Weekend Neglect

[whatashame]

Hello dear faithful followers of the crabigator!

This is my first post on the forums (have been reading quite some topics for a while now)

I started using WaniKani (39 days ago as of today) the first week I had no clue what I was doing so I neglected adhering to the timed intervals the SRS system uses. Though now I am slowly getting the hang of it. During the week I review as soon as a review pop ups (5 to 6 times). Usually from around 10 in the morning to 12 at night.

However, I am one hell of a lazy oaf and during weekends my schedule just completely disappears and I neglect WaniKani almost completely. I sleep in really late so I miss my morning reviews, I then hang out with friends or do activities thus not using my phone until at least 10 p.m. I usually manage to squeeze in one random review during the day(usually in a train or something).

Since I could not find any topic related to this, I was wondering what impact this would have on my reviews and progression as well as any harmful effects in later levels? How important is a 7 day per week 3 times per day review schedule? Or is there room to slow it down on weekends without it coming to bite my ass later?

[Jonapan]

You can absolutely slow things down on the weekends, but I find that if I go 24 hours or more between reviews, it’s hard to not only learn new stuff, but even do big batches of old reviews. I’d strongly recommend squeezing a few minutes out of your mornings to devote a bit of time to clearing reviews. Also, avoid doing new lessons on Fridays so you don’t get hit with a bunch of Apprentice 1 and 2 items. You can definitely go at your own pace, but WaniKani is a marathon, not a sprint. You probably won’t reach level 60 doing it 4 days a week.

That all said, best of luck with your journey! You can do it.

[shadykit]

You don’t have to do reviews as soon as they come up. When you get to them, if you don’t remember them, then you’ll fail what you fail and it’ll come back sooner later. That’s the system. You’ll be fine.

[Rowena]

If you want your weekends free, perhaps only do lessons Mon-Thurs, then reviews only on Friday so that you don’t have a bunch of apprentice items floating around heading into the weekend (this assumes high accuracy in your reviews, though). You could then also put WK on vacation mode Friday night, and take it off again Sunday night (about the same time at night, or the timing of your reviews will shift).

This will slow down your progression compared with doing lessons and reviews everyday, but it may be that for you doing other stuff on the weekend could help you to not burn out … and have a social life…

As for how many times you do reviews each day, that’s up to you. I prefer to do 3 reviews at set times each day (I am much faster inputting at a proper keyboard than on any mobile device), but again find what works best for you and your life.

Welcome and best of luck!

[whatashame]

@raephe Thank you thank you! This helped answering my question. Friday’s are fine I stick to my regular interval schedule. It’s just the Saturday and Sunday where I only manage to squeeze in one review round. If I have any lessons I try to do them on Sunday evening so they get in my reviews on Monday. All in all you’re saying that a slow down on weekends is fine and will not snowball in mountains of reviews in later levels? As long as I make sure to do at least one review on Saturday and Sunday it should be fine.

Reaching level 60 with 5/6 days a week would be possible I assume.
I do have prior kanji experience (3 years) so it should benefit me in some way.

@Rowena Thank you! I always tend to do lessons on Monday till Thursdays and then again on Sunday night (if I have time). The ‘finish in just over a year’ idea I threw out the window before I even started so slower progression, around 11 days per level, is fine by me. I try to aim to get it to 8-10 days per level but then I should definitely step it up in the weekends.

@shadykit That’s how I tend to do it as well. If I don’t know the answer within 5 seconds I just input a wrong answer and then push it back up the queue and make sure it gets engraved in my brain over time.

[jerseytom]

@whatashame

How important is a 7 day per week 3 times per day review schedule?

I do think that getting those first 4- and 8-hour reviews helps quite a bit in making stuff stick. It’s those days when you’re taking on new lessons that benefit the most from a 3x per day routine.

Keep in mind as well that the further you get into WK the more material you’ll have floating around. Not atypical to have ~200 reviews per day, and that can be a bit draining and demotivating if you’re faced with it all at once, once per day. Makes it feel like a real grind. Vastly more manageable if you can break it up even a little.

Also…

@whatashame

However, I am one hell of a lazy oaf and during weekends my schedule just completely disappears and I neglect WaniKani almost completely. I sleep in really late so I miss my morning reviews

Why don’t you try challenging yourself to get up 30 minutes earlier on weekends?

[shadykit]

@whatashame

@shadykit That’s how I tend to do it as well. If I don’t know the answer within 5 seconds I just input a wrong answer and then push it back up the queue and make sure it gets engraved in my brain over time.

IIRC, that’s what @Leebo does as well, and he’s really smart and good at learning Japanese, so generally a good example to follow. I’m generally the same unless I KNOW I know it and it’s on the tip of my tongue. Then I’ll let myself think for a liiiittle longer.

[shadykit]

@jerseytom

Why don’t you try challenging yourself to get up 30 minutes earlier on weekends?

I know this wasn’t aimed at me, but yo don’t I wish I could.

[whatashame]

@jerseytom

Keep in mind as well that the further you get into WK the more material you’ll have floating around. Not atypical to have ~200 reviews per day, and that can be a bit draining and demotivating if you’re faced with it all at once, once per day. Makes it feel like a real grind. Vastly more manageable if you can break it up even a little.

Thanks! I will try to get at least 2 review runs in on the weekend. In later levels having 200 review will be a little painful but I am sure I can handle it.

@jerseytom

Why don’t you try challenging yourself to get up 30 minutes earlier on weekends?

I appreciate your suggestion here hahaha I really do. But as @shadykit puts it: don’t I wish I could haha, but it is near impossible. I don’t think those 30 minutes out of 5 hours will make a very big difference :’) haha.

[jneapan]

This isn’t necessarily about WaniKani, but I used to have that exact same problem. What I’ve started to do is try to the best of my ability to wake up at the same time during the weekend as I do during the week. I basically have 1 fixed alarm on my phone for the same time every day.
So, WaniKani specific, what I do is try to wake up before 9 o’clock, so I can get my 8 o’clock lesson/review session in. After that is done, and I don’t have to go to work, and I’m still feeling tired, I’ll go back to sleep and set the alarm for 12:00 so I don’t oversleep for my 12:00 review session. The 20:00 review session can be a bit tricky though. I’ll usually take out my phone and do the review anyway, even if I’m in a social situation where it’d be rude to do so. If I can’t do that for whatever reason, I’ll prioritize doing it as soon as I get home.
As many things in life, just a little tiny bit of discipline goes a long long way.

[Saruko]

@whatashame

Reaching level 60 with 5/6 days a week would be possible I assume.

Yes, as long as you stick with it. I’m not sure why someone said you probably wouldn’t get to level 60 doing only 4 days/week. If you spend less time per week on it, it’ll take longer to get to 60, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible.

[AmateurOverlord]

Just wanted to add a tiny suggestion: If you DO manage to find even a bit of time on the weekends, I think you should focus more on the reviews of the level you are currently on (as you progress, your review sessions will have plenty of reviews from previous levels). You can use the reorder usercript to do this.

That said, 4-5 days a week should be enough to see progress especially when you already have a lot of experience with kanji. All the best.

[whatashame]

@jneapan

’ll usually take out my phone and do the review anyway, even if I’m in a social situation where it’d be rude to do so. If I can’t do that for whatever reason, I’ll prioritize doing it as soon as I get home.

I usually try to do is as well. I’ll just try to get in my morning review as soon as I wake up and then do another late at night… Just some trial and error and I’ll figure it out.

[l_l]

I second this. A couple levels ago, I started making an effort to only do lessons when I know I’ll be able to do the 4 and 8 hours reviews, and it has been very helpful for my accuracy.

Also, definitely don’t let your reviews build up too much. I luckily haven’t been there, but I can see how having a big pile of reviews is demotivating, and once you skip once, it just snowballs from there.