Hello guys, I am currently in level 17 and every time I have something going on in my life, I stop wanikani for a while and it becomes very hard to get started again. Now I have 400 reviews and didn’t do a lesson for 20days 
. I don’t feel like doing them.
How do I clear the backlog and get started again and also how do I make sure that I don’t repeat this?
Help is really appreciated.
As to how to fix the current situation, I’d recommend to stop doing lessons and just concentrating on reviews. Maybe even enter vacation mode.
In the worst case scenario, you might need to do a reset – not necessarily to level 1, but to the level you are comfortable with.
As to how to prevent such situations from happening – well, there’s no failsafe way. Life is a complicated thing and a lot of things can happen that would divert your time and energy…
But the important thing is to always come back. As Eisen from Frieren has put it,
Which I would roughly translate as
– However, you are still not defeated. Because you stood up
– What are you talking about?
– Let me tell you the secret of defeating strong opponent. It’s quite simple. Drill into yourself the skill to always stand up, no matter how many times you fall. Because in this warrior business, the one who stands in the end – wins.
I myself made a lot of mistakes and it took me waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay longer to reach level 60 than it should have, but I did manage to do it. So, my advice would be to just accept that no matter how diligent you are, you will fall from time to time, and the important thing is not to scold yourself for falling, but rather to stand up and continue instead.
In any case, best of luck with your studies! 
Hai Gambarimasu 
. And I will try the vacation mode from now on every time I stop wanikani for a while.
Like a lot of us there I sometimes just don’t have much time for wanikani. Travel, family obligations etc… Instead of vacation mode I set new lessons to 1. This does not freeze reviews but pretty soon the number drops to 15 to 25 a very doable number. My level stays the same, but I retain what I have learned up until that point and I don’t lose the wanikani habit. Then I go back to my regular 5 new lessons a day slow pace.
That’s a good idea, but I have to complete all N3 kanji by September (for my job), which is not actually possible with my level in wanikani now, I know 
.
So I can’t delay learning Kanji. I have to learn as many as possible by then.
There are some other great resources like the KLC which Tofugu actually recommends as well
400 reviews is not very many, you can easily get back on track. There are some who have backlogs of thousands of reviews and get back on track over the course of weeks. You can clear out the backlog by stopping new lessons and just focus on doing a set amount of reviews everyday, like 200 or 300, until you get back on track. For you that would be like 2 days. You could even do all 400 reviews over the course of a few hours if you really wanted.
If you want to avoid a similar situation from happening in the future, I recommend only doing new lessons until you hit a certain amount of apprentice items, such as 75 or 100. If you ever go above 100 apprentice items, don’t do any new lessons. Just focus on reviews until the number goes down, that will ensure the daily workload is a manageable amount items. But also, sometimes life gets in the way and its ok to put WK off for a few days if necessary. For most, the journey to level 60 is not perfectly smooth. It’s normal to take breaks sometimes when needed, so long as you don’t get discouraged and continue full speed ahead when you’re back