It partly depends what you want to get out of Japanese! For me, I want to improve on all aspects of the language, except hand-writing because I barely do that in English. So that means:
The building blocks
- Kanji (WaniKani)
- Grammar (Genki textbooks)
- Vocabulary
- Completed half of the core 2k Anki deck (having audio at the front of the card so I’m not stumped by new kanji that I’ll later learn with WaniKani)
- Now considering kitsun.io (using the 10k deck but hibernating all cards that contain kanji I haven’t encountered in WaniKani yet)
- Or just immersing myself because I think I know enough to get by
Using that knowledge
- Speaking (I have weekly catch-ups with my mum, who’s Japanese, and a family friend. But you could do the same with something like HelloTalk.)
- Listening (Watching a ‘Let’s play’ Stardew Valley series because Japanese has taken over my life and I miss gaming
) - Reading
- Each new daily NHK Easy news article
- Yostubato manga (currently at chapter 9)
- Signed for a couple of the Beginner Book Clubs (Fruits Basket and Kiki’s Delivery Service)
I don’t currently practice writing in Japanese. I’m saving it until I feel a bit more comfortable with the language and even then, it’s not my biggest priority.
So yeah, I would suggest identifying what you want to be able to do in Japanese (could be everything, could just be reading, for example). Then, you’ll want to focus on the building blocks first before using that knowledge in practice (when you feel able to) which will really help reinforce what you’ve learned. But that’s just what I do, everyone is different! Hope it helps in some way. 