[For several reasons – I’d encourage you to install the FSRS Helper add-on and use that for rescheduling instead of reschedule-on-change in Options. Wherever I talk about rescheduling below, I’ll be talking about using the add-on to do it.]
Just to be sure – have you tried rescheduling (lately) and seen the size of the backlog, or are you assuming it will be large, because that’s what we warn of?
Different users get different results, and a lot of it depends on how long you’ve been using FSRS, how often/recently you’ve made changes to its settings (parameters, DR), and how many active cards you have. But it’s safe to try because you can Edit > Undo if you don’t like the result.
A Filtered “catch-up” deck isn’t the only way to manage that process, but it is my favorite way. It prevents the backlog from being too overwhelming and from getting in the way of your current studying. If you’ve been using FSRS for a while, have studied a substantial portion of your active cards, and especially if you’ve been happy with your retention results – it might be time to bite-the-bullet and deal with the backlog.
[Wait – try this much simpler solution first – Changing Easy Days Without Getting a Backlog - #4 by vaibhav .]
I remember a user in the early days of FSRS who posted about rescheduling their cards just a day or 2 at a time. As I recall, we talked through the potential issues, and couldn’t find any harm in that approach. [But grrr … I wish I could find that post!] I bring this up now, because it’s similar to what could work for you.
These days, with built-in load balancing, I’d be unlikely to endorse a day-by-day rescheduling plan. And it probably wouldn’t be a solution for you, because Easy Days are on a weekly cycle and those cards have to go somewhere. But how about week-by-week rescheduling? Even if it results in some backlog, you could use the catch-up plan above to deal with that backlog over the course of the week.
Something like –
- Set up a “saved” search for cards that are due in the next 7 days (or are overdue) –
prop:due<=7.
- Once a week, run that search, select all > Cards > “FSRS: update memory state and reschedule”.
- Then rebuild your “catch-up” deck to grab the backlog, and work through that on the other 6 days of the week.
You can repeat that for as many weeks as it takes until you’ve studied enough cards that your Easy day is working on its own.