WaniKani difficulty curve

Motivation is a fickle thing, it will ebb and flow. It’s not something that you can rely on. I’ve had (and will continue to experience I imagine) days when I didn’t want to do anything, however, something that works for me is having a no-zero day agreement with myself (around the things that I desire improvement). Basically, no matter what, I aim to follow through on a bare minimum level (setting the bar stupidly low on purpose) — which I consider a win, the point isn’t the amount, rather, it’s putting the focus on process. The whole “it’s a marathon, not a sprint” analogy. Depending on the day and my own physiology that bar will shift, however, no matter what, simply hitting that basic threshold is key. As I progress, with the habit having been formed, that’s when I may adjust my aims.

As for discipline, the best way I can answer your question, is simply yes. More specifically, discipline is seen through the habits (routines) you develop — for WK specifically, doing lessons at the same time daily and following through on at least two review sessions a day. My whole reasoning about what I wrote above is based on effective/healthy habit formation.

2 Likes

Wanikani loosely follows the 教育漢字きょういくかんじ set. Even grade 2 has characters with many strokes, like 頭, 顔, and 曜. Don’t be intimidated by stroke count. Normally, high stroke characters are made up of radicals that are easy to remember.

I learned quite a bit of kanji before I started wanikani. I’d say after around 3-400 characters, you get a feeling for how kanji works and new characters don’t pose much an issue (so around levels 10-15) It’s more about retaining what you know while learning new kanji. The SRS wanikani uses really helps with retention.

1 Like

I know other people have said this before, but since you’re relatively new I think it is worth repeating, habit is much more important than motivation, and it’s best to start a habit early, while your motivation is high. For me the most useful thing is to do the same thing at the same times each day. So I do all my morning reviews around 7am every day (I’m a morning person) and then I do 15 lessons every day after my morning reviews. I use the filter script to do 5 kanji and 10 vocab (or radicals, if there are any). Then, I do the midday reviews at 11, and there usually aren’t many so it doesn’t take much time. I do evening reviews at 7pm.

I get very demotivated if my review pile is high, but with this system I usually don’t have more than 60 reviews in one session. And even if my accuracy is low, it doesn’t take a huge amount of time.

I think for me, feeling like the workload is too high is the most demotivating thing, so being consistent keeps my workload consistent, and even on days when I just don’t want to, I know it won’t be too bad. Before I reset, I didn’t have that consistency, and then one day my review pile got to 300, I couldn’t face it and just stopped reviewing, until suddenly it had been a month and then 6 months and it felt unrecoverable.

So, tl;dr, set up consistent habits early, it will really save you later on.

2 Likes

I technically started 6 years ago, just didn’t do much back then :joy:

3 Likes

I think it is worth repeating, habit is much more important than motivation
Wise words.

I get very demotivated if my review pile is high

What makes the review pile go high? Not doing the reviews often enough? Having a very low accuracy? Both?

Conversely, If I keep it low and my accuracy is high, will my review pile always be manageable?

so being consistent keeps my workload consistent, and even on days when I just don’t want to, I know it won’t be too bad.

I will try and have a routine just like you. Other people have advised me to do so.

You are here, reading community posts. I reckon you have studied a lot lately. Let’s do this together!

Wise words, my friend. I will remember them. Thank you.

1 Like

I’ll check it out! Thanks!

Both, but not doing the reviews is more dangerous. My accuracy decreased recently and now I have about 30 more reviews per day, which is manageable. But if I don’t do my reviews for 1 day, the next day I have 130 extra to do, and that snowballs more quickly

1 Like

A name

Where from? It may or may not have been me.

Oh lawd! I thought my workflow at level 9 was intense. :laughing: Regardless I’m looking forward to learning as much as I can. Been taking it slow, and that’s probably for the best.

2 Likes

This topic was automatically closed 365 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.