I don’t remember doing my last reviews yesterday… but I apparently I did them. I’m counting it as a win.
Everybody else doing ok?
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To OP: I liked your post the day you posted it because it lit a small flame under my derriere to get myself off vacation mode and get back to studying, so I’m just here to say VM was deactivated an hour ago and I did my first batch of reviews, cheers!
I generally respond better to internal rather than external motivation, so may not post often but I will definitely be following this thread.
To add a little to what @NubShiggurath has written; I was introduced to the works of Rick Hanson this week and have begun reading his latest book - in it he writes that we are predisposed to hang onto negative experiences (thus the negative feedback loop), but we can teach our brains to override this predisposition, and step one is self-compassion. Think of all the positive, supportive things you would say to someone else who’s missed a review session and say those things to yourself. Think about the warm feelings you felt the last time someone was compassionate towards you and really focus on re-feeling those feelings for several breaths. Over time, with regular practice, this helps rewire the brain to focus on developing positive feedback loops instead.
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I’m super proud of you! Keep it up!
And don’t hesitate to drop by and share your thoughts anytime.
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it finally happened to me…i was doing great, getting in their every day and keeping it 0/0 before bed, but then i had my actual japanese class essay due and then a final…and well, now im at 900something and trying to get back down to 0/0. I also have 45 lessons. I feel discouraged but i wont give up. i just dont know how im ever going to get back there, esp since now my accuracy has fallen too 
I feel disouraged 
My accuracy is down too (b’se I put things on vacation mode for three months and I’ve forgotten a fair bit) - I decided to not do any lessons for the first few days back until my brain gets in the swing of things again, b’se mistakes = more apprentice items = more reviews. It might help you to not worry about the lessons either until you get your reviews down to a more digestible level (I’ve got 84 lessons in the queue ATM, but I’ve never let that number worry me - I do a set number each morning, and clear all reviews 3x day).
If you have a regular (pre-essay/final) daily routine, just get back to that, doing a set number of reviews each session a few times a day for a few days - I do 3 sessions a day, so if I allowed myself a week to get through 900ish items, it would be 40-odd per session. Hope that sounds more doable. Best of luck!
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Id feel less stressed about if it wasn’t for that pesky JLPT a week away…
Ah! You do have things piling on, don’t you? What level are you going for?
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From another perspective… you’ve learned at least 900 things to review! And you’re actually tackling the JLPT. That’s amazing!
Don’t worry too much about catching up on WK before your test. Stress can make us temporarily forget things we know (I once added 1+1 and got 3 in the last step of a problem on a calculus midterm) and if it’s hurting your confidence more than it’s helping it’s not worth it. (I’m betting you really do know most of those review items, but are just looking a such a large number that your brain is making the situation seem worse than it is.)
You’ve got this!
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16 
I want to know my kanji for N4 but have forgotten a lot of basics :
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That’s a good way of looking at it. Knocked out 300 reviews since I posted, so will aim to get another 100-200 done tonight once im done reviewing grammar/vocab after work
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@_rabbit Good luck with your upcoming JLPT! Though, I’m pretty sure you’ll breeze through it. ( =
As others have said, don’t worry about your accuracy going down. This is actually a good thing! Your brain making mistakes does not mean you’re beginning to fail more or forget more. Rather, it means your brain is making more connections to different routes (because it’s permanently trying to come up with new solutions!) So, if you get something wrong during a 100%-streak, it’s your nogging waking up from “going through the motions.” Making mistakes is thusly an opportunity to create new connections or adjusting the mnemonics.
@PenNameUnknown You are quite welcome. ( =
@Rowena I know the naming convention is counter-intuitive, but the system that leads to more positive thoughts is actually a negative feedback loop.
A positive feedback loop means “the more X, the more Y; Y reinforces X.” Hence, you fail at task X, which creates negative thoughts, which reinforces the rate of failure and creates an even more negative mindset.
In contrast, a negative feedback loop implies “the more X, the less Y, (the less X.)” So, if you fail at task X, you observe your thoughts Y carefully and stay optimistic, which reduces both failure rate and negative mindset.
With that tangent out of the way, you are absolutely right, of course. Being more mindful of our thought processes and staying positive has been shown to increase mood, ability to concentrate, motivation, and overall health.
Factors that reduce the ability to be mindful also introduce future stressors. These factors can include lack of sleep, too much sleep, disturbed sleep, stress caused by workload or emotional turmoil, and also alcohol, drugs, and synthetic pharamceuticals that are becoming increasingly more free-market and popular in schools. Stressors, it goes without saying, add to this big pile of negative thoughts and thought processes that you collect over the course of a day.
Most people would not know this (though it would be great to be proven wrong here), but a stressor that is as insidious as it is considered harmless by the majority is sugar. Sugars, in this context, include glucose, fructose, sucrose–anything from bread to a snickers bar; energy drinks and juice. Sugars are known to elevate the levels of insulin production, which in turn increases blood pressure and heart rate. Increased heart rate leads to aggravated energy consumption, which–because, you’ve guessed it, we’ve come full circle–makes you crave more calories, particularly sugar (not to mention that sugar works the same as opiates, but this term paper is long enough as it is.) This by itself would not be so bad, however an elevated heart rate is treated by our brains the same way a fight-or-flight-type situation is treated: We feel stressed: Sweaty palms, anxiety, nervousness, the works. So, be mindful of your sugar intake. And, if you feel, that this scenario has described your daily business in some way, maybe think about eradicating sugars from your diet completely.
Anyway, in addition to all these negative effects, the accompanying weight gain and thusly reduced body image may lead to an increasingly isolated lifestyle. And isolation, let me tell you this as someone, who’s experienced it first-hand, is a stressor that some people ride right down the depression hole.
So, mindfulness is important for virtually all aspects of living, is what we can take away from this lecture.
Some day, I will learn not to go into these long exposés, but today is not that day. 
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This thread is the kindest thread
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So I thought: “You’ll have plenty of time to fit in Japanese on your vacation Self. Because obviously your vacation is supposed to be relaxing and learning Japanese is your hobby.”
And the result is doing a single set of reviews just before bed everyday and swearing to myself that “next vacation” we’re going somewhere far from family. Not because they’ve been intrusive or really had any unreasonable expectations of us. But just being in proximity makes us feel like we should be spending more time with them.
Anybody else have similar experiences?
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Face-plants on bed
Oh routine, how I have missed you! I think I’m actually going to get all my reviews in today!
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おかえりなさい！Totally understand, I’ve been on a family vacation too, including some folks who I don’t get to see nearly often enough. So I definitely wanted to spend time with them! Thought that bedtime and before-breakfast WK sessions would be fine, but the reviews kept piling up and eventually I just locked myself out (with vacation mode) so I wouldn’t see the numbers.
Guess it’s time to let those turtles out again…
EDIT: 459. 
Deeep breath … one review at a time … breathe out … one review at a time …
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Hey there! How do you feel your JLPT went?
Finally got my apprentice items below 150! (I think under 150-200 is the recommended number if you do NOT want to get a huge pile of new reviews every day.)
How’s everyone else doing?
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I’ve been keeping up with my reviews… somehow.
I got back from my trip and the universe was like “You clearly need a pulled neck muscle to go with the four new projects that just got dropped on your desk at work.” But mostly I feel stupid because I pulled said muscle when my diaphragm started spamming randomly. (AKA. I had the hiccups)
I don’t know how you keep up with that many apprentice items. (I seem to maintain at about 50.) But it’s awesome that you bounced back from from that vacation backlog. Great work!
Here, have a cookie. 
(No cake till level 60 right?)
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Hahaha I DON’T keep up with them! That’s the problem! (And it wasn’t that high on purpose, when I started studying Japanese again I’d forgotten a whole bunch of stuff so a lot of higher-rank items went back down to apprentice. Been using the SRS reorder script to only do apprentice reviews for a week or two so I could properly relearn them again.)
Thanks! * munchmunch *
Ah, yes~ Like the time I blew my neck out and could barely move for three days. …because I sneezed.
Good luck and keep at it! 
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