with each daily review. These review sessions are the spaced repetition part of the Spaced Repetition System (SRS). This is cool, but reviewing every day is a lot of work. So let's optimize it!

To strike a good balance between review time needed and retention, some common review intervals are below.

Then this would continue like so for days 1, 3, 7, 14, 30, 90, 180, and 365. So at most you would review 8 pages a day after a year. But I'm getting ahead of myself. There are many ways to apply this information, but what I've been doing is using a common notebook.

Here's how it works:

• On day 1, I would learn something new and write down the most important parts in one page in the notebook. This would be page 1.
• On day 2, I would learn something else new and write down the most important parts of that day in the next page in the notebook. This would be page 2.
• Then I would continue on like so for each day I am able to. (I would also recommend adding the date for each entry.)

So if I were to follow the review intervals above, I would review page 1 on day 2, then again on day 4, then again on day 8, etc. And I would apply the same review sessions to the next page, reviewing page 2 on day 3, then again on day 5, then again on day 9, etc. while still adding one new page per day.

This sounds like a lot, but all I'm doing is reviewing the notebook entry on the set review intervals above. (At max after a year, that would be 8 entry reviews per day while adding one new page. That's doable!) You can technically track this just fine by hand, but it's easier to use a computer. Enter the PolyCast5 SRS Planner.

The PolyCast5 SRS planner will keep track of what needs to be reviewed on which days for you so you don't have to think back to figure out what needs to be reviewed each day to stay on course. It is also super easy to use. On the menu, simply click the RIGHT arrow button to add a page for that day.

PolyCast5 will use a Wi-Fi connection to get the current day that page is added and store it in internal memory. When you go back to the planner the next day, it will calculate which entries (pages) are due for that new day and display them for you. From there, you can click SELECT to mark that you reviewed the entry (page), and the RIGHT arrow button to add a new page for the day.

Notice the pages don't always line up with the days one-to-one. This is because pages are only recorded on the days they are added (right arrow button) for maximum accuracy. For example, "14 day(s) ago" is missing here because an entry wasn't recorded for that day.

In addition, should you ever miss a review, PolyCast5 will still remember it and display it as overdue the next time you check so that you can review the overdue entry first to get back on track. If you ever can't add a new entry for the day (too busy), you can also just skip it (do nothing) and nothing new will be added for that day like the above example. Convenient!

At the time of writing this, I've stayed the course for 95 days. Hopefully more when this article is actually released, and I must say that it has worked pretty well so far. I remember well mostly all the information that I have written as notebook entries, and am learning a lot. It would be interesting to think what I might be able to learn (and actually be able to remember) after many years of doing this strategy.

If you're looking for a way to learn the new information to add as notebook entries, the "For Dummies" book series has been great and they have a ton of books on many different topics from simple to complex. I've personally been learning about Genetics and Computer Networking.

Sidenote: "For Dummies" is in no way affiliated with RoboticWorx, I just genuinely think their books are great!

Happy learning!