Notes on memory,
spaced repetition, and what we're building.
Spaced repetition schedule: how often to review
What a review schedule is, what the research says about gap size, a manual ladder you can start with, and when to let an algorithm set the gaps.
October 25, 2026 · 5 min read
Practice testing and spacing beat rereading. A plain guide to which memorizing methods the research supports, and how to match one to your material.
October 25, 2026 · 5 min read
Again, Hard, Good or Easy: what each grade means, the common ways people inflate them, and why honest grades make the schedule work.
October 25, 2026 · 4 min read
What a review of ten popular study techniques found, why rereading feels like learning without being it, and how to swap it for recall.
October 21, 2026 · 4 min read
A week-by-week plan for turning a syllabus into cards, spacing reviews as the date nears, and what the research says about how wide the gaps should be.
October 18, 2026 · 6 min read
Cirello now has a remote MCP server. Connect Claude, ChatGPT or Cursor, choose the permissions, and let an assistant build decks and tidy your library.
October 11, 2026 · 6 min read
Words in context, one meaning per card, recall in both directions, and a daily routine small enough to survive a busy week.
October 10, 2026 · 7 min read
The minimum-information principle and a handful of habits that make cards faster to review and easier to remember.
October 8, 2026 · 6 min read
New cards per day, reviews per day, and why the real number to watch is the workload you will still be doing in a month.
October 6, 2026 · 6 min read
The Leitner system (Leitner box system) explained: how the boxes work, a worked example, where it falls short, and how it compares to FSRS.
October 3, 2026 · 7 min read
One is what you do during a review, the other is when you do it. Why the combination is what makes studying stick.
October 1, 2026 · 6 min read
The one dial that trades review workload against how much you remember - what 90% actually means and how to think about changing it.
September 28, 2026 · 6 min read
Two spaced-repetition schedulers, two different ideas about memory. Intervals vs a per-card model, and what that changes in practice.
September 25, 2026 · 7 min read
Free today, no card required - and the plan for a subscription down the road that keeps the project sustainable.
September 22, 2026 · 3 min read
A plain capability list: what's live, what's planned, and what's explicitly not built yet.
September 19, 2026 · 4 min read
When the parameters get refit, why, and what it means for review accuracy over time.
September 15, 2026 · 4 min read
For medicine, law, and engineering - the backlog-anxiety problem specifically, and frictionless capture for source-heavy material.
September 3, 2026 · 4 min read
Paste a list, get a deck. Why one-card-at-a-time creation is where most people quit before they start.
August 20, 2026 · 3 min read
Why retyping highlights kills the habit before it starts, and reviewing straight from the source instead.
August 13, 2026 · 4 min read
The forgetting curve explained: Ebbinghaus's 1885 study, the formula, the limits of the original data, and how spaced reviews and FSRS flatten it.
August 6, 2026 · 7 min read
Highlighting feels productive. It isn't retention. The gap between capturing a passage and ever seeing it again.
July 30, 2026 · 7 min read
Why a per-card model that is refit to your history beats a table of fixed intervals - and how Cirello uses FSRS-6 specifically.
July 16, 2026 · 8 min read
The forgetting curve, why cramming loses to spaced review, and what changed once scheduling itself got smarter.
July 2, 2026 · 8 min read