The current WaniKani system may not be quite as flexible to accommodate your current request, but I will describe a kind of ‘workaround’ for your predicament that will help you get past it – albeit still within the current, somewhat restrictive WK system.
If you are currently at level 13 – as in, you haven’t recently reset your level down to 13 – then I would say that this is a very good time to consider your pacing. You may be advancing along with Lessons too quickly for your sustained mental health. It’s like hearing the signal shot at the beginning of a race, and starting off at full-speed sprint, not realizing it’s a 5km run. You quickly deplete your stamina and have to slow down or stop, out of breath and overwhelmed. Just something to consider.
#1 Consider Resetting
If you are feeling seriously overwhelmed, about to quit WK because it’s just too much, then I would recommend doing a level reset down to a level that you feel very comfortable with already.
For example, if it’s just the most recent few levels that are trouble, then reset back to level 10, or maybe even level 8. Or if you’re good with the first three free levels, but after that it’s trouble, then go back to level 4. Or, if you just want a completely fresh start, reset all the way back to level 1.
The purpose of this reset is to (temporarily) eliminate all those reviews that you tend to answer wrong, and get back to reviews where you can mostly get them all correct. This is important because overwhelm and burnout come from feeling frustrated at lack of progress, or worse, losing progress. You want to get back in the feeling of, “Yeah! I can do this!”
When you redo a previous level, you will find that the second time around it goes much easier, and hence, with less mental effort and drain, and hence much faster. So, redoing a level is not as bad as it might sound at first. Even more importantly, since you’ll be getting answers correct a lot more, it will become a lot more fun again, too! That’s important! As I mentioned, learning Japanese is not a sprint, it’s a longer-term journey. And you can set your own pace, so it’s not even really a ‘race’ per se.
#2 Choose Your Own Pace
The number one factor controlling overwhelm – and, potentially, burnout – is going too fast with Lessons. If you want/need to go slower, you need to slow down (or even temporarily put a pause on) new Lessons, until your pace for Reviews becomes sustainable and comfortable again.
Think of your WK SRS like a giant, lumbering steam locomotive, powered by a giant furnace (which heats the steam, which drives the train forward). But this furnace, instead of taking wood or coal, takes Lessons as its fuel. (Or, to stay in the metaphor, you can just think of Lessons as logs of wood, or shovels-full of coal.)
To go faster, you need to add fuel/Lessons. To go slower, you need to stop adding fuel/Lessons. (Oh, yeah. Pretend this train has no brakes, so you can only control the speed by how much fuel/Lessons you add. It’s just a metaphor, after all!)
Because the train is so massive, it has a lot of inertia, so it takes some time for it to speed up and/or slow down.
So, if you are already going way too fast, you may need to stop adding fuel/Lessons for a while before the train slows down to an acceptable speed.
However, the good thing is that if you do stop adding fuel/Lessons – and, crucially, you continue to do your reviews – then the train will (eventually!) slow down.
In other words: If you need to slow down, you need to cut down the number of lessons you do; and, if you do cut down the number of lessons, you will slow down. Speed is mostly controlled by how many lessons you do. Controlling how many lessons you do is the main way you can control speed in the long run.
Add too many, and they will accumulate in the furnace, continuing to generate steam power, piling on older lessons, and being piled on by new lessons, until you’re back to a situation where the furnace is ‘too hot’ and the train just keeps going faster and faster, out of control.
If the train is dangerously out of control, then do the emergency level reset (suggestion #1). But if it’s just ‘too fast for my liking’, then simply slow down on how many lessons you do.
But, most importantly, to prevent getting out of control again, you need to adjust how many lessons you do down to a sustainable level. There are two main, simple ways to do this:
- Always do the exact same number of new Lessons every day, but reduce that number down until it is comfortable.
Some people really like this method, and it does provide for the most stable, consistent review schedule in the long run. But finding that exact number of reviews/day requires some long-term observations and thinking/planning. It might require going as low as 3 lessons per day (which I think is the minimum?). It all depends on your comfort level.
- Only do new Lessons when your current ‘speed’ is under control and getting ‘too slow’. E.g. only doing new lessons if your Apprentice count is below some number, like 50 or 100 or whatever works for you.
Personally, I use this method, and only do new Lessons when Apprentice is below 60 or 70. Sometimes that means I don’t do any new lessons for a week or so, because I’m struggling a bit with old leeches coming back. This method automatically slows you down under such circumstances so that you can avoid feeling overwhelmed, or worse, getting burnt out.
There are other ways to control your pace, but these are the two simplest ones, and they are both very effective.
” quite often), which means they’re leeches.
which reminds me it would be really nice if there was a way of labelling the words we don’t want to learn for now (or forever 
) too! But having the “suspend item” feature would already be heaven for me.
(despite paying for this silly thing)
Let’s Durtle the Scenic Route 
