So I’ve been going for a few days and it’s just started speeding up, I came home to day to 32 reviews did about as well as you night expect (45%) and now there are 42+ lessons waiting for me…what the hell happened! I can’t do 42 more lessons when I’m still struggling to get the stuff I’m reviewing down! My mind is exploding at the thought.
I may cry.
Don’t worry, the fact that you have lessons doesn’t mean you have to do them right now. If you find the pace too fast, you can just concentrate on doing your reviews and delay doing lessons. Actually, quite a lot of people prefer to wait till they master all their items before doing new lessons.
You should go at the pace you are comfortable with; attempting to rush things might do more harm than good.
Anyway, best of luck to you!
P. S. I see that it’s your first post here - welcome to WaniKani, I really hope you’d like it here and want to stay! 
Beat me to it. This, all the way.
crying is truthfully acknowledging the present situation, so therefore your in a better situation to Gauge what you need to do to change it.
Thanks, all. I should point out that this post is more of a venting that anything else. I’m not going anywhere near these lessons until I’ve sorted out these kanji with 7 different bloody ways to say them lol
In lieu of a proper new person post (because quite frankly I got caught up in the learning) I will say that I love this website and I will be absolutely signing up once I get to level 4. I just might go insane a few times before that happens!
I feel you. Just got to lvl 2 myself and seeing that 42+ made me realize what a long road ahead this will actually be.
I neglected properly reading the explanations for some lessons because I thought I’d manage to easily remember then anyway, but those were actually the only lessons that I had trouble with. So if you already aren’t, focus on the explanations and imagine them play out in your head. For words that are especially hard, coming up with your own ones could be even better. The crazier the story the easier will it be to remember.
Good luck and don’t even think about giving up!
Not sure if you are exaggerating or not, but there is no need to memorize all the kanji readings now. Memorizing just the first reading listed in Wanikani is good. The other readings are probably rarely used, and you’ll encounter them much later. For example, げ, one of the on’yomi readings for 下, is not used until level 16! Deal with the rare readings later.
Good luck!
don’t worry, I was exaggerating 
the explanations and stories have been hugely helpful, it’s just that there are so many right now I have them confused. I’m sure it will come with time
don’t be afraid to get wrong answers in reviews. get it right on the 3rd or 4th or 10th time. just get through the reviews!
also i don’t know what you do all day or what your job is but if you get breaks or any kind of time, take out your smartphone if you have one, and blow through some reviews.
don’t study for reviews! the reviews ARE the studying! in my opinion!!!
Wait till you drift away (and don’t turn on vacation mode) for awhile that turns into 2 years and come back to a queue of like 400.
I agree and am doing that!
If I go away for 6 months now, I’ll end up with a review queue of 2230 items 
Oh, I was hoping to see a topic like this! I just started a couple of weeks ago, and I was unsure how many lessons I should do at once and whether I should refrain from doing more lessons until I had mastered what was in the reviews. Is there an optimal way to approach lessons and reviews? Especially regarding how many new lessons to do at a time?
What’s made it doubly hard for me is that I began taking care of a sick parent a week ago, so my schedule has become more chaotic, but I’m afraid that if I totally stop working on Japanese I’ll lose what I’ve already gained.
This is funny, but let’s hope OP doesn’t drift away for 2 years haha
It’s just how it is at the beginning. You aren’t used to Kanji, you don’t know the radicals, on-yomi and kun-yomi isn’t your thing so all together feels like an insurmountable mountain. Though, SRS is all about repetition and you will develop the habit through time.
After like 10-15 levels, you will log in, see 200 reviews and be like : よし！いくぜ！(alright, let’s do this!) and you pass through it like a breeze.
Just do as many as you think you can handle.
There’s no need for you guys to speed up like there’s no tomorrow, you know? It’s not a competition.
Just be sure that if you stay, you’ll definetely learn thousands of kanji/vocabulary, it’s not like you have to have an excellent memory or anything, sometimes people tell me I have a bad memory! Still, I know almost a thousand kanji and almost two thousand words!
Just take it easy, learn your limits, and then follow your pace.
Ah, make sure you guys use bunpro.jp when you hit ~level 10!
I once asked a similar question to the community and got a bunch of very helpful replies for my situation. One of the replies I found most helpful were these guidelines:
Although the people were responding specifically to my situation, you might still find something useful in the thread, so I’ll post it here:
Also, I’m sorry to hear about your parent. I hope they will recover. My advice would be to just do what Japanese studying you are able to. Even if it’s just getting through a few reviews or doing 5 lessons, as long as you’re doing something you’ll be moving forward. A slow pace may even help you cement things better in your mind. As long as you prioritize what is most important, I think you will be fine.
I did just this and found nearly 3000 waiting. Drop 10 levels and fight back. It’s been worth it.
