Sup y’all. So I’ve been using Genki for grammar but I really don’t like doing the workbook exercises, like any of them. Learning from the textbook is really fun but I hate the workbook exercises. Some are definitely more useful than others but it feels slow and honestly I hate writing with a pencil. Ended up just procrastinating it and needing to force myself to do it which is not fun. Anyway, if I use Bunpro to supplement so there’s at least some recall, I’m wondering if I even need the workbook. I really just want to get through the books ASAP so I can start trying reading and then can really start having fun.
Lol nobody is going to come to your house and wack you with a ruler if you don’t do the workbook exercises lol. Is that what you’re asking??
But if pencil is the only thing holding you back, maybe try pen? I have a thing where I can’t bare to mar a physical book so if that’s you too I totally understand. 
LOL, of course not, but are you missing meaningful value by skipping it? It comes with a workbook for a reason presumably. I’m guessing I don’t need it bc I have Bunpro but I’m looking for second opinions. If I used a pen I couldn’t erase and I do gotta erase a lot when I get stuff wrong
Sure, ideally, you probably would use them, but if it’s gonna be a bad learning experience for you, then I would say no. Everyone has different things they learn well from, and if workbooks don’t work for you, they don’t work for you. Using textbooks at all doesn’t work for me, and I’ve pretty much managed with just jumping straight into reading while keeping my phone handy for lookups. It sounds like you have it covered with Bunpro. If that ends up not being enough you can always find something else to supplement (like perhaps starting reading. If you’re worried about having less of a foundation than planned, the book clubs on here are a good place to start, even old ones, because people are happy to help and answer questions you may have. I’ve also seen people read non-BC books and ask questions on here and receive answers. A lot of people in the WK forums are happy to help when they can.)
Sounds good to me.
I personally quickly went through Genki 1 and like half of Genki 2 and that’s where my journey with textbooks ended.
“A Dictionary of Basic Japanese Grammar”, Tae Kim’s (free) guide and Bunpro may be more to your taste if you prefer to focus on reading and lookup individual grammar points as needed.
EDIT: I just noticed that you already mentioned Bunpro in your post, I should read more carefully…
I would put goals first – trying to start reading, and fumble my way through that.
Actually, imo, few grammar → a lot of vocab → repair grammar, is a way. Just with an end in mind, not grammar nor vocab in vacuum.
Exercise book can also be done with a pen and a blank notebook. Maybe copy some necessary things. Similarly, typing in a word processor or presentation software, or anywhere that can be saved.
(Not an exercise hater, just picky)
You’re doing better than my decision
Personally I went even further. I couldn’t stand textbooks made me feel like I was back in school doing homework again. Ended up diving straight in (Anime is near entirely my learning) and supplementing later with Bunpro
I agree with polv’s thing of just fixing it later, its not a big deal
Well since you’re covering grammar through bunpro it’s better than nothing! You can always come back to the workbooks later to test yourself and see if you can apply what you’ve learned through bunpro and reading immersion.
Personally I do find value in writing, brain processes information more deeply so doing some practice especially at the beginning (N5/N4 levels) will help establish a firm foundation to build on.
Thanks everyone, y’all are the best. I think I will do textbook + bunpro, and try basic reading in the near future. I know there are people who exclusively do bunpro from the beginning, so I’m going to be viewing the textbook more as just a deeper grammar analysis/another source for learning grammar, rather than a source of application by doing the exercises too. I agree with @rustx that textbooks does feel like being in school, and I typically do it on the weekends too. I like the textbook itself, I just view it as a high quality source for learning grammar, but the workbook is the most frustrating experience. It expects you to memorize a lot (both grammar and vocab) and then tests you on it, but when you’re just learning you make a lot of mistakes with both. And not the kind of mistakes where you learn like Wanikani, it’s a lot of flipping back and forth to look up grammar and vocab and erasing answers, and asking ChatGPT what the answer is because sometimes it doesn’t tell you. It seems like they’re designed for classroom settings, in self study it seems way more effective to be encountering the grammar points in the wild as much as you can to built up familiarity, instead of instantly being tested.
Yes and no. I still feel there is big value in forcing yourself to produce some output. Even if it is wrong. The act of activating this passive knowledge, seeing what was wrong and correcting it, primes you to actually notice the correct forms in your reading way more.
That being said I agree with everyone in this thread that you shouldn’t worry about it that much, and can always go back and work on output if you feel like it.
If you don’t like it don’t do it. That’s my firm recommendation. There are loads of options to try so I’d give a few a go and see what works and what you enjoy.
I hated Genki from the start. I tried a few chapters/lessons and felt it was crap, so I sold the whole set (I had bought both books and workbooks and another thing, 5 books total, mostly unused!) and I definitely don’t miss them!