How to Use Spaced Repetition for Reading
Spaced repetition was invented for vocabulary, but it works for reading too. The forgetting curve hits books just as hard as words. The trick is to feed your spaced-repetition system the right unit — definitions, key claims, quotes, glossary terms — and review for 5 minutes a day. Here is the workflow.
10 min
- · Any spaced-repetition app (Summio Practice, Anki, Mochi)
- · The books or articles you want to retain
Read first, summarise second
Read the book at the depth you actually need (short for triage, long for study). The reading does the work; the cards are for not forgetting it. Summarise after reading — the summary surfaces the units worth turning into cards.
Pick the right card units
For non-fiction: definitions, the strongest claim per chapter, a memorable quote, a key statistic. For history: dates and causes. For technical books: key formulas or concepts. Five to ten cards per book is usually enough — more becomes maintenance burden.
Use cloze deletion, not Q&A
Cloze deletion ("The forgetting curve was mapped by ___ in ___") activates retrieval better than Q&A ("Who mapped the forgetting curve?"). Most modern SRS apps support cloze; Summio Practice generates them automatically.
Review daily — 5–15 minutes
Open the app once a day. Review what is due. The algorithm spaces successful cards out (1 day → 3 days → 7 days → 21 days → 60 days). Failed cards come back tomorrow.
Don't over-add
New cards add to your daily review burden forever. Adding 50 cards a day from every book you read leads to a 200-card daily review backlog and quitting in three weeks. Cap new cards at 10–20 per day.
- Cards from books you actually read stick better than cards from books you only summarised — the reading creates the encoding the SRS reinforces.
- Don't make cards for everything interesting. Make cards for what you want to remember in 6 months.
- Anki and Summio Practice both use the SM-2 family of algorithms. The differences in scheduling are minor — pick by which UX you tolerate.
Common questions
Does spaced repetition work for fiction?
Less well than non-fiction. Fiction works through cumulative experience, not discrete facts. Use SRS for things you want to recall verbatim — quotes, key plot points, character names — but most of fiction's value is in the reading itself.
How long until I see results?
Cards you keep reviewing stick. After three weeks of daily review, retention of reviewed material is roughly 90%. Without review, retention drops to ~30% by the end of the month.
Is Summio Practice the same as Anki?
Different surface, similar core algorithm (SM-2 family). Summio Practice generates cards automatically from the summaries in your library; Anki requires you to write cards by hand. Anki has more knobs; Summio Practice is more turn-key.
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