Proposal: "Backlog Recovery Planner" to prevent user churn & burnout

Anki Suggestions
1

Hi Damien and the Anki Community,

I would like to propose a feature idea to improve User Experience (UX) and reduce mental anxiety for users returning to Anki after taking a break.

When a student or busy professional misses 4–5 days of reviews due to exams, work, or emergencies, they return to hundreds of accumulated cards.

Currently, the system presents this entire stack without a clear timeframe of when things will normalize. This creates a high level of uncertainty and anxiety. Seeing a massive, unending wall of cards causes many users to give up on Anki entirely—not because they don’t want to learn, but because of mental fatigue.

An automated, capacity-based recovery calculator that creates a gentle, predictable path back to normal schedule without causing burnout.

Key Features:

1. Paced Recovery Options (User Capacity-Based):
Instead of forcing all backlog cards at once, let users select a recovery speed that fits their available daily time:

  • Easy Mode (+20% daily capacity):A low-stress, gradual recovery over a longer period (e.g., 2 weeks).
  • Medium Mode (+50% daily capacity): A balanced approach for regular users (e.g., 7–10 days recovery).
  • Medium Mode (+50% daily capacity):A fast-paced recovery for students nearing exams.

2. Clear Time Horizon (Ending Uncertainty):
Provide a simple visual prediction or progress tracker.
Example:“At your current Medium Pace (+15 extra cards/day), your backlog will reach zero by next Tuesday.”
Knowing the exact end date removes fear and gives the user motivation to stay consistent.

3. Daily Cap Protection:
Enforce a strict daily review cap during the recovery period so the user is never exposed to an infinite stack in a single session.

Why This Feature Matters:
Knowing when a burden will end transforms an overwhelming chore into a manageable target. This small UX addition could save thousands of users from abandoning Spaced Repetition during busy phases of their lives.

I am sharing this from a practical user perspective to make Anki more accessible to students and busy workers everywhere. I leave the technical implementation details to the core developers and community experts.

Thank you for creating such an incredible tool for learners worldwide!

2

A good topic has been raised. Beginners, when they start, think that it will be as simple as 1 day, on their 10 or 20 cards. But if you have a debt of 200-1000 cards, then you don’t even want to start :slight_smile:
I realized long ago that only new cards are important, those from about three weeks ago. The rest aren’t that important.
Essentially, the most important cards are the ones new for today and the review of yesterday’s. This is absolutely essential. Reviewing cards that are still young, meaning they haven’t been reviewed at least 5-7 times. If you didn’t learn these cards back then and then took a month-long break, then you should study them from the very beginning. As for mature cards, a month’s absence isn’t that big of a deal, and sometimes even a year won’t make much of a difference if they’ve truly memorized them.
So, when you’re in debt, it makes sense to somehow separate these cards and work on them in a separate session, while you simply study the rest of the new ones as usual.
And for beginners, it would be better to have a clear goal that they’ll study 10 new cards a day and, say, review at least 20. And these goals should be set. That way, it’s fair. In any case, when I was working with real cards, it was clear what I wanted, so I’d take new ones from the deck and study them. When I got bored or tired, I’d take them from the deck that already had cards I’d worked on; I knew them, it was easy for me, and that was how I relaxed. That’s how it worked outside of Ankh.