I've been holding myself back. When should I start speeding up?

Somehow i can’t make my thoughts conclusive on this but here they are anyway:
I think it would benefit you to speed up.
At this pace it’ll take you about 3-4 more years to reach level 60.
Of course if you don’t mind that and want to learn writing at the same time, that’s perfectly fine.

But otherwise i’d recommend delaying writing practice until after you can read well,
especially now that you’ve learned general stroke order patterns and can probably guess stroke order quite well already.
That’s also what this lvl 60 user did and recommends:

I’d say doing WK in 1-2 years, with maybe a more efficient approach to lessons, will benefit your japanese more than being so thorough. Consider how being lvl 60 1-2 years earlier/longer will benefit your reading.
I’ve said it before, i think quantity beats quality in language learning, as long as you actually learn and don’t practice/repeat mistakes (without fixing them).

I actually look at almost all info, meanings, pronunciation, pitch accent, example sentences… but i try to be quick, because i’ll cement these things in the course of reviews anyways.
Also, i almost never look up things from example sentences, because almost every one on WK uses unknown kanji and speech patterns, and i expect WK and things like Bunpro to teach them to me more efficiently later.
I just read the example sentences to get an idea of the word’s usage, and see if i can quickly pick up anything else like a grammar pattern used with it.

I personally go for 7 days a level, though i also often spend much more than one hour per day on WK. I think this is doable with 1-3 hours a day if you’re efficient, and an 8-9 day schedule gives you even more leeway.
(for just reviews about an hour is sufficient, but sometimes you need lesson marathons)
Do read that guide on leveling quicker etc.
Do your level-critical radical and kanji lessons and reviews first, as long as you can keep up with the workload (keep apprentice items below 100 if you don’t want to be overwhelmed).

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