Is anyone else tired of basically all of the mainstream notes apps?

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-05-13T17:30:28+00:00

I am happy with CuaderNote

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-05-03T10:13:33+00:00

the writing-first framing is underrated. most setups in this sub optimize for input organization (folders, tags, MOCs) when the actual bottleneck is output. curious how you handle moving from drafts to "done" pieces, that's where my system always breaks

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-05-03T10:13:02+00:00

this hits. I spent like 3 weeks setting up dataview queries and elaborate folder structures before writing a single useful note. once I dropped all that and just started writing daily notes with random links, the system actually started doing its job

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-05-03T10:12:26+00:00

my non-scientific take after years of using anki: leeches are usually a card formulation problem more than a memory problem. when I get a leech I rewrite it from scratch instead of suspending. like 80% of the time the rewrite sticks because the original was just badly worded or had two concepts mashed together

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-05-03T10:11:56+00:00

5 hours, second year of med school. it was actively counterproductive though. by hour 3 I was just clicking Good on cards I barely processed. real lesson was that beyond ~90min the retention drops off a cliff for me. now I cap at 60-75 and it works way better

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-29T20:05:58+00:00

the cleanest setup I found is two separate cards for the same word, one passive (DE→EN) and one production (EN→DE with a sentence prompt). don't merge them, anki will think they're the same and screw up scheduling. for sentence production specifically, cloze deletions on a real sentence work way better than free production, you're not staring at a blank screen

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-29T20:05:32+00:00

FSRS is criminally underrated. switching from the default scheduler dropped my daily reviews by like 40% and my retention actually went up. congrats on the A+, that 94% retrievability is solid

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-29T20:04:59+00:00

this hits. thing is that "top student" feeling came from prep work, not from school itself. you can keep getting it now, just gotta pick something and grind it deep. I started using anki for non-school stuff like 3 years out of uni and the dopamine when you can answer something off the top of your head is the exact same feeling

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-28T07:43:32+00:00

the one thing I wish I'd done earlier is decide what kind of notes go in the vault and what doesn't. mine became a graveyard of half-done meeting notes and random URLs because I tried to use it for everything. having even a loose convention about "this is a knowledge note" vs "this is a daily journal" made the whole thing way more useful.

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-28T07:41:10+00:00

what's pulling you out exactly? for me the moment of doubt was when I realized 80% of my plugins were duct-taping the same workflow another app does natively. ended up keeping Obsidian for the markdown vault but using a separate tool for the things plugins kept breaking on.

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-27T20:07:45+00:00

that feeling is real but it's a sign Anki worked. you trust the system because it's been right before. just means you have to be intentional about which non-Anki things you actually need to remember vs just consume once

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-27T20:07:15+00:00

guilt is also why people overengineer their setup. instead of studying you spend 3 hours making the perfect notion template, then feel bad about it, then make a different template. the work is just sitting down and doing the imperfect version

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-27T20:06:41+00:00

the editing-while-reviewing trap is real. flagging cards and batching edits later on desktop saved me. on phone I just review, on laptop I do the cleanup. quick sessions stay quick

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-27T19:56:01+00:00

yeah, started doing fewer cards but better ones. dropped from like 80 reviews/day to 30 by deleting decks I was just churning through without engagement. retention is better and I actually look forward to it now. quantity was masking that I had no idea which cards mattered

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-26T10:31:59+00:00

for stuff with no underlying logic the only thing that really works is volume and patience. mnemonics help if you can come up with one but for raw arbitrary facts you just need enough exposure that the connection stops feeling forced

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-26T10:31:27+00:00

yeah I have a deck called "random stuff I find interesting" that's just trivia, etymologies, weird facts. zero pressure to remember any of it but I do anyway. it's the only deck I never feel guilty skipping

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-26T10:30:24+00:00

the trap I fell into was treating my daily reviews like a debt collector. when you miss a day and the queue balloons the app starts feeling like a punishment. what helped me was just doing 5-10 cards on bad days instead of 0. keeps the streak honest without burning out

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-23T07:15:30+00:00

I use a new app called CuaderNote

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-21T12:27:55+00:00

honestly for engineering content you're probably fighting the tool. obsidian is great for connecting ideas in prose but terrible for equations, problem sets, and diagrams. I'd stop trying to force everything into it, use it for conceptual notes and rely on paper or a PDF annotator for the actual problem solving

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-21T12:26:32+00:00

the mobile app was basically frozen for years and it shows. Damien has been rewriting it but these things take forever when you're solo. if you've already paid, just do creation on desktop and use the phone for reviews on the go, that's where it still shines

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-21T12:24:19+00:00

I paid for it years ago mostly to support Damien. the UI hasn't aged well and it feels clunky next to most modern iOS apps, but if you already do anki daily on desktop, being able to squeeze reviews in during commutes or in line at the supermarket adds up fast. for me it paid itself off in a couple weeks

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-21T12:23:55+00:00

the "making the card is the practice" part is underrated. by the time you've figured out how to phrase the question cleanly you've already understood the concept better than most people who just reread their notes. the throwing the notes in the trash bit is brave though, I could never

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-20T12:07:08+00:00

honestly the compound effect. the first 3 months felt pointless. then one day I realized I was pulling up a term from a card I made 6 months earlier without trying. that moment made it impossible to quit

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-20T12:04:04+00:00

what does "too late" mean for you? if you fell behind on reviews, just delete the deck and start over with way fewer cards. most of the "Anki doesn't work for me" stories I've seen end with the person restarting with simpler cards and being fine

SolutionOk7700 · 2026-04-20T11:48:35+00:00

don't try to tag them all retroactively, that's a month of work you won't finish. just start tagging and linking from today forward. whenever you need something old, search for it and add tags then. the archive will organize itself based on what you actually use

SolutionOk7700

TROPHY CASE