I was powering through without a plan and I feel dumb now lol (yet relieved)

WaniKani
#1

Guys, this may be the single most important day of my WK journey so far lol

Started almost 300 days ago, just chilling, 2 weeks, 3 weeks per level, don’t really care. Just vibing with the reviews :bug::sparkles:

But since September life got a little whacky. Surgeries, crazy work projects (with crazy deadlines), moving to a new city, unexpected but blessed vacation, injuries. Hell of a ride!
Suddenly I found myself getting overwhelmed by WK, lessons piling up, got a few 100+, 200+ review days. The mental stamina was really low.

Settled in the new apartment, most of the problem that came with it solved, decided to pick up the pace. Had days of 0 lessons finally! Cleared all of them before leveling up, feeling amazing except or the fact that I was checking WK multiple times a day, almost like a productive procrastination tool. And boy I love to procrastinate.

Came here to ask “how do you guys pace yourselves? How do you guys don’t become obsessed with WK?”. Decided to ask the search bar first and came across @jprspereira ultimate guide.

The read gave me two awesome info:

  • I can check wanikani only 3 times a day because of well, the SRS timing (and finally be able to create a specific slot of time in my day for that)
  • the percentages of kanjis once you reach level 30

Don’t get me wrong, I plan on reaching the final 60 level even if it takes me 5 years, but knowing how much of daily use kanjis I will know by level 30 pumped me up.

Just reached level 14 and it is already amazing how many vocab/kanjis I recognize in the wild (had a blast watching the first half of Love is Blind with japanese subs). I can 100% do another 15 levels, specially having a real schedule now.

Here’s for a more chill journey :relieved:

32 Likes
#2

This is not quite true btw. SRS stages that are a day or more in length always take x days - 1 hours. This means that they will be shifted down by 1 hour if you solve them on time, and therefore your reviews spread out over time.

Checking wanikani multiple times a day isn’t a big issue imo, that’s how I do my reviews. As long as you make sure that wk doesn’t take up the time when you are supposed to be working on other things, it should be alright.

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#3

Oh, gonna manage my expectations then lol gonna try some fixed schedule and see how they pile up

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#4

For what it’s worth you could also do just once a day. That’s what I always did

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#5

I’m in a low level so I don’t have that many things unlocked yet, but personally I use a script to filter my lessons so that I only do 3 kanji + 9 vocab per day. For reviews, I typically do them around 8 am after I wake up and before I go to bed.

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#6

I did that for some time but I really dislike when I wake up to like 89 reviews lol

Also learned about scripts today lol Plan on getting them all set up tomorrow! Hooray for new life!

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#7

Most people seem to find that they remember items better if they hit one, or even both reviews, on the same day that they learn it, so that plan is probably for the best if you can make time anyway.

Good luck!

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#8

FWIW, these are the scripts I use and can recommend them

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#9

Although, it is possible to power through to level 60; the main point of WaniKani is, are you able to read real Japanese text?

Looking back, some things that can be done better

But, how did I read level 60 at that time?

I used a lot of UserScripts as well. At least - No Cigar, Double Check, Reorder, and Self-Study.

Even when I am overwhelmed, Reorder helps.

4 Likes
#10

But that doesn’t affect the 3 times/day schedule at all. That only happens on your 3rd reviewing time of the cycle. Reviews will unlock 1h or 2h earlier than predicted, but you don’t need to do them immediately anyway. You can just do them within your schedule.

Sure, people can do reviews whenever they’re available, but I’ve done more than half a million reviews total and it’s just not productive to be constantly thinking about it when you have 273917392713219 other things to do. These days, 2x/day has been working for me the best.

@abdallahmarcos The guide is the way to minimize work while maximizing results. People can do it differently but still achieve the results because consistency is the #1 factor for success. That doesn’t mean that you can’t make it easier for you :slight_smile:

Looking forward to see your progress!

9 Likes
#11

I wasn’t saying that the 3 times a day method didn’t work, I was saying that the idea that he won’t be able to do more than 3 review sessions a day isn’t true. He can of course stick to the set times, but it won’t be the limiting factor.

#12

Came here to ask “how do you guys pace yourselves? How do you guys don’t become obsessed with WK?”

Strangely enough, my answer to both of these is the Flaming Durtles app. More specifically, the notifications telling me when I have reviews. There are so many times throughout the day where I’d normally open Reddit and browse for 2-3 mins, like if I’m waiting for my coffee to press or something. Having notifications for my reviews prompts me to check WK instead and knock out a couple reviews.

Sure, this means I check WK way more often (I probably average like seven review sessions per day), but it feels like it takes less of my time since I’m more or less converting useless time into productive time. This reduces my dedicated WK study time, so I can devote that to other resources instead. It’s a win-win all around IMO.

5 Likes
#13

Nice gonna take a look! I’m going through the recommended scripts to see what makes sense for me. Nice to have an idea of what other people are using

This would be a major anxiety indulcing feature lol wish I could deal better with notifications, but I turn all them off as much as possible. Gonna try the fixed scheduled and see how it goes

Let’s go! Excited to keep going

1 Like
#14

I’m usually the same, that’s why I’m so surprised this works for me lol. I think that because my schedule allows me to pick away at reviews most hours when they arrive, seeing a notification for 10 reviews is no issue.

I hate when it tells me I have a large amount, say 100 reviews though. Part of my motivation comes from keeping those notifications to a minimum :slight_smile:

Either way, there certainly aren’t too many one size fits all approaches here.

#15

Yeahh the big chunks are the worst. Guess I’m gonna do the 3 times a day schedule and see how it feels and then try your method then, Maybe it is easier on the mind doing small chunks of review throughout the day.

#16

Kudos to you @abdallahmarcos san for going through a lot of obstacles in life and still have enough passion to come back to WK and catch up :raised_hands:

1 Like
#17

I currently have a tasker profile set up on my android phone that will notify me when I have been reviews available for WK. I usually try and do them as they become available, that way I’m usually only doing 5-10 every time, instead of 50 at the end of the day. I find spacing them out like that helps not to get overwhelmed.

1 Like
#18

The somewhat well established rules would be:

  • Keep Apprentices around a 100 or so. The higher you go over, the more 100+ reviews you’ll keep getting each day
  • Keep Gurus below 500 - this should happen naturally so long as you’re not making too many mistakes
  • Don’t rush through lessons all at once - You will remember less and your Apprentices will unnecessarily go up. I tried rushing through lessons early on, but it also hurts pacing somewhat, so I usually take, say 15 lessons a day tops
  • Write the kanji down - this is naturally optional, but I have a notebook where I write down every radical, kanji and vocabulary. This likely more than doubles the time it takes to go through lessons, but I enjoy doing it. It helps me memorize radicals and kanji a little better and since I am interested in all things kanji, this is just very good practice in general, for me personally
  • Supplement with other stuff - this can a combination of grammar resources, textbooks, conversation lessons, podcasts, games, anime, books… Any additional immersion helps quite a bit. Personally, having at least one lesson a week with a native speaker where I get to practice conversation, ask about grammar and frankly chill with cute Japanese ladies is just wonderful.

All the things above will slow the pacing down. I usually average 2 - 3 levels a month, at best. But I find that vastly superior to just sprinting through WK. WK is an excellent resource that yields itself really well to supplementing and immersion with some of the things I mentioned and as such I also feel I am getting more useful mileage out of WK than I oterwise would.

Hope this helps :slight_smile: Keep at it! がんばって

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#19

Thank youuu! Japanese is keeping me sane lol

Gonna have to try this someday. For now I’m really liking de 3x times a day schedule!

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#20

Thank you for the tips!

Yeah I rushed a few lesson and felt the extra weight in reviews lol
Doing 15 a day now, everyday at 5pm and reviews at 9am and 9pm. Loving it so far!

As for writing the kanji down, I’m don’t know… I do take lessons with a native speaker (1h/week), we’re using Minna No Nihongo for grammar and also the kanji book from the same series. The thing is, WaniKani works so well for remembering the reading/recognizing kanjis that most of the kanji I learn on the private class I already know the meaning etc

The thing is, we spend like 20min-30min every class reviewing/correcting kanji (like stroke order, etc).
I’m thinking of suggesting that we skip the kanji lessons altogether, but for this to work, I’ll need to start writing them on my own. Gotta find a way to incorporate this with WaniKani.

Maybe just following the Minna No Nihongo kanji book but without the correction/review during the actual class?

For immersion I started following japanese people on social media (YouTube, Instagram, Twitch and Twitter) so I have contact with the language in a natural way throughout my day + Netflix series with japanese subtitles - though this one really feels like study time because I can’t get the plot yet lol

1 Like