Echo Recall
Memorize your notes and paragraphs actively with spaced repetition and retrospective deadlines directly inside Obsidian.
- Overview
- Scorecard
- Updates1
Memorize your notes and paragraphs actively with spaced repetition and retrospective revision timetable directly inside Obsidian.
Echo Recall is a lightweight but powerful revision engine for Obsidian. It turns your long study notes into a dynamic memory game. You never have to export your data again.
1. Core Philosophy & Problem Statement
The Problem: Flashcard apps like Anki are great for tiny facts. But they are terrible for long notes. Breaking a big paragraph into tiny cards ruins the flow. You lose the context of your notes. Also, exporting text often breaks tables and links.
The Solution: Echo Recall fixes this problem. It brings the testing environment directly to your notes. Just open a note and click "[▶ echo]" in the top right. Follow the instructions on the screen. That's it! You have reviewed your note.
For scheduling, this plugin uses spaced repetition. It also uses a "retrospective revision" schedule based on your deadlines. This idea was conceptualized by Ali Abdaal.
2. Review Workflow
A. The 3-Step Revision and Review
When you start a session, Echo Recall opens a clean UI in a new tab. This uses a Progressive Masking System.
Progressive = Masking gets harder based on your confidence level. If a note is Hard, it uses normal masking. If Moderate, it hides 10% more words. If Easy, it hides 20% more words. This forces you to remember more with fewer clues.
Step 1: Read-Through View
This step helps your brain remember the note's flow.
- Functionality: It shows your full markdown text clearly. Nothing is hidden yet.
Step 2: Progressively Masked View
This is your first active recall challenge.
- Functionality: Some words are replaced by blanks (
____). The blanks match the exact length of the hidden words. It protects your formatting like bold text, tables, highlights, lists, etc.
Step 3: Heavily Masked View
This is the final test for true memory retention.
- Functionality: Most of the text is hidden. Only a few anchor words remain to guide your memory.
UI Controls & Interactivity
- [Back] Button: Go back one step. Use this if you forget something and need a quick hint.
- [Next] Button: Move forward to the next step.
- [Finish & Log] Button: This ends the session. It saves today's date in your history. Then, it safely returns you to the dashboard.
B. Dashboard
Click the brain icon in the ribbon to open the Dashboard. This is your main control center. Here, you can view, manage, and start your daily reviews.
1. "Due Today"
This shows a big number of notes you need to review today. It has a [▶ Start Due Notes] button. Click it to instantly start reviewing all your due notes in order.
2. Data Navigation Tabs
- "View All": A clean list of all tracked notes in your vault. You can sort them by date.
- "Tag-wise View": This groups your notes by custom "Echo tags". It shows stats for each tag, like total reviews and confidence levels.
- Note: These are different from standard Obsidian tags. Echo tags help you organize notes for a specific exam.
- "Archives": This shows archived notes. They are completely hidden from your review schedule.
- Think of this like "suspending" cards in Anki.
- When an exam is over, just archive those notes! You can unarchive them later. Archived notes ignore spaced repetition.
3. Dashboard Data Table Columns
| Column Name | Functionality & Interaction |
|---|---|
| Date Added | Shows when the note was first added to Echo Recall. |
| Note Title | Click this to instantly open the markdown file. |
| Tags | Click + tag to add and remove Echo tags easily. |
| Revs | Shows the total number of times you finished a 3-step review. |
| Last Revised | Shows the exact date you last reviewed this note. |
| Confidence | A dropdown with 🔴 Hard, 🟡 Moderate, or 🟢 Easy. Changing this updates your next review date. |
| Action | [▶ echo]: Starts a quick review for just this note. [🎓/🔄]: Archives or unarchives the note safely. |
| Deadline | Set a target exam date. The plugin will prioritize notes with closer deadlines. You can set this for a whole tag at once! |
C. Plugin System Settings Panel
Echo Recall safely reads your markdown text. But you can choose what it ignores during reviews. There are 4 toggles:
- Don't revise callouts (Default: On): Ignores text inside Obsidian callouts (
> [!). - Don't revise checkboxes (Default: On): Ignores checklist items (
- [ ]). - Don't revise quotes (Default: Off): Ignores standard markdown quotes (
>). - Don't revise custom regex (Optional): Advanced users can type custom rules here. This hides things like code snippets or footnotes.
3. Metadata Spec (YAML Schema)
Echo Recall saves all data in your note's YAML properties. This means you own your data forever. It will never break your vault.
When you study a note, the plugin adds these properties:
---
echo_date_added: 2024-01-01 # YYYY-MM-DD: Creation date
echo_last_revised: 2024-01-15 # YYYY-MM-DD: Last completed session
echo_revision_count: 4 # Integer: Total completed loops
echo_confidence: Moderate # String: 'Hard', 'Moderate', or 'Easy'
echo_next_due: 2024-01-22 # YYYY-MM-DD: Scheduled due date
echo_tags: # Array: Independent dashboard tags
- Law
- Chapter_1
echo_deadline: 2024-02-01 # YYYY-MM-DD: Target exam/deadline date
echo_archived: false # Boolean: Suspension state
echo_history: # Array: Appended timestamps for Heatmap
- 2024-01-01
- 2024-01-08
- 2024-01-15
---
4. Scheduling Algorithm
[!Philosophy] It's NOT necessary to revise ALL your daily due cards. It is completely up to you! My personal goal is to hit "EASY" on all notes before my exam arrives. My exam is months away, so spaced repetition keeps me from forgetting. You can use spaced repetition alone, use it with deadlines, or just use deadlines. Feel free to ignore this and study your own way!
Standard spaced repetition uses fixed days. Echo Recall sets intervals based on your choice:
- Hard: 1 Day
- Moderate: 7 Days
- Easy: 14 Days
Studying for exams also requires Deadline Prioritization. If you add an echo_deadline, the plugin counts the days left until your exam.
The Override Logic: Is your confidence marked "Hard" or "Moderate"? Are you running out of time before the deadline? If so, the plugin safely shortens your wait time. It ensures you review the note again before test day.
The Math:
Days = Math.max(1, Math.floor(DaysRemaining * 0.5))
Example: A "Moderate" note usually waits 7 days. But what if your exam is in 4 days? The plugin cuts the wait to 2 days (4 * 0.5). You will safely review it before the test.