Why Memory Retention Planner

The concept behind the Memory Retention Planner is elegantly simple, yet the technique on which it is built surpasses most conventional learning methods. You must know that human memory forms through the interconnections of neurons in the brain, and the clarity and durability of a memory increases when these neural connections are both numerous and strong.

Additionally, the nature of the information being memorized also plays a crucial role in determining the strength and number of these connections. Consider the difference between memorizing a definition from a book—where you try to rote-learn four or five sentences of plain text—and visiting a beach. When you’re at the beach, your brain engages multiple senses: you feel the wind on your skin, smell and taste the salty sea air, and hear the crashing waves. These rich, multisensory experiences create many strong neural interconnections, making the memories of the event vivid and easier to recall. In contrast, memorizing abstract information with little sensory engagement, like a dry definition, results in far fewer neural connections, making it harder to remember.

Ebbinghaus' Forgetting Curve

It’s a well-established fact that the human mind naturally forgets information over time, and the rate of forgetting is often faster when the information is abstract or lacks meaningful context. The more abstract the data, the quicker it fades from memory.

German psychologist Hermann Ebbinghaus was the first to systematically study and quantify this phenomenon. His ground-breaking research demonstrated how much information is lost as time passes after initially learning it, resulting in what is now famously known as Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve.

Source: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0120644

The image above shows the observations made by Ebbinghaus and subsequent researchers, illustrating how rapidly we forget newly learned information without reinforcement. Consider reading the article shared in the source above for further understanding the details of the research.

Spaced Repetition

Building on the insights from Ebbinghaus’ Forgetting Curve, the technique of spaced repetition was developed to significantly prolong memory retention. The core idea is simple: regularly reviewing or revising information strengthens the neural connections that store the memory, making it more resistant to forgetting.

If we set 60% recall as the minimum acceptable baseline, research shows that without revision, you can forget up to 40% of new information within just one day. However, by strategically reviewing the material at increasing intervals, you can dramatically slow the forgetting process.

A commonly recommended schedule for spaced repetition follows this sequence:

It’s important to note that with each successive review, the rate of forgetting decreases. For example, after your initial learning, you might forget 40% of the information within 24 hours if you don’t review. But if you’ve completed seven reviews, by Day 151, you will retain almost everything; it would then take roughly 210 days (from Day 150 to Day 360) to forget 40% of the material again. In essence, the more effectively you space your revisions, the more durable and long-lasting your memories become.

Check Out Our Latest Video on Spaced Repetition — Why It Works, How Your Memory Functions, and How It Guarantees Results

Exams and 1 Day Preparations

If you’re someone who prepares for exams only in the last day or two, you’ve probably already noticed the connection between your exam scores and the principles of spaced repetition.

Let’s break it down with a simple example:

Suppose you have an exam tomorrow covering 20 topics. You crammed all 20 topics today, and in the exam, you receive 20 questions—one from each topic. Because of the brain’s natural tendency to quickly forget newly learned, unrevised information, your memory accuracy by exam time will likely average around 70% (give or take 5%). Unsurprisingly, your exam score will often mirror this retention rate, averaging 70% or lower.

This strategy of last-minute preparation is popular among students today, especially in schools and colleges, where the goal is often just to pass rather than truly master the material. One-day cramming can indeed be enough for passing small, straightforward exams. However, the real world is rarely this simple: most exams cover 60–70 topics, and students typically start preparing three days before the test, introducing more chances for inconsistency and missed revisions. Any deviations from the planned study schedule further lower your chances of even reaching that 70% mark predicted by a last-minute cramming plan.

Ultimately, relying on 1-day preparations is a risky and ineffective approach to learning. While this strategy might occasionally deliver average marks in routine school or college exams, it is entirely unsuitable for achieving high scores— and can be outright disastrous in competitive exams where the percentile model is used.

In percentile-based exams, your success does not depend on achieving average marks but on outperforming other candidates. Even a small drop in your retention or accuracy can dramatically reduce your percentile rank, costing you a seat in a top college or a coveted job opportunity. Since everyone competing is aiming for the highest possible scores, consistent, gradual learning—reinforced through spaced repetition—is the only reliable way to secure the edge needed to rank in the top percentiles and succeed in such high-stakes environments.

Memory Retention Planner

Introduction

The Memory Retention Planner is a simple yet powerful tool designed to make the most of the proven concept of spaced repetition. Using the planner is straightforward: just enter a few details of the topics you plan to learn. From there, the planner automatically schedules your revisions and tracks your progress, removing the guesswork from your study routine.

To keep you motivated and consistent, the Memory Retention Planner also offers daily email notifications. These daily emails provide a clear list of all topics due for revision in the next 24 hours, helping you stay on track with your learning goals.

Dashboard

Once you enter the subject names in the “Subjects” sheet and hide it, the Dashboard sheet becomes the default view whenever you open the Memory Retention Planner. As illustrated in the image above, the Dashboard provides a comprehensive overview of your study progress through the following key metrics:

1. Topics Covered per Day
   Displays the number of topics you’ve learned each day. Over time, this helps you track overall progress and visualize the effort you’re putting into your studies.

2. Percentage of Completion on Time
   Shows how effectively you’re meeting your planned timelines for completing topics. This metric keeps you accountable and encourages you to stay focused and on schedule, motivating you to complete your planned topics punctually.

3. Topics for Revision
   Summarizes how many topics are due for review within the next 24 hours, indicating exactly which day of the spaced repetition cycle each topic falls on (e.g., Day 1, Day 3, Day 7). This feature ensures you never miss a scheduled review.

4. Time Allocation vs. Time Spent
   Provides a visual comparison between the study time you planned and the actual time you spent studying. This helps you quickly assess how closely you’re sticking to your daily study goals.

5. Deviation from Time Allocation
   Highlights discrepancies between your planned and actual study times. Minimizing this deviation is crucial: it not only ensures you spend enough time meaningfully engaging with the material—helping you form strong mental schemas—but also reveals how much you can realistically absorb in a given timeframe, leading to more effective and personalized study habits.

6. Total Time Spent
   Displays the cumulative time spent on each subject. This insight helps you evaluate whether you’re dedicating enough time to challenging subjects or falling into the trap of “fake productivity,” where you appear busy but make little real progress.
   

New Topics

This is the only sheet where you are required to do some typing. Colour coding has also been done to help you identify which cells to fill. You only need to fill the cells which have a green shade, and everything else is handled by the Memory Retention Planner.

This sheet can be regarded as the main sheet where all entries are made. All the essential details of a topic are captured in here. The following are the details captured, in order:

1. Overview – On the left side of the sheet, this table displays the total number of topics planned, total number of topics completed, topics pending time allocation, total time allocated, and total time spent.

2. Revision Overview – Located below the Overview table, this provides a quick summary of how many topics are scheduled for review within the next 24 hours, similar to the Dashboard. It also indicates which specific day of your revision cycle each topic belongs to—such as Day 1, Day 3, Day 7, etc.—helping you track your spaced repetition progress.

3. Sl. No. & Date – These columns are automatically filled when you make a new entry.

4. New Topics Planned – This is the first important column you must fill. It is highly encouraged that you specify exactly what you are learning so you can easily recollect the details later. For example, simply writing 'Civilization' could mean many things and include several civilizations, making it hard to remember later (e.g., on Day 14 or Day 30). A better entry would be "Civilization: Mohenjodaro Introduction", which gives clearer context for faster recall.

5. Chapter – This column helps you provide a reference to the chapter or section related to the topic.

6. Subjects – This column provides a dropdown option for you to select your subject of study.

7. Time Allocated – Enter the amount of time you estimate it will take to complete learning the topic here.

8. Begin – This column has a checkbox (which appears once time is allocated) that, when checked, records the date and time in the Start Time column.

9. End – This column has a checkbox that, when checked, records the date and time in the End Time column.

10. Time Taken – Shows the difference between End Time and Start Time, displaying how long you spent studying the topic.
    
    

    
    

     

11. Deviation – Displays the difference between Time Taken and Time Allocated.

12. Status – Displays one of three values:

    • Not Started – Shown when there is a value entered in the New Topics column but the topic has not been started.

    • In Progress – Appears when the Begin checkbox is clicked, indicating that you’ve started studying the topic.

    • Completed – Appears when the End checkbox is clicked, indicating that you’ve finished studying the topic.

13. On Time – Depending on whether the deviation was positive or negative, this column shows No or Yes, respectively.

14. Link – Here you can attach a link to a file or page containing your study material or practice work. This connects your sheet with the actual resources. For example, if you use a PDF with important highlights, you can upload it to Google Drive, copy the shareable link, and paste it here. Then, when your email reminders are triggered, you can open the material directly by clicking or tapping this link if you need to review it.
    

Days Sheet

Like the image above, which shows the Day 1 sheet, there are seven other sheets that function the same way: Day 3, Day 7, Day 14, Day 30, Day 66, Day 150, and Day 360.

Everything in these sheets is automatically generated. The only action required from you is to click the checkbox in the "Revision Complete" column when you finish the revision.

Topic Learnt On – This column fetches the date from the "Date" column of the New Topics sheet.

Due Date – Shows the date and time when the topic becomes due for revision. It is calculated based on the time elapsed since the End Time recorded in the 'New Topics' sheet. For the Day 1 sheet, this reflects 24 hours after completion; in other sheets also, the due date adjusts according to the planned repetition schedule.

Time Elapsed – Displays how much time has passed since the topic became due for revision. If the due date and time haven’t been reached yet, this field remains empty. Note that this field continues to update after the due date and time has elapsed, until you check the "Revision Complete" checkbox.

Completion Date – Records the date and time when you click the checkbox in the "Revision Complete" column.

All the other columns in these sheets directly fetch their values from the corresponding columns in the New Topics sheet, ensuring your data stays consistent and up to date.

Daily Mailing

The Memory Retention Planner uses Google Sheets Automation to send you Daily Emails containing a PDF file with all the topics that are due for revision across all of the eight 'Days' sheets. When you open the PDF, you’ll see comprehensive details about each topic scheduled for review, including topic name, day of the review cycle, time elapsed since due, and relevant study material links, among other relevant details:

You have flexibility in customizing both the time at which you want the daily emails to be sent and the content of the email itself if needed. By default, a relevant, pre-written message is already included (as shown in the first image of this section).

The details on how to set up the daily mail trigger are explained step by step in the Guide provided with your purchase. This is a one-time process requiring only about 15 minutes of your time to complete.

Why Make The Purchase

Sure, if you have the time, you could build your own Memory Retention Planner. But let’s be honest— spending the hours learning and designing one from scratch isn’t practical for most people. 

The Memory Retention Planner offers a science-backed, highly effective learning system— at a price that won’t make you think twice. No ongoing subscriptions. No hidden costs. Just a one-time, lifetime purchase.

You're not just buying a planner; you're investing in a smarter, more efficient way to learn.

So, why wait?

Sign up for a smarter way of learning effectively. Make the purchase.

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