Study
OterApp’s study system helps you organise learning material through a three-stage pipeline, track study sessions, and review what you’ve processed.
The study pipeline
Every study item moves through three stages:
- Pending — material you plan to study but haven’t started yet
- In progress — actively working on it
- Processed — completed and understood
Items are promoted automatically: completing a Processing session for an item moves it to Processed.
Study modes
Three modes match how you engage with material:
- Input — consuming new content (reading, watching, listening). Log the time spent taking in new information.
- Processing — making sense of what you’ve consumed. This is where you take notes, summarise, or work through exercises. Completing a Processing session promotes the linked item to Processed.
- Review — reinforcing what you already know. Spaced repetition, practice questions, or re-reading key passages.
Topics and disciplines
Organise study items into topics, and group topics by discipline (e.g. “Computer Science”, “Music”, “Language Learning”). Topics can have colours and icons to make them easy to identify at a glance.
Timed study sessions
Each study session is timed — start a session when you sit down to study and stop when you’re done. Sessions are linked to a topic and optionally to a specific item. The timer is integrated with the app’s timer system, so you can use Pomodoro or countdown modes within a study session.
Session history shows how much time you spent per topic, per mode, and per discipline.
Reordering items
Items within each pipeline stage can be reordered (drag and drop on desktop) so you can prioritise what to tackle next.
Obsidian integration
Link study items to Obsidian notes by storing their file path on the item. The path is shown as a link wherever the item appears — most useful on desktop, where you can click through to open Obsidian directly. On mobile the path is still visible for reference; opening it depends on your device’s handler for that path.
Tips
- Use Processing sessions intentionally: Completing a Processing session locks the item as Processed — make sure you’re done before marking it.
- Topics work best with colour: Assign a colour and icon to each topic for quick visual scanning.
- Review regularly: Schedule Review sessions for items you’ve already processed to keep knowledge fresh.
Our approach
Oter’s study feature is grounded in learning science — the spacing effect (Cepeda et al., 2006), retrieval practice (Roediger & Karpicke, 2006), and deliberate practice (Ericsson et al., 1993). The Pomodoro timer prevents cognitive fatigue, topic-based organisation supports structured progress, and session tracking enables self-regulated learning.