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In this blog post I show you how to transfer your learning content from Notion to Anki. I explained in the last post why I think Anki is the best flashcard app and what the best settings are. If you want to read that post again, you can find the link here. This post is about the workflow of Notion and Anki. But…

What is Notion?

Notion is a note-taking software that is available completely for free as a web version. It gives you more possibilities and freedom than for example Evernote. You can create hierarchies of your pages, add source codes, toggle lists or formulas. Personally, I use it to structure blogposts, my timetable for university or save articles that I would like to read. I also use Notion to prepare lecture notes and lecture content.

So I already do the work of revising lecture material and have found a place for it in Notion. At the same time, I want to use flashcards for learning, which means that I also have to make an effort for them. So even if I have notes from Notion i have to copy and paste the content or create completely new flashcards and type them out.

Website Notion to Anki

In search of a simplification I found a website that converts pages from Notion into flashcards for Anki. The website for Notion to Anki is: https://2anki.net/

I will show you how to do this step by step in this video.

What you have to pay attention to in Notion is to write the contents that are to become flashcards in so-called toggle lists. My workflow looks like this: I think of questions about the lecture content and type them as toggles. I then write the answers in the toggle list.  When I have finished, I export the list of questions as an HTML document. A zip file is then automatically downloaded. I then upload this zip file to the website and convert it. After that i can download the converted file. It is an AHK document, the file format for Anki.

For the next step you open the Anki app and click on import file, select the file I just downloaded, click OK and the new batch is in the Anki app. The questions I thought of are now on the front of the virtual flashcard and on the back are my answers that were within the toggle list.

The website thus makes it easier for you to write index cards if you use a note-taking application to sort and prepare lecture content and scripts anyway. You save what is later supposed tob e a flashcard to a toggle list and with a few mouse clicks you get your index cards for Anki.

Additional tip to make things easier

For the lazy among you, which includes me, I have another idea how you can create flashcards even easier.

If you are tired of typing, Word offers a great way to turn your speech into text. To use the feature, tap on the dictate icon in the top right corner of the Word bar and you can start speaking. Normally, English is set as the default language. If this is not the case, you can simply click on the down arrow next to the dictate symbol and select your language.

To be able to use the facilitator, dictate your question in the „bullet“ format. Press the 3 dots in the Paragraph setting in Word. This step is very important. This setting makes it easier to create a toggle list in Notion. After clicking, there should be a black dot on the Word document. Now type your question and press Confirm/Enter. Another dot will appear on the next line.

Use the tab key to indicate your answer to Notion and later to Anki.  With your bullet retracted, you now dictate or write the answer. When you have finished all your questions, you can select the entire Word document and paste it into Notion.

Transfer it to Notion

In Notion, you still have to mark the entire content. Once you have marked everything, press the top line of your marked content with the right mouse button and convert your content into a toggle list. Through your formatting in Word, Notion recognises what belongs on and in the toggle. Now you have saved yourself the typing work of this step and can convert the Notion page into index cards as before (and as described above).

In this video you can see again what I have just described in text.

If you have any questions, feel free to write them in the comments. Good luck with creating flashcards, which hopefully won’t be so annoying anymore. 🙂