Anki Obsidian Workflow: The Complete Guide To Faster Notes, Better Flashcards, And Remembering More With Less Effort – Stop Copy-Pasting And Turn Your Notes Into Smart Study Sessions

Anki + Obsidian Is Cool… But Also Kind Of A Pain

If you’re looking up “Anki Obsidian,” you probably want this:

• Take notes in Obsidian
• Turn them into flashcards
• Sync to Anki
• Then study everything with spaced repetition

In theory, it’s perfect. In reality, it’s a mess of plug‑ins, exports, clunky sync, and “why is this card broken again?”

If you want the benefits of Anki + Obsidian without the technical headache, it’s worth looking at a simpler setup like Flashrecall:

👉 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

Flashrecall lets you go from notes → flashcards → spaced repetition in a few taps, on your iPhone or iPad, without any weird integrations.

Let’s break down:

• How people usually use Anki + Obsidian
• Why it’s powerful but annoying
• A cleaner, faster way to do the same thing using Flashrecall

How People Usually Combine Anki And Obsidian

The Classic Workflow

Most people trying to use Anki with Obsidian do something like:

1. Write notes in Obsidian

• Use headings, bullet points, maybe the Zettelkasten style
• Add cloze deletions like `{{c1::this is the hidden text}}`

2. Use a plug-in like Obsidian_to_Anki or similar

• Mark certain lines as flashcards
• Sync or export them to Anki

3. Open Anki on desktop

• Import the cards
• Fix formatting
• Sync to AnkiMobile on your phone

4. Finally study on your phone

• If nothing broke in the process

It works. But:

• You’re tied to a desktop
• You rely on plug-ins that can break
• You’re juggling two apps that were never really designed to feel seamless together

If you love tinkering and tweaking workflows, it can be fun.

If you just want to learn faster with less friction, it’s overkill.

The Big Problem With Anki + Obsidian For Most People

Let’s be honest about the pain points:

1. Too Many Moving Parts

• Obsidian plug-ins
• Anki desktop
• Sync services
• AnkiMobile on iOS

Any one of these breaks, and your whole “smart system” collapses.

2. Time Spent Managing, Not Learning

You end up:

• Debugging note syntax
• Reformatting cards
• Dealing with duplicated decks
• Googling “why aren’t my Obsidian cards showing in Anki”

That’s time you could have spent actually learning.

3. It’s Not Great On iPhone/iPad

Anki is powerful, but:

• It’s not exactly “modern iOS app” level smooth
• Obsidian on mobile is good for notes, but not ideal for flashcard review
• The whole pipeline is clearly designed around desktop first

If your main device is your phone or iPad, this setup fights you.

A Simpler Alternative: Keep Your Notes, But Let Flashrecall Handle The Cards

Instead of forcing Obsidian and Anki to cooperate, you can let Flashrecall handle the flashcard + spaced repetition side, while you still keep your notes wherever you like.

Flashrecall lives here:

👉 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

What Flashrecall Does Differently (And Why It’s Easier Than Anki+Obsidian)

Flashrecall is built to do what you’re trying to hack together:

• Instant flashcards from almost anything
• Text
• Images
• PDFs
• YouTube links
• Audio
• Typed prompts
• You can also make cards manually if you like total control
• Built‑in spaced repetition
• No plug-ins
• No manual scheduling
• It just reminds you when it’s time to review
• Active recall by default
• You see the question
• You try to answer
• Then you reveal and rate how well you did
• Study reminders
• It pings you so you don’t forget to review
• Works offline
• Great for commuting, traveling, or bad Wi‑Fi
• You can chat with the flashcard
• If you’re confused, you can ask follow-up questions about that card
• Super useful for tricky concepts in medicine, law, coding, etc.
• Fast, modern, and easy to use
• Designed for iPhone and iPad
• Free to start

You still get your “second brain” with notes. You just let Flashrecall be your memory engine.

How To Recreate The “Anki + Obsidian” Magic Using Flashrecall

Here’s how you can get the same benefits with way less friction.

1. Take Notes However You Like

You can still use:

• Obsidian
• Apple Notes
• Notion
• Google Docs
• A PDF or lecture slides
• A textbook photo

The point: don’t overcomplicate the note‑taking side. Just get the information down.

2. Turn Your Notes Into Flashcards In Seconds

With Flashrecall, you can:

1. Select the key parts of your notes (definitions, formulas, concepts)

2. Paste into Flashrecall

3. Let it help you turn that into Q&A cards or cloze deletions

Got:

• Lecture slides?
• A PDF article?
• A photo of your handwritten notes?

You can import those into Flashrecall and generate flashcards from them. No more manually retyping everything into Anki templates.

Watching a lecture or tutorial?

• Paste the YouTube link into Flashrecall
• It can help you turn the content into flashcards
• Perfect for long videos where you don’t want to manually pause and write everything

Example: Replacing Anki + Obsidian For A Med Student

Let’s say you’re studying pharmacology.

Old Workflow (Anki + Obsidian)

• Take dense notes in Obsidian
• Mark cloze deletions
• Use a plug-in to send to Anki
• Fix broken formatting
• Sync to phone
• Hope nothing desyncs before your exam

New Workflow (Obsidian + Flashrecall)

1. Take your usual notes in Obsidian

2. After the lecture, pick the key parts and either:

• Copy-paste into Flashrecall
• Or export as a PDF and feed that into Flashrecall

3. Flashrecall helps you generate flashcards from:

• Drug names
• Mechanisms
• Side effects
• Contraindications

4. Study them with built-in spaced repetition on your iPhone/iPad

5. If a concept feels fuzzy, chat with the flashcard to get a clearer explanation right inside the app

You still get your Obsidian vault as your long-term knowledge base.

But you don’t have to wrestle with Anki just to remember things.

Why Flashrecall Often Beats Anki For iOS Users

If you’re specifically on iPhone or iPad, Flashrecall has some huge advantages:

1. It’s Actually Designed For iOS

Anki is legendary, but:

• The mobile experience feels… old
• It’s powerful but not exactly “smooth” or “modern”

Flashrecall is:

• Fast
• Clean
• Touch-friendly
• Built around how people actually use phones and tablets

2. No Desktop Required

With Anki + Obsidian, you basically need a desktop to manage everything comfortably.

With Flashrecall:

• You can do everything on your phone or iPad
• Create cards
• Import content
• Study with spaced repetition
• Get reminders

Perfect if you want to review on the bus, in bed, or between classes.

3. Less Setup, More Studying

No:

• Plug-ins
• Manual exports
• Sync hacks

Just:

1. Add content

2. Turn into cards

3. Review when Flashrecall reminds you

What If You’re Already Deep Into Anki?

If you already have a massive Anki setup, you don’t have to delete anything.

You can:

• Keep your old Anki decks for legacy stuff
• Use Flashrecall for new topics, classes, or exams
• Gradually shift over as you see how much smoother it is on iOS

Some people even:

• Keep Obsidian for long-form notes
• Use Flashrecall as their “active recall layer” on top of those notes
• Stop bothering with the Anki integration entirely

Great Use Cases For Flashrecall (Instead Of Anki + Obsidian)

Flashrecall works really well for:

• Languages – vocab, grammar patterns, example sentences
• University courses – lecture slides, PDFs, textbook pages
• Medical & nursing – pathways, drugs, anatomy, guidelines
• Law – cases, principles, definitions
• Business & certifications – frameworks, formulas, key terms
• School subjects – history dates, physics formulas, biology diagrams

Basically: if you were going to build Anki cards from your notes, you can build them faster and easier in Flashrecall.

How To Get Started Right Now

1. Install Flashrecall on your iPhone or iPad

👉 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

2. Pick one topic you’re currently studying

• A chapter
• A lecture
• A YouTube video
• A PDF

3. Import or paste content into Flashrecall

• Let it help you generate flashcards
• Or build a few manually if you prefer control

4. Start reviewing with spaced repetition

• Flashrecall will remind you automatically when it’s time
• No more “did I review this deck today?” guessing

5. Use chat when you’re stuck

• Unsure why an answer is correct?
• Ask the card directly and get an explanation

Final Thoughts: You Don’t Need A Complicated System To Learn Deeply

The whole Anki + Obsidian ecosystem is powerful, but for a lot of people it turns into:

> More time maintaining the system than actually learning.

If you like tinkering, cool — keep playing with it.

But if your real goal is to remember more in less time, especially on iPhone or iPad, a simpler setup is usually better.

Flashrecall gives you:

• Instant flashcards from notes, PDFs, images, YouTube, and more
• Built‑in active recall and spaced repetition
• Smart reminders so you don’t fall behind
• A modern, fast app that just works offline and on the go
• The ability to chat with your flashcards when you’re confused

You can still write your beautiful notes in Obsidian if you want.

Just let Flashrecall handle the “make sure I never forget this” part:

👉 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flashrecall-study-flashcards/id6746757085

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Anki good for studying?

Anki is powerful but requires manual card creation and has a steep learning curve. Flashrecall offers AI-powered card generation from your notes, images, PDFs, and videos, making it faster and easier to create effective flashcards.

What's the fastest way to create flashcards?

Manually typing cards works but takes time. Many students now use AI generators that turn notes into flashcards instantly. Flashrecall does this automatically from text, images, or PDFs.

How do I start spaced repetition?

You can manually schedule your reviews, but most people use apps that automate this. Flashrecall uses built-in spaced repetition so you review cards at the perfect time.

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