In incremental learning, we often quickly move from one subject to another. Such interruptions may occur many times during a single learning day. When people first learn about this incremental methodology they immediately ask "Why interrupt? Aren't these the prime principles of human endeavour to be thorough, persist, and do things right to the end?"

The 3 main advantages of interruption in learning are:

• improving memory: spaced learning has long been proven dramatically more efficient than conglomerate learning massed in time
• improving learning choices/priorities: unless the learning material has been pre-selected by a higher authority, student's own choices require prioritization, which in turn requires preview. Previewing is a form of interruption. Regular interruption allows of prioritizing on the go
• improving attention: whenever attention declines, change of the subject is the simplest remedy other than taking a definite break from learning

As for the disadvantages ... there are none! Simply put: interruption is optional! It is true that incremental learning may lead to "learning impatience" and "craving interruption", however, these have never been proven detrimental beyond showing that once you employ incremental learning, you may never want to go back to traditional "book at a time" learning. Nevertheless, you should not forget that schools are incremental too. Just on a slightly moderate scale. Schools employ interruption when kids move from geography to physics, or when they close the books for the day.

Once the art of incremental learning is mastered, the advantages go far beyond the advantages of the interruption or spaced repetition. Here is a shortlist (for a detailed discussion see: Advantages of incremental learning).

• massive learning - you learn more than you thought your memory can hold
• 95% knowledge retention - you nearly eliminate the problem of forgetting
• lifetime memories - your memories will last for life (as long as you stick with the regular review schedule based on spaced repetition)
• comprehensive learning on all fronts (rather than the school-like focus on 2-4 majors)
• better understanding of the studied subject is assisted by moderation in consuming details, and easy inclusion of explanatory material (e.g. from dictionaries and/or encyclopedias)
• better consolidation of the knowledge structure by incremental approach, interrupted learning, spacing, and slotting in of the new knowledge. Contrary to popular belief, incremental learning helps you keep the big picture in your mind
• better attention by focusing on a single issue at a time without ever missing a detail, and by remedying attention deficits with a constant change of the learning material
• creativity - by encountering different subjects in unpredictable sequences, your creativity soars. You can employ it, for example, in the process of incremental problem solving or incremental writing (this article was written using incremental writing tools in SuperMemo)
• battling chaos - it is easier to resolve contradictions in SuperMemo, e.g. when processing new research with contradictory claims and findings. Unlike your memory in "real life" where you keep oscillating between contradictions, SuperMemo does not tolerate information discrepancy. Contradictory material converges up to a point when you realize you need to decide on the nature of the truth
• all knowledge is well prioritized
• all knowledge is easily searchable
• all knowledge is quantifiable (size, retention, workload, etc.)
• stresslessness - nothing frees your mind for learning efficiently as the sense that no detail will ever be missed and you can focus on a single problem at a time while delegating other problems to later
• fun - once you master incremental learning, it can truly be the best part of your day with few other earthly pleasures giving you as much satisfaction as new useful knowledge

In short, with incremental learning you learn fast, you acquire massive loads of knowledge, retain memories for life, remember almost all that you have learned, understand things better, develop harmoniously in all directions, enhance your creativity, and all that while having incredible fun! If that sounds too good to be true, please read more below or just give it a solid try. For a detailed explanation see: Advantages of incremental learning.