Anchor dates

You already know some important dates in your life. We'd bet you know your birthday. There are probably many others that you know: perhaps the founding year of your country, or your university, or some big event such as a war, revolution, or establishing of a city.

These dates—that you know, and that you are absolutely sure you'll never forget—we call anchor dates.

When you create a new account at TimeToTime.app, we lead you through a few steps to establish a unique deck, the Anchor Deck, which contains these anchor dates.

How anchor dates help

When you learn something new, it's often useful to "hang" those new dates on dates that you already know, those anchor dates. This is powerful mnemonic device - something that will help you learn.

For example, I know, really know, that the Great Fire of London happened in 1666. It's in my anchor deck.

Now when I learn something new, such as when Newton published Principia (in 1687), TimeToTime will ask me to order those two dates - the one I know (1666) and the one I don't (1687).

In other words, anchor dates helps you contextualise a date, and "feel" it's location with respect to other dates.

Your anchor dates

If you're like us, you will probably find that there are many dates that you already know, and that you've even perhaps forgotten you know. Whenever you remember one of these dates, pop it into your Anchor Deck, and it will help you learn.