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A workflow to support personal learning from raw sources

 Unlocking Efficient Learning with AI-Powered Flashcards in Obsidian

As learners, we're constantly seeking ways to optimize our learning workflow and process new information more effectively. In this post, I'll explore a powerful combination of tools that can help you achieve just that: Obsidian and the SystemSculpt and the Spaced Repetition plugins. Together, these tools can help you generate flashcards that support a structured learning workflow, making it easier to create knowledge from your source materials.
 

The Power of Obsidian

Obsidian allows you to organize your thoughts and ideas in a flexible and customizable way. Its unique features, such as tags, folders, and links, enable you to create a knowledge graph that connects your notes and ideas. In this workflow, I'll be using Obsidian as the central hub for my learning process.
 

SystemSculpt and Spaced Repetition: The AI-Powered Flashcard Generators

SystemSculpt is an AI-powered plugin that integrates seamlessly with Obsidian. With the righ intructions it allows you to generate flashcards based on your notes and source materials using the Spaced Repetition plugin.


The Learning Workflow

This is how it goes.

Create a raw source note

Take a raw source and put it in a new note in obsidian. Store this note in an inbox folder. The raw source can be anything with text and images. For example, use Firefox's Reader View to fetch the source material from the web. Toggle Reader View using Ctrl+Alt+R. Open Obsidian and create a new note. Copy the source material into the note, and rename it with the title of the article. Move the note to the Inbox folder. 

The original webpage in firefox




   
The same web page in reader mode
The note in obsidian

Process and Annotate the note

Read the source material and erase unnecessary text. Annotate the note by creating a new section at the end, without modifying the original text.

 

The source note open twice. On the right I created a news section to annotate
 

Generate Flashcards

Use the Spaced Repetition plugin to generate flashcards, the syntax is simple. These can be generated by hand as you read the source note. Or you can use AI with the SystemSculpt plugin to generate flashcards from the annotated note. Use an appropriate prompt and select an AI model. Select the suggestions that seem interesting and move them to the source note. Catalog them with the relevant tags and syntax for the Spaced Repetition plugin to generate the flashcards. Link the flashcard to relevant sections on the source file - you can use another plugin to make this easier: Strange New Worlds.

The prompt and context file using SystemSculpt

The answer from the AI

The syntax for the flashcards in the raw source - I created a section for it.
 

Review and Refine

Review the flashcards in the following days, this is where the magic happens. When an information is relevant, create a note for it, link it to other notes in the Knowledge folder, save the new note in the knowledge folder and erase the flashcard.

The spaced repetition plugin allows reviewing the flashcards
 

Using the Strange New Worlds plugin allows linking to relevant locations
 

If the note is not ready for knowledge, modify it and review it later.

If the note is irrelevant, trash it.

Repeat and Refine

Repeat the process until there are no more flashcards for review in that source note, moving the source note from the Inbox to the Sources folder.
 

Conclusion

Insted of using flashcards to review information in order to retain it, I've shown how to use flashcards as a tool to manage new information from sources and add it to my knowledge base. Besides, I've used AI to help me generate flashcards.

That's where the power of combining Obsidian, SystemSculpt, and the Spaced Repetition plugins helps sustaining this workflow. By following this workflow, you can unlock the full potential of your learning process and achieve review of information from your sources and the generation of a knowledge base with source referencing. Give it a try and see the difference for yourself!

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