If the window loses focus it would be able to pause automatically. If you are distracted another way, no big deal you will see that word again soon and unlikely to keep getting distracted on the same word. The benefits would outweigh the odd misfire.

I like the design suggestions proposed at [1] and [2] for this particular problem. [2] in particular gives tooltips which are supposed to guide you toward exactly what the buttons mean:

- Again: "My answer was completely incorrect"

- Hard: "My answer was correct, but I hesitated a lot"

- Good: "My answer was correct, and I hesitated a little"

- Easy: "My answer was correct, and I didn't hesitate"

That said, you can also just reduce it to a two-button system: only ever use Again and Good. There is some evidence this works better, especially with FSRS which is doing enough machine-learning behind the scenes anyway that it doesn't need the extra signal from Hard vs. Good vs. Easy.

[1]: https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/how-to-prevent-users-from-misus... [2]: https://forums.ankiweb.net/t/how-to-prevent-users-from-misus...

Depending on what you're learning, you might vary those. For language learning, that works well imo.

Also, make sure to switch to FSRS. The old algorithm defaulted to "again" resetting a card to 0, while "again" in FSRS does show it again, but doesn't reset it back to being effectively new.

If you want to understand the algorithm, read this: https://github.com/open-spaced-repetition/fsrs4anki/wiki/ABC...

As an example Term: "What is the capital of France and how many inhabitants does it have?" Correct definition: "Paris, which has 2 000 000 inhabitants."

For me there is a difference in not having the answer at all, which falls into "again". But what about if I'm able to retrieve that Paris is the capital, but I remember that the population is 1 500 000. This is where the gray zone begins