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PLAIN TEXT. PAPER, LESS · 154
Spaced Repetition in One Plain Text File
Portable knowledge, BYO app
At last — a bespoke plain text flashcard solution I actually want to use, and am consistently using!
Mine lives in Workflowy, which counts as plain text in my book because of automated daily email backups and regular manual Markdown exports. It also works in VS Code, and indeed in any app that allows folding sections and can remember the fold state.
The approach I’ve embraced is similar to the one Kyle Jones describes in this video, but without the Workflowy-only features he has integrated into his flashcards. Both Kyle and I used the advice in this illustrated website as our starting point.
A full write-up is in the works, including when you might want to choose Obsidian over Workflowy, and how to get audio files from WhatsApp into Workflowy without needing to convert the file (easy, but not obvious).
My plugin-free one-card-per-file Obsidian method still works beautifully but I’ve been oddly reluctant to engage with it on a daily basis. Perhaps because I overcomplicated the process by including a lot of unnecessary metadata? Or because it’s nice having a dedicated space for this activity?
