Active recall to memorise important phrases

Attempting conversations in Russian sheds lights on the areas where my knowledge and abilities are lacking. While speaking I'll realise that there are particular words and phrases that I don't yet know or topics where I could do with a larger vocabulary. I've come to the conclusion that I should be more proactive in filling in those gaps of my knowledge. To do that I need memorise words, phrases and sentences so that I can use them immediately. I've been collecting useful phrases and sentences for a while but I need to be more deliberate in my memorisation efforts.

The most effective memorisation technique is 'active recall', basically testing yourself. See this short video explaining the process. 

Now with SRS software like Anki you can automate the process of making sure you are prompted to remember information at the correct time (just as you are about to forget it). But I'm not entirely sure how that applies in this scenario. Someone in in the comments mentioned that you could create an Anki deck with a very basic descriptive reminder, for example 'Short conversation about the weather', which will prompt you to recite a couple of phrases about the weather. Perhaps I can try that.

To do this manually you would need to test yourself at certain intervals. This is the cadence suggested in the above video.

Review after first exposure to the material:

10 Minutes

2 - 3 Hours

1 Day

2-3 Days

1 Week

2 - 3 Weeks

1 Month

2 - 3 Months

Over the past couple of months I've been becoming more aware of this focus on 'brute force memorisation' and I think it will be useful for me at this stage. See below for some short videos that explain this approach, how to do it and the reason why it is useful to do.

And this person goes even further by memorising an entire script. I'm not sure I will do that, but perhaps it would be useful to memorise lots of the short dialogues from the Speakly app.