Managing your workload

#Daily limits

Every deck preset has two daily limits, under Settings → Deck presets → Daily limits:

• Limits apply to each deck on its own, subdecks included. A parent with three subdecks on a 20-new-card preset can introduce 20 new cards in each of them, plus any in the parent itself.
• Learning and relearning cards are never capped, since skipping a step would break it.
• Limits reset when your study day rolls over (4 AM by default, see Your study day).
• Reviews past the limit aren’t lost. They stay due and come up on the next days, most overdue first.
• To give one deck different limits, create another preset and choose it for that deck in Settings → Decks.

#New cards become reviews

New cards are where your future workload comes from. Each card you learn today comes back tomorrow, then in a few days, then less and less often, for as long as you keep it. The reviews you do today mostly come from the new cards of the past weeks.

A common rule of thumb: once things settle, after a month or two, you do about 10 reviews a day for every new card a day. With the default 20 new cards a day, expect around 200 reviews a day. Hard material pushes that up; easy material pulls it down.

Times assume about 8 seconds per review and 20 per new card, the same estimate the study page uses. The dashboard’s estimate switches to your own average pace once you have some history.

The Forecast tab on the dashboard shows the reviews already scheduled for the next 30 days, so you can see a wave coming (Reading your stats).

#Handling a backlog

Missed a few days, or a few weeks? The reviews waited for you. To catch up without burning out:

1. Pause new cards. Set New cards per day to 0 in the deck’s preset until the pile is gone. New cards only add to it.
2. Do a fixed amount each day. Lower Maximum reviews per day, or stop after a set time. Askesis shows the most overdue cards first.
3. Grade honestly. Press Again on what you forgot. Overdue cards you still remember get credit for the extra time, so they jump further ahead.
4. Bring new cards back gradually once your daily due count is back to normal.

Any day with at least one review keeps your streak alive, and a banked streak freeze covers a missed day (Streaks and freezes).

#Leeches

A leech is a card you keep forgetting. Askesis counts lapses (Again on a review card; misses on new and learning cards don’t count) and handles leeches like this:

• When a card reaches the preset’s leech threshold (default 8 lapses), it gets the leech tag and the session shows a “Leech” notice.
• It’s flagged again every half-threshold after that: with the default, at 12, 16, 20 lapses and so on.
• If the preset’s leech action is Suspend card, it is also suspended. With Tag only (the default) it stays in your reviews.

Find them with the leech filter in the card browser. A card at 8 lapses has been relearned 8 times, and more reviews rarely fix it. Changing the card usually does:

• Is it really one fact? Split it (One fact per card).
• Is it confused with a similar card? Add a hint, or a contrast in the extra field (“not to be confused with …”).
• Add a mnemonic or an example to the extra field.
• If you don’t need it, suspend or delete it.

Once it’s fixed, remove the leech tag (and unsuspend it if needed) with the card browser’s bulk actions. To learn it again from scratch, use Forget: the card goes back to new with its lapses reset, and its past answers stay in your stats.

#Bury, suspend or later

Suspended cards keep their progress but are left out of every session and mode (Cram too), of due counts and of the forecast. To bring them back, filter the card browser by suspended, select them and choose Unsuspend. Buried cards come back on their own.

#Studying extra

Done for the day and want more? The study page has modes for that (Study modes):

• Extra new cards introduces new cards beyond the limit. They count toward today’s new-card limit, so finish your regular session first, and remember each one adds future reviews.
• Review ahead shows review cards due in the next few days. Use it before a trip or an exam, not as a habit: an early review is easier and does less for your memory. With the default scheduler, an early Good still grows the interval as if the card were on time; FSRS takes into account how early you are.
• Cram lets you practice anything without touching the schedule. Answers aren’t saved, so they earn no XP.

#FSRS and desired retention

FSRS is an alternative scheduler you switch on per preset (How scheduling works). Instead of fixed multipliers, it models each card’s memory and brings the card back when your chance of recalling it falls to your desired retention.

• Consider FSRS if you want to set a recall target directly and trade reviews for retention, or if intervals feel off with the default scheduler: cards you know keep coming back, or hard ones drift too far out.
• Stay with the default if you’re used to the classic SM-2 timings and happy with them. Cards keep their progress whichever you use.

Desired retention runs from 70% to 99% (default 90%). With FSRS’s default parameters, a card that comes back in 30 days at 90% comes back in:

So going from 90% to 95% means reviewing that card well over twice as often to forget half as much, and above 95% the cost climbs steeply. Below 85% you save reviews but forget more, and relearning forgotten cards takes time too. 90% is a sensible default: go up for material you can’t afford to forget, such as an exam coming up; go down for a large collection you just want to keep alive.