Flash Cards after College

It has been a super busy month for me, working on home remodels after work. This will be a quick write up on something I want to start using more – flashcards! For most people, flashcards are something they only use during school. However, I think they are worth using in your job as well. There is a lot of stuff that we memorize at work, but we mostly just use repetition. I can rattle off the part numbers for our main products because I have written them down so much. I know an F-size drill is the clearance size for a 1/4-20 screw because I have used it over and over. If I need something often enough to memorize it, then great. If I don’t naturally memorize it, then clearly I don’t need to.

However, there are a lot of instances that it would have been beneficial to have something memorized. How often do people say, “I don’t remember. I need to look it up.” Most of the time that is no big deal. Sometimes though, it can dead end a discussion until a later date. This is particularly painful in a group meeting or brainstorm. There are other times where everyone else knows what is going on, but because I don’t have a definition memorized I don’t have a clue. Usually it is simple to ask clarifying questions, but sometimes it can significantly slow things down.

Those are some of my reasons for realizing that memorization would be useful and help make me a better engineer. Some of the things on my list for memorization: useful part numbers, performance spec numbers (important government contract and everything revolves around that document), G and M codes, basic equations from college, python syntax, design checklists. As you can see I have a lot of ideas. Basically if something would be useful to quickly have at my fingertips, I’ll consider memorizing it.

Just like in high school and college, spaced repetition with flash cards is a great way to learn something quickly. I have started by using the Quizlet app and so far I am liking it. Best things about it: there is a free version, I can search other people’s sets, and I can upload my own sets easily using a .csv file. By using an app: I don’t have to make boxes of 3×5 cards, and I can study whenever I want.

I’m pretty new on this improvement project, but I see a lot of room for important gains. I love to learn and this is one way to help that learning stick and continue to pay off long term. I wrote a post a while about how organizing my notes has magnifies the value of the things I learn (link). This new project of using flashcards feels like it will have a similar payoff.