So after hitting the vacation mode button for what i thought would be a long term break, here i am again, two days later. Turns out i just cant stay away from wanikani no matter how hard i try. So i just wanted to ask, how do you guys keep motivated to continue on with your lessons?
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exposing myself to more and more japanese and realizing how much i can already read without looking stuff up. recently i switched my smartphone to japanese and even though i donāt know most vocabs, because i know surprisingly many kanji i can make educated guesses from the context what it says, enabling me to successfully navigate everything.
oh yeah and when i started i already knew i would probably quit at some point so i had the foresight to buy a lifetime account, which is indeed always a factor for me coming back after every break 
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I pay someone to flog me for every 100 reviews that pile up. Ive been a little dizzy lately but other than that very motivated!
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I write a story once a week for my Japanese teacher. All of a sudden Kanji and vocabulary words I have learnt in WK come into the story. I then think, great the more WK teaches me the more Iāll get to use it and it also means less stuff to look up. Small gains but it feels good.
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Joining one of the Race to ~~~ forums has helped me keep regular.
Doing luminaries, Skytree and Olympians 2021 right now.
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Definitely find some people to keep you on top of you reviews and to keep you motivated to continue. Mutually encouraging each other works wonders. Encouraging others will also encourage you (thatās responsible in a large part for me starting to get back, albeit slowly, on top of my massive reviews pile.)I also recommend reconnecting with why you wanted to learn Japanese in the first place regularly, or putting the knowledge you gain here to practical use, reading something, learning something, writing something, validating your progress which will help you want to learn more. Despite how easy it is for the human brain to stop learning, it is incredible how much learning just something simple can excite your brain (even tho it just told you it was done with learning). And then develop a routine of sorts, to fall back on when you have a low day and your brain is only just making the motions, and stick to your routine even when you have an up day and want to learn it all in one sitting (which also helps ward off burn out).
Also donāt do everything the moment itās available, it will get you very demotivated and burnt out since Wanikani snowballs very quickly thanks to the SRS. No-one expects you to to everything as soon as it comes, if you have a down day, donāt beat yourself up over it. Your mental health is more important than your 0/0 streak.
I hope some of that unintentionally massive post helped : )
Also, since itās your first time posting:
\textcolor{MediumPurple}{\huge \textsf{Hi}} {\huge \textsf{@Jpl}} \textcolor{MediumPurple}{\huge \textsf{!}}
Itās great to have you here!
If you havenāt already check out the Forum Guidelines and the Wanikani User Guide .
Thereās also tonnes of things on the forums to help you on your way such as The guide, The Ultimate resource list, and API and Third Party Apps.
If you have any questions, check out this thread; but if this doesnāt answer your questions, feel free to create a thread like youāre done here, or email The Wanikani staff.
Good luck, and I look forward to seeing you around!
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I just set my phone to japanese to try that out. Do you know of any places i could get basic-ish japanese reading? Thanks!
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You could check the resources list and Beginner Japanese Book Club, as well as the #japanese-language:reading section of the Forums for a starting point, though i canāt say i have much experience reading myself.
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i have to add: personally, my smartphone in japanese only got fun to use since the last couple of levels or so (around lvl20) but that depends on how intensly you use it i guess. itās difficult because often you canāt copy the text to look up meanings, so at least you have to be able to make guesses about the reading to do that.
other than you may wanna have a look at this thread.
I am just doing my 20 lessons and all reviews every day without thinking too much about it. Wanikani has already become a part of my life.
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Donāt underestimate the power of habit. Motivating yourself is much harder than simply making something a habit.
I think any SRS, and wanikani in particular, absolutely depend on doing your reviews daily or near-daily.
The learning process is amazingly automatic as long as you review daily and keep doing enough (but no more) lessons to keep your āapprenticeā bucket at a manageable level (I like to keep roughly 100 items at the apprentice level). Ideally, you want to get about 80% to 90% of your reviews correct each day without much mental effort. It gets frustrating if the percentage falls much below that.
Find something you do daily when you can be uninterrupted for 30 to 60 minutes or so.
I drink coffee every morning. Iāve gotten so used to doing my WK reviews with my coffee that I feel vaguely uncomfortable if I drink coffee without a laptop computer at hand! That Pavlovian association has proven helpful to me.
Find an activity and time of day that work for you. Something you like doing. Then associate doing your WK reviews after or during that activity. After or during is better than before ā you want to reward yourself in a small way for doing your reviews. You might be tempted to cheat and skip a day if you get your reward before you even start. 
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Thanks for the replies everyone, i took up the idea of setting my phone to japanese, and even at level 5, im realizing how much kanji i already know. Thanks for all the ideas!
An extension to my last post, it is also cool seeing how even though i dont know a good chunk of the kanji, i can make atleast a mediocre guess at what a kanji means based on prior kanji ive seen, its pretty fun tbh
Iām not really āmotivatingā myself. I just have an habit and intend to keep it. And I donāt want to waste money.
Nice! Since when have you a welcome-post? Youāre getting more and more.
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