so i was wondering. how much studying do i do. i am finding learning kanji easier and easier as i go along but still pretty difficult so i was wondering how much i should study to start getting better. how much do you guys study?. or do i not study at all as that would ruin the point of wanikani? thanks.
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I don’t think you need to study kanji outside of Wanikani, but it would be helpful to start studying some grammar.
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I’ll second mention of grammar. If you haven’t learned any grammar yet, you’ll want to start sooner rather than later.
Some people will recommend waiting a little bit on grammar, which is fine. You definitely want to be comfortable with reading hiragana and katakana before you tackle grammar. Aside from that, it’s a matter of when you feel ready. You don’t need to know a lot of kanji if the guide includes readings. And you don’t need to know a lot of vocabulary if the guide has vocabulary lists. I do recommending taking some time to learn the words in any provided vocabulary lists, though, as they’ll typically be common words.
WaniKani may become more difficult and more time-consuming by level 10, so it’s good to start working out a grammar study schedule that works for you by then.
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Think about it like this: WK helps you with time-management not just teach you kanji. So, yeah, after finishing your WK lessons, you don’t really need to specifically study the kanji on your own. But, it’s certainly not forbidden to do so. It’s up to you to decide how much time you wanna dedicate to learning Japanese. But, you don’t have to since the SRS system takes care of repeating the items you struggle with until they stick.
But, WK is not enough to learn Japanese. You need grammar and more vocab than WK offers. So, you should start out with learning the grammar basics. And later on, start reading/listening practice. Again, how much time you devote to this is up to you. Everyone is different and have IRL stuff to take care of. So, take your time and find a pace that suits you. 
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You probably shouldn’t study kanji you’re learning in WK outside of the SRS (those intervals are at the hours they are to help long-term retention, so studying extra will actually hurt you). Of course actually finding kanji when reading and using them there is fine. It’ll benefit you to study grammar since WK doesn’t teach grammar.
I’d picture your WK studies and your actual understanding of the Japanese language as two different things. You can have one and not the other, but you’re best off doing both. Also, if you do WK by itself and don’t learn grammar meanwhile, you won’t be able to actually use the kanji you learn, and eventually you’ll forget. (Besides, if you can’t actually read Japanese, why bother studying kanji?)
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i see, thank you. ill be looking out for more grammer and vocab.
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thanks for the info and for the reply. i was also wondering. is it good to do all my lessons as soon as i get them or should i space them out.
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The general consensus is to space them out. That will give you an even flow of reviews to tackle. Some also schedule the lessons to make the most of the SRS intervals (4 hour / 8 hours / 23 hours /2 days) until Guru.
Personally, I don’t do this. I do all my lessons when they appear. But I do them in batches of 15-20 items through out the day until they reach 0. But, I had a lot of reading experience in Japanese before starting WK, so yeah, that’s basically cheating! 
Between 5-20 lessons / day seems to be a common number I see around the forums. Give it a try and see what you find manageable.
Good luck! ^>^
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thanks so much for the reply. ill be taking the advice.
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Like people have said, don’t take on too much until you’re sure you can handle it. From my experience, level 10-11 is the perfect time to start a grammar textbook (I use genki). By that point you will know most of the kanji in the earlier vocab lists, etc., so you can spend more time on the important stuff and less on trying to remember kanji, most of which wanikani will teach later anyway. I started way earlier than that, and looking back, it would have been way easier starting at level 10 or 11.
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i see, i was actually wondering how long i should wait before getting genki. so thanks man.
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Lessons are basically how you control your pace (and number of daily reviews) on WK. You can finish a level in 7-8 days if you do all your radical and kanji lessons the same day you get them (that’s how I tried to do it). I’ve found that if I sit down and do all my lessons at once I just forget everything, so for kanji I usually did 5 per hour, maybe 10, and radicals and vocab 10-20. Also, doing them all at once is gonna result in you getting large piles a few times a day instead of smaller, more manageable ones.
I also reordered my lessons to get current level kanji and radicals first, so I don’t have to power through 30+ vocab from the last level before starting kanji. If you decide to do that though, you gotta be sure to finish all those vocab lessons by the end of the level, otherwise it becomes really easy to just let them pile up for level after level. (Good way to prevent that is by doing The 0/0 Streak Challenge).
Really, it all depends on how quickly you want to level up. 7-8 day levels is eventually gonna get you to 200-300 reviews per day (depending on accuracy) so if you can handle that then I’d say go for it. Best of luck!
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As long as you’re doing some study each day it doesn’t really matter how much you are doing. It’s up to your personal preference. Consistency is the key 
The problem with this advice I think, is that while you can reach level 10 less than 3 months, many people take longer, and some take a lot longer. In the meantime you’re delaying learning even the most basic grammar, even though beginner textbooks are designed to teach Japanese without prior knowledge. And understanding grammar a bit can help with WK as well. For example, WK tells you verbs end in u sound, but proceeds to conjugate the verb in their context sentences.
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You can also spread the kanji out over the first 3 days of the level, and do the remainder once you’ve guru’d the radicals on the 4th day. I find 8-10 kanji, and 10-12 vocab a day is my sweet spot (doing 20 vocab a day once I run out of kanji to learn).
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Oh right I forgot about the radicals. Got used to the fast levels at the end lol. So finish the radicals same day, space kanji out, and do the second batch right away. Try not to get too many wrong and review them when they come up, and you’ll finish in about 7 days.
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I think like most people have said, to slowly introduce new things into your routine (keyword) is the best way to sort of gauge what you are comfortable with. After 6 months now of studying my routine in the morning consists of 1 to 1.5 hours of WK,anki and bunpro reviews combined, and then in my free time I read and watch native material.
But had I started with that at the beginning I don’t think I would’ve made it 
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thanks for all the heads up guys, got more info and tips than i thought i would. cheers
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