There are two things that I think should really be emphasised to people at the early stages of Wanikani:
- Your workload depends almost entirely on how quickly you are doing new lessons
- You won’t experience how much of a workload you’ve built for yourself until six months in
The SRS intervals are these
Apprentice 1 → 4 hours → Apprentice 2
Apprentice 2 → 8 hours → Apprentice 3
Apprentice 3 → 1 day → Apprentice 4
Apprentice 4 → 2 days → Guru 1
Guru 1 → 1 week → Guru 2
Guru 2 → 2 weeks → Master
Master → 1 month → Enlightened
Enlightened → 4 months → Burned
You’ve probably already seen the workload jump a bit as items move up the SRS stages, and that’s going to keep happening for a while until those final reviews come in (the ones people call burn reviews) about six months after you started.
I absolutely don’t want to tell you not to go at a fast pace—if that’s going to keep you motivated, then you should absolutely do it.
BUT
if you’re going to do it, it’s probably best to get a grasp of how the system works and find a routine that works for you early on. jprspereira’s guide was already linked, and it is absolutely fantastic for this.
However you choose to approach things, going through it is going to be worth it, though. Good luck!