So i have around 3000 added cards and recently im getting really overwhelmed and burned out from anki. It gets really annoying to be in anki for 1:30 hours just to review old cards( around 200 cards everyday). And instead of learning im getting frustrated and start to forget the words i already know. Dont know how to use anki. Should i just fast forward every card just to see what it means or ( the way i did it, when i see the kanji in my head i say how it’s pronounced and what exactly means and how to use it) is it better to just read and listen instead of being 2 hours a day in anki. Please advise me need help.
5 comments
Decrease the new cards you get everyday. You can expect in the mid-long term to have a review:new ratio of about 7:1, so depending on how many reviews you’re comfortable doing daily, choose the number of new cards accordingly. It’ll take a while before you can notice a significant change, though. It’s always better to learn fewer cards better, than to try to learn too many at once and hit “again” on most of them later on.
If you are already really overwhelmed and have tons of cards stuck in the relearning phase, you may consider selecting the cards you keep getting wrong and “forget” them. This will make it as if you were never shown those cards before (and will reappear in the new cards), decreasing the amount of reviews even in the short term. I’d try to avoid doing this unless it’s absolutely necessary.
It sounds like you added too many cards too quickly and now you have to do all the subsequent reviews … Generally, the recommendation is that adding 10-15 new cards/day is sustainable long-term.
I would recommend that for now you stop adding new cards entirely and only do the reviews until the number is down to something you can handle (it typically starts dropping quickly 1 week after you stop adding new cards). Then start again with 10-15 new cards every day and see how that goes. I personally find that anything > 30 min of Anki/day annoys me.
So, IDK if this would work for you, but I use anki differently than most people, so if the standard method doesn’t work for you, maybe this will? *^((I’m not saying this is a good method, but there is noo way I’m doing the normal method, I know myself.))*
First, I have the automatic new cards set to 0. Instead, I do the press and hold add new cards method. This is because I prefer to decide when I add new cards to the deck, and when I review old cards. I like adding new cards when I’m awake and prepared to actually turn my brain on.
ANOTHER thing I do is that I normally separate a large deck into multiple sub-decks, that have about 20-100 cards each. I find that doing reviews in sets of 20 or so tends to work better at getting me to do them because you feel more accomplished getting things done if I get behind in reviews. This also helps with prioritizing which reviews I want to get done and controlling when I want to add new cards. *For example, I could hypothetically start the day with new cards, and then review old cards later in the day, etc.*
This works for me because *I don’t have a set time I do Anki reviews*. I like to do reviews when I’m standing in line at the store, when I’m on transit, watching a movie, or like playing a turn-base game like pokemon on the switch.
I also prefer to do new cards in sets of 10, where I go through the 10, then I do some review cards, then I go back to those new cards (flipping back and forth) until those new cards are gone. If It’s convenient, I also make physical notecards.
How long do you want to do anki for? You have to figure that out first.
Do you want to do it for half an hour? An hour?
Until you get it under control you have to add zero new cards. Then it will get less and less and less over time until it finally hits your target time. Since yours is so out of whack it could take a while.
Then you have to slowly add cards based on how long it took you.
If it took you your target time add like 5 new cards.
If it took less than your target time add 5-10 depending on how much less.
If it took more than your target time add 0-5 depending on how much more.
I was in a similar spot a bit ago. I decided to just force myself to use less time per card with a [plugin](https://ankiweb.net/shared/info/1046608507). Speed reviews also have other benefits but that’s another topic.
Initially set the time limits to a bit below your average (so probably 8s flip, 8s auto rate) and lower it over time. It’s a different style that by definition will make more cards fail but don’t let that bother you at all, you’ll end up knowing them much better eventually and spend a fraction of the time in Anki. There’s also ctrl+z if a card accidently gets auto failed that you don’t want to for whatever reason.
Feel free to change your settings however you like. For me that’s seeing a new card a few times quickly for the first few passes, putting fails in the back of the queue to give them another fresh try later, then cycling through them a few times. The settings for that are:
New/lapse time steps: 66 0.1 0.5 77 88
Learn ahead limit: 999