Guide

1. Create a headlist

From "Your lists," click Create headlist. Give it a title if you like (optional), then write or type your first word or phrase — with a stylus, your finger, or the keyboard, or a mix of both. The headlist itself isn't created until you submit that first entry, so an empty draft never gets left behind.

2. Keep adding entries

Add more words or phrases the same way, aiming for the 20–25 sweet spot the method is built around (see Philosophy for why). You can edit or remove entries freely while the headlist is still a draft.

3. Seal it

Once you're happy with the list, click Seal It. This locks the entries so what you review later matches exactly what you originally wrote, and schedules the first review about two weeks out. A list needs at least one entry before it can be sealed.

4. Review it

When a list is ready to be reviewed, open it and click Review now. Go through each entry and mark it Remembered or Still need it — honestly, based on whether you actually recognize it without hints. It's fine to mark it Remembered even if it takes you a while to recall — what matters is recognizing it without a hint, not how fast.

5. Hand-copy into the next list

After you submit a review, entries marked "still need it" stay right where they are, in the list you just reviewed — open it and you'll see a Create D{n} button. Click it to create an empty next-round list, then hand-write or type each still-need-it word into it yourself, the same way you added entries to the headlist. Once you've copied everything over, seal that list the same way, and the cycle repeats through D1, D2, D3, D4. (The one exception: after D4, this step happens automatically — see the Vault section below.) Remembered entries simply stay behind, done.

6. The Vault

Anything still not sticking after D4 moves into your Vault instead of spawning a D5. There you can attach example sentences, notes, or pictures to individual entries to help them finally click, and keep reviewing the Vault periodically — it never expires or caps out.

Marking a Vault entry Remembered is permanent — once it's marked, it won't come up in a future Vault review again. Anything still marked Still need it stays in the queue and keeps coming back each time you review the Vault, so you can keep chipping away at it.

Deleting a headlist

A headlist can only be deleted while it's still a draft (before sealing), from the bottom of the list page. You'll be asked to type a randomly generated code to confirm — this can't be undone.

Terminology

Headlist: Your first list of new words or phrases (generation 0), usually 20–25 items.
Draft: A list's status while it's still open for adding or editing entries, before it's sealed.
Seal: Locking a list once you're done adding to it. Schedules its first review about two weeks out, and its entries can no longer be edited.
Ready to review: Shown once a sealed list's review date has arrived — that's when its Review now button becomes clickable.
Review: Going through a list's pending entries and marking each Remembered or Still need it.
Distill: Hand-copying entries marked "still need it" into the next round (D1, D2, D3, D4) via the "Create Dx" button — or, once you're at D4, moving them into the Vault automatically.
Carried forward: Entries marked "still need it" during a review, waiting for you to hand-copy them into the next generation (or moved into the Vault automatically, at D4).
Remembered: Entries marked as known during a review. They stay where they are — no further action needed.
D1, D2, D3, D4: The successive distillation rounds after the headlist. D1 is what you hand-copy the headlist's carried-forward entries into, D2 is what you hand-copy D1's into, and so on, capped at D4.
Vault: Where entries land if they're still not remembered after D4, instead of spawning a D5. Reviewed indefinitely, with no further generations and no expiry.