A letter for all people who start out on the Japanese learning journey.
7 years ago I start with a papersheet of hiragana and started to learn on Wani Kani, after a couple of months my hiragana was pretty good really crazy how the brain sponge-ups all this learning so quickly.
I had ups and down, wasn’t consistently skipped for a couple of years like two or so, and was confused about how people actually understand Japanese because I could read but not understand.
I think like 2 years ago I increased my understanding a little bit through going to physical classes and a little bit by learning through italki in recent weeks.
So basically I went from hiragana to grammar and then keep Wani Kani as a base. Now this year I started japanesepod101.
I tried the mobile apps but I needed a better approach. I’m now nowhere near fluent but if I had to start again I would definitely choose Wani Kani and Japanese pod for my first 1-2 years.
So don’t waste 7 years and directly start right, good luck 
I took some pretty huge breaks myself (longest has been 3 years, but that wasn’t the only one) and even when I am learning struggle with consistency a lot. However, I always keep coming back eventually and am (mostly, kek) enjoying the journey, sooo I just try to be as consistent as I can and don’t beat myself up too much about it. Sure I could be a loooot further but whatever 