It seems a lot of people here experienced the same kind of thing, make a good start on WK then life gets in the way.
Surprise surprise, I am no different! In a way seeing some of you with similar stories has encouraged me to post for the first time since re-starting, since we all returned none the less.
I started a few years ago up to level 3, and I thought to myself, “yep, this is definitely for me”. Then…life. However, I never forgot about this place and I knew I would be back.
To echo some of the advice on here already, go at your own pace.
1st time round, I was smashing it out the moment lessons or reviews were available. Seeing others do it in a year is inspiring but would not be sustainable for me amd this wasnt even too far advanced, so it would have only got worse for me. To be honest, if my pace was reduced, I would have completed level 60 by now in the time I took off.
Now I reset at New year and the pace I set myself I have been able to sustain, so far with no issues.
At first I just said to myself 5 lessons a day plus any reviews 2-3times a day, if I felt like more was possible, I told myself I would consider doing more.
I knew it would be slow…and it was, so I soon changed the pace. Once I finish the vocab from the previous level, my pace looks roughly like this:
All radicals in one shot, easy to remember not many issues
When on to Kanji, for some reason 5 or sometimes 10 lessons a day is enough
Then vocab anywhere from 5 to 20, since alot of the readings will be similar.
I ended up setting a goal of 1 level per month minimum, which to me sounded slow (and it is, glacially slow in fact) meaning I would be done in 4-5 years. I actually have a day or so off, 2-4 a month when I am really busy, but because the pace is now my own, I dont find it a chore and actually look forward to a stack of reviews, which, because I am going the way of the tortoise, is never that high after a day off.
I resisted the urge to go faster and let my ego compete with those who can commit more time, as I realised this is a personal journey and not a competition and like I said, if I had done it this way before, perhaps I would have been done.
So this isnt a recomendation to do exactly what I do, I just wanted to encourage you to find your own pace. Speed, I realised, was a false incentive and would lead to my downfall,
I also set myself goals for each quater of this year, and I have already met my end of March target. So even though I am going slow, it does feel like I am achieving things ahead of schedule without trying.
Anyway, let us know how you get on and best of luck!