Your Goal Blueprint

Yo guys, back with another Time Management technique.  This is going to be a bit of a doozy of a post, and I've accepted that most people aren't going to read the whole thing, but those who do are in for a treat!  Also, my next post won't be for another few weeks since I'll be traveling around Japan for Spring Break.  No, I don't plan on hitting up many beaches, but perhaps a ski slope or arcade or two.

In the last couple of months I've shown you how to organize your week and daily commitments with the unschedule, and attack your projects in the present moment by continuously starting with timeboxing.  This, my friends, is the micro-view of time management, if you will.  While these are great techniques, in the wrong hands they can be ABUSED for evil purposes.  You don't want to abuse my poor children, do you?  If in timeboxing you end up focusing on the nitty-gritty, nose-to-the-grindstone work, it may look productive but its actually just busywork to occupy your mind.  It's not consulting with the overall project blueprint, and that's one thing that leads to workaholism - constant work without regard to priorities or direction.

Today, I want to discuss what I'm going to call the "macro-view" of time management, one of the missing links to efficient and assured goal success.  I'm especially excited about this technique, because while it's partly made up of ideas that were borrowed, infringed, and created through reading about this kind of thing (especially from a book I just read called Awaken Your Strongest Self by Neil Fiore, same dude who wrote Now Habit), what I'm going to show you is something I came up with initially from scratch.  "This" can be used for anything from learning Japanese to studying for tests, to losing weight.  I've used it for all three of these purposes before (and in fact mentioned it when I was studing for the GREs last April), but if it's a goal you can dream of then the possibilities are endless.

But before I unveil the finished project to the world, let me talk about the philosophy behind it.  The other day (literally) I came up with 3 basic principles to ensure goal success, and I found they fit quite nicely with this technique that I've been using for the past year and a half.  Sweet.

1. Confidence. From the outset, you not only believe you will succeed, that you'll become fluent in Japanese, but you KNOW you will.  It's not even a question, you've made up your mind.  It's only a matter of carrying it out.  You don't need to be overflowing with motivation or all-knowing about how you'll do it, you just need to consciously choose the goal and be confident of your success.
2. Direction. You should be able to feel the effects of your goal progress every. single. day.  I'm talking in-your-face seeing, feeling, and tasting some part of the distant reward, living as if you've already achieved your goal.  There's no way you could forget it's there.  By going a step further and quantifying your progress, you can clearly see that you are better off today than you were yesterday, no matter how small, minute, or seemingly insignificant the progress seems.  Even if it isn't measurable, feeling yourself (compared to the you yesterday, not to the people around you) going in an upward direction will bring you far.
3. Enjoyment. Lastly, and most important, you are enjoying the everyday small progress actions that relate to your goal.  It's just fun to do, you might do it anyway without even knowing that its bringing you closer to success.  So forget about the future, distant goal and immerse yourself in the enjoyment.

"In the game of habit change, an immediate reward always wins over a distant and indefinite reward." -Neil Fiore

I've come to believe that if these three elements are in place, no matter what method you choose it's only a matter of time before you realize your goal.  How much time depends on the person and the efficiency of your method.  If you're missing one or more of the three, it may still be possible to reach your goal but your chances of succeeding drastically decrease.  That road may take much longer and be much more painful than it has to be.  Do you want to waste that kind of precious time in life?  PLEASE NOTE: these aren't principles in the sense that if you don't follow them I'll disown you like I did my last two children.  These are general guidelines that seem to work but are open to experimentation and fluctuation.

Now let's take a look at my Goal Calendar for learning Japanese, shall we?

English version

日本語 version

Just like how the weekly unschedule doesn't skip an hour for 6 days, my goal calendar doesn't skip a day for 6 months.  This is the blueprint to your goal.  You can track your progress everyday, and eventually see everything you did from beginning to end.  The idea: set it up so you just check off everyday (ooh, I love that feeling!) and you're assured of reaching your goal.  Success is easy.

From here on out, things will go a lot smoother if you download the templates and mess around with them as I explain it.  Here are the files:

• Goal schedule xls (English)
• Goal schedule xls (Japanese)

Unlike the weekly unschedule, I HIGHLY encourage you to try your hand at putting this together yourself in Excel.  It's not that difficult once you get the hang of typing, copying, and pasting, but if you insist on a PDF version to write it in by hand here it is:

• Goal schedule pdf (English)
• Goal schedule pdf (Japanese)

Then again, if you're going to write in all those days of the week by hand, might as well just write out all your flash cards on paper while you're at it!!  What year is this?!  Does the internet still make that dialing noise when booting up?

Defining Your Goal

Our first objective is to define our goal.  This is perhaps dually the most difficult as well as the most imperative part of the process.  If you don't know where the finish line is, how can you expect to run towards it?  So we are defining our goal in a way that's clear and measurable (see principle #2 above), and gives us some hint about what we need to do.

For example, your goal measurement isn't "to be thin," it's "to be 160 pounds" (don't give me that face!).  It's not "to pass the test with an A," it's something much more in your control like "to replicate and master (using an SRS perhaps?) 500 test questions I'd normally have trouble with."  It's not "to become fluent in Japanese," it's "to learn 2042 kanji (at first, anyway ~_^)."

Like I said, this can get difficult.  And not all goals are going to have a single, straightforward goal measurement; you may end up working towards multiple measurements in one goal calendar, or creating multiple goal calendars to be used in succession.  Any goal or project you can think of can be broken down into skills.  Skills can be measured, and pro mad skillz we're aiming for can be placed at the peak of the graph.  You can even use time as your goal measurement.  Luckily, there's a formula to be the best - just invest 600,000 minutes (or 10,000 hours), and you'll be a world class musician, computer programmer, comic book artist, or whatever you want.  If there's anything beyond that, you'll know what to do when you get there.

Creating Your Time Frame

Now we need a deadline for our goal.  If you have a big test, event, or trip coming up that you're working towards, then use that date.  Don't worry if you don't have a particular date in mind, just make a rough estimate and you can change it later since we're only working with 6 months at a time.  If you're going for 10,000 hours, I'd choose a date about 10 years from now. ~_^  Write that deadline date in the bottom right after "End / 終わり."

Our birthline (get it?) will be set for about 2 weeks from now.  Leading up to that point, your objective is to observe and motivate yourself.  Without trying to change anything, simply observe your normal behavior and record your problematic symptoms (those behaviors inconsistent with your goal and high vision).  Decide whether you really want to commit yourself to this goal, and give yourself the option not to, otherwise you haven't really chosen it.  Read articles about your goal, make a public commitment, and talk with people about it to build up motivation.  You can also use the time to make this goal schedule, so go ahead and put in that birthline date after "Start / 始め."

Let's do some simple math.  First, count the number of days between your birthline and your deadline.  That's right, all of them.  This is your total time.

But doing this every single day sounds like a drag, huh?  If you're following principle #3 it's not going to feel like work, but alright tell you what: you can take off one day a week.  So find [total time - (total time / 7)], and this is your progress time.

I'll take you one further.  If you can maintain your habit for 6 days (and not even continuously, AM I CRAZY?!) you can add a point to the "Non-H / 不習慣" box beside the +.  When you accumulate these points, you can use them to take off a "non-habit / 不習慣" day in addition to your one day off a week. "A break / 休憩?!"  No, no, no... this isn't a break, everyday is going to feel like a break ("Does this really count as work?" Yes, add it to your hours in your weekly unschedule).  But even so, you should reward yourself for taking a step in the right direction toward goal success.  When/if you take this "non-habit / 不習慣" day, don't forget to write a point beside the - box, and try to keep the + and - points about even.  Find [progress time - (progress time / 6)], and you will have your action time.

Back-Time Schedule

Now I'm going to walk you through creating a "back-timing" schedule that goes from the deadline back to the birthline's starting point.  This is the general goal blueprint.

I'll leave the details of your goal measurement up to you.  A certain number of hours?  A certain number of cards in your SRS?  A certain weight and particular body sizes?  A certain number of kanji or vocabulary words?  A combination of the above?  Whatever your ultimate goes is, write it now at the bottom of the calendar after "Goal / ゴール."  Once again, this is your goal measurement.

Can you guess what's coming next?  If you're planning this over years then do this -> goal measurement / # of years (for ex. 2 yrs, 1.5 yrs, 3.25 yrs), and write the answer after "Annually / 毎年."  Cut that number in half and write it after "Biannually / 半年."  Divide that into 6 and write it after "Monthly / 毎月."  Now go back and get the number from your action time.  Do this -> goal measurement / action time, and write the answer after "Daily / 毎日."  Multiple that by 6 and write that answer after "Weekly / 毎週."  I know, this sounds all over the place but just trust me. haha

Implementation

You're almost done!  Man, I'm tired.

Once you decide on your goal, deadline, and daily actions, you should give some thought to your action plans:

1. When will you work on it?
2. Where will you work on it?
3. How will you work on it?

You have those 2 weeks to think about these plans.  Also, make a commitment for what you can do RIGHT NOW (once the birthline hits).  Reviewing 5 minutes in your SRS?  Learning one kanji?  Doing 10 pushups?  Write it after "Right Now / 只今."  This is where it's at, we've come full circle back to the micro-view with timeboxing in the now.

Now print the sucka out and post it on your wall next to your unschedule.

At the top of the first month that you're starting, after "Left / 残り" write the number of months (including that one) remaining in your project.  In the space under the month, write the measurement you entered after "Monthly / 毎月."  This is your goal for the month (assuming you're starting from absolute scratch).  For each day, you will record your progress according to the "Completed? / 出来た？" key in the bottom left.  It's not just check or no-check - it's check or why-aren't-you-checking-me-fool, so you can test yourself and make adjustments as you're going.  Under the "Now / 今" and "Total / 合計" rows, you can write in your current progress.  After you write the "Total / 合計," subtract that from the "Goal / ゴール," and then go to the top of the next month and divide that answer by the number of months "Left / 残り."  If you add what you get to your "Total / 合計," then you have your goal for next month.  Yee-haw.

Your finished products should look something like this:

Psychology GRE

General GREs

日本語

Alright guys, try it out before you bash it too hard.  Experiment, revise, and personalize - man, that could be my catch-phrase or something, sounds slick.  I also recommend only doing one at time until you get really comfortable with it and it becomes a habit, then if you really want you can try two at a time.  This concludes the time management posts that I had been planning, so I'll be focusing on some other stuff in the future.

Once you make your goal calendar, put all your focus and concentration on the action you can do today, the action you can do NOW, which is always the most important action. Tomorrow you'll be grateful you started this yesterday, making it easier for yourself today.

THE END!! ..of the Japanese School Year

As of last week, English classes have more or less come to an end for students across Japan.  In fact, all classes are wrapping up over the next couple weeks because March is the end of the Japanese school year.  That means kindergartners are graduating into 1st graders in elementary school, 6th graders in elementary school are graduating into junior high school, and 3rd years in junior high school are graduating into high school.  That's how I'm seeing it from my perspective anyway, working at 5 elementary and 2 junior high schools.  Of course, students are also graduating from high school and college and applying to become salarymen.

Are you getting the image?  As these kids are studying for and taking their final exams and entrance exams, it's approaching the tail end of winter, with snow flurrying here and there (it's snowing right now actually).  Then they get their exam results back as it slowly begins to get a bit warmer, and by the time they return to school or start their new jobs in early April it's actually somewhat bearable outside and cherry blossom trees have begun to bloom.  It's a sort of "new life," ya know, the type that inspires Spring Cleaning in the states, and inspires one to wear less than 5 layers of clothes inside one's apartment in Japan.

Maybe you knew that already.  What you may not know if you've never worked in the Japan public school system, however, is that kids aren't the only ones moving around.  Sure, some teachers are retiring, but other teachers often accompany students up a grade as their homeroom teacher, or even change schools entirely.  Japan has this very strange system of cycling teachers around every year, so that they're only assured of their location for one year at a time.  Licensed teachers are usually only in one place for around 3 to 4 years, but it could be only 1 year.  Could be 7.  They go where they're needed when they're needed in the prefecture they're licensed in, even if it's on the other side 4 hours away.  My one friend just found out he's getting relocated to one of my prefecture's small and somewhat isolated islands, which takes about 3 hours by boat.  Sure, he could refuse, but then there might not be available work next year.  Plus he gets "points" for going there, and is much more likely of becoming a real, licensed teacher from his provisional status.  So inconvenient distance, or lack of job assurance?  As for me, I'll be moving to...

Nowhere. lol  Pfft, I'm not a teacher!  I'm an Assistant Lacky Language Teacher (or ALT).  I'll be in the same city visiting the same schools until I go back to the states.  Now that English classes are done, the only students I really have to say goodbye to are the 3rd years in Junior High School, which is a shame but there's still the possibility of running into them in town.  And until classes start next semester, apart from the occasional graduation ceremony I'll be sitting at my a random desk at the Board of Ed (BOE) studying Japanese and taking occasional naps preparing diligently for classes in April.  Since it'll be my last 4 or so months before going home I want to go all out; prepare some lessons (primarily for elementary schools, since I usually just help out English teachers in junior high schools), organize my huge bag of teaching material that's been piling up since I got here, research some fun games and activities, and figure out what to give away.  I came across tons of stickers and prizes I haven't been using, so I'd like to reward the winners of those games I mentioned.

That's if I have time, though.  This Spring will be pretty busy, what with our trips to Hokkaido and Tokyo with my fiance's family in just a couple weeks.  So time is limited, but when I start the next semester on April 9th, I want to put to good use all that useful info I picked up over the past year and a half, having come from zero teaching experience to helping kids everyday.  My real objective is to focus on anything I can do to make the class and English more fun for the kids, which I think is my actual job.  You know, play with them during recess, encourage them to talk more if they try, and just get them out of learning the language from a textbook.

If it's fun, they'll find a way to learn it.  And maybe I'll learn a thing or two from them in return.

Kanji Notes 1.5: Inputting Lazy Kanji in Current Anki Decks

I'm writing this post directly to those super awesome people who love the idea of Lazy Kanji but are already deep into an RTK-based Anki deck.  This is a tutorial of exactly how you can add Lazy Kanji card formats into Anki, so you can keep what you have so far and then go even further.  IF YOU HAVEN'T READ MY LAZY KANJI POST GO DO THAT NOW.  That is all.

Should have seen that one coming. haha  After all, I'm one of those who switched to Lazy Kanji after learning RTK 1 and didn't want to sacrifice my current deck.  It's totally possible, but there are a few things you should be aware of that I'll point out along the way.  Alright check it out, total walk-through mode now.  Please keep in mind, however, that I'm using Anki in Japanese; some of the English parts might be a *little* off, but let me know if they're totally wrong.  I'll leave the Japanese in for reference.

1. Open your kanji deck in Anki
2. Settings (設定) > Deck Properties (単語帳プロパティ)
3. In the Basic tab, click "Add" (追加(A)), then copy the Heisig model (Heisigをコピーして追加).  Important notes: this is the model in "Heisig's Remember the Kanji (RTK) 1+ 3"; if you're using a different deck, just make sure that your model info is in line with the screen shots below.  Also, the reason why we're copying the model is so that we don't change the format of the existing cards.  If you wish to do that and accept the consequences for your actions, than simply click "Edit" (編集) as per the next step.
4. Highlight your newly copied Heisig model and click "Edit" (編集(E))
5. Change the name (名) to Lazy Kanji, and click "Card Layout"

Click the "Field" tab at the top, and you should see a screen like this:

Let's edit those fields:

1. "Kanji" should be selected; I recommend going to the bottom and changing the size for "Reviewing" to 90 or less
2. Select "On-yomi" and change the name to "Info"
3. Add (追加(A)) a field and name it "Example"

Now go back to the "Card Template" tab, and you should see this:

We'll now edit the template:

1. In the question (質問) field, erase what's there and copy-paste this (hint: delete the spaces in the HTML formatting, aka within the < >):
   
   {{Story}}
   < br >
   {{Kanji}}
   
2. In the answer (解答) field, erase what's there and copy-paste this (hint: delete the spaces in the HTML formatting, aka within the < >, except between "a href"):
   

画数: {{{Stroke count}}}, Nr: {{{Heisig number}}}
< a href="http://kanji.koohii.com/study/?framenum={{text:Heisig number}}">{{{Keyword}}}< /a>
< br >
{{Info}}
< br >
{{Example}}

It should now look like this:

When you return to your deck and go to "Add Fact," you can select Lazy Kanji from the model drop-down menu at the top.  The card layout will be ready to add cards as you desire.

Things to watch out for

If you have your deck set up to display a set number (default 20) of new cards per day in order, then when you add Lazy Kanji cards they're going to go to the end of the deck.  In other words, they won't come up for review until you've studied the first 3000+ cards. lol  To fix this, click on the magnifying glass to open up the Card Browser, and then find the last kanji that you studied.  Make sure that it's sorted in order of Heisig Number (top right), and then select all cards after that latest kanji.  Press the big pause button (Suspend), and the cards will cease to come up when you do your reviews.

Another recommendation I have when inputting new kanji cards Lazy Kanji style that are already there in Vanilla Heisig Kanji style, is to search for that kanji and copy the information into the "Add Fact" section.  This is so you don't have to start from scratch with each new card, and can concentrate on the fields that are different.

...though it occurs to me that if (as mentioned earlier) you change your existing card model rather than copy it and make a new one, the above problems no longer apply.  Interesting.

Hope this helps, and happy kanjing!

Read on:

• Kanji is Easy
• SRS FTW
• Kanji Notes 1: Lazy Kanji hax0rz in Anki

Kanji Notes 1: Lazy Kanji hax0rz in Anki

Please note: This post is directed to those cool people who are studying kanji (the easy way) via RTK (Remembering the Kanji), and who know how to use the Anki SRS.  If you don't know the basics of Anki, I highly recommend you check their website.

With these new MCD posts on AJATT, I've been thinking about Japanese learning methods a bit lately.  I've even started experimenting here and there with MCDs, but I'll save those results for a later post.  For now, I want to go back and make a note about how I'm learning kanji now.

When I wrote my first post about kanji a few weeks back, I briefly mentioned that I'm now studying with a method called Lazy Kanji.  Heisig explains that the best way to review kanji after coming up with mnemonic stories is to make flash cards with the keyword on the front and the kanji on the back.  When you see the keyword it should remind you of the story, and the story should remind you of the kanji.

Could kanji learning get any easier?

That method is good and all (in fact, that's how I learned the 2000+ joyo kanji from RTK 1 the first time around), and there are pre-made decks on Anki ready to go.  Unfortunately, there are certain flaws to this method that didn't become apparent to me until I had used it for a while:

• I'm forgetting the stories.  This is mainly my fault, since I wrote them on paper flash cards that I left in the states rather than typing them into Anki from the beginning, but Heisig's reviewing method doesn't require it.
• Even the stories I did make note of are often crap.  They don't help me remember the kanji vividly.
• The single keywords can get confusing, and I sometimes get them mixed up with other similar keywords even though the Japanese meanings are completely different.
• When I'm reading real Japanese, especially with lots of kanji I don't know the readings of, I'm not going from keyword to kanji -- I'm going from kanji to keyword.
• Once you're used to seeing thousands of kanji, you'll realize some pretty interesting things.  Like did you guys know that the left side of a kanji usually denotes a general meaning and the right side usually denotes the Chinese reading?  Try searching for all kanji that are read へん and I think you'll be surprised.  Wait... that's not a flaw...

Welcome to Lazy Kanji.  Lazy Kanji doesn't have a particular method apart from striving to making RTK even easier (and perhaps more interesting).  After all, the point of an SRS isn't necessarily to make you remember a bunch of difficult facts, it's to show you something so many times that you have no choice but to remember it; advertising does the same thing with their catchy theme songs.  Lots of homies, such as Katzumoto on AJATT, have come up with their own Lazy Kanji modification.  Today I'm going to introduce you to my mod, and walk you through utilizing it in Anki.  This mod was most directly influenced by Kendo, so check out his blog and see what he has to say.  Well then, without further ado...

Syk3's Lazy Kanji Hack (with props to Kendo)

This is how my cards look:

As you can see, stories are now the FIRST thing that come up in the question.  With one difference: the keyword is left blank.  The point is to give you the clues to figure out the answer, which is the meaning.

Having a good story is the foundation that will ensure that you'll never forget the kanji.  If you're using the actual RTK books, I'd recommend reading what Heisig says about the kanji, and then checking out the user-made stories on Reviewing the Kanji.  Not only do the stories on the website flesh out the meaning of Heisig's keyword, but some of the higher rated ones are pretty ballin'.  What counts as an "ballin'" story?  One that:

1. Revolves around the keyword's meaning
2. Creates an image that's just crazy or has an emotional aspect (since emotional memories are most likely to stick, though obviously this depends on the person)
3. You've had a hand in making (allow me to stress this point: even if you take the idea from another source, you should re-write it for that personal touch)
4. I like short ones too ~_^ (insert dirty joke here)

The other clue in the question field is the kanji itself.  Like in a real context, we're essentially going from kanji to meaning.  We're training ourselves to see a kanji and break it up into its components, so that we can put the pieces back together again to lead us its central meaning.

In the answer field, we have the stroke count (so you can check yourself when you write it) and the RTK number for reference.  Below that is the Heisig keyword with a link to RevTK, so you can find a new story fast if your initial one gets dull.

Lastly, we have the Japanese readings and other English meanings.  This is an important difference between Kendo's method and my own, though he does say synonyms count in the reviewing stage.  Like I said before, the problem with only 1 keyword is that you could get a flash card like this wrong easily even when its in the general ballpark.  Now the answer is any of the readings or meanings.  If another meaning is easier to remember, great.  If you've already learned a reading or two, even better.  But don't bother trying to memorize the readings.  They're only there for reference and to assist in understanding the Heisig keyword -- the real objective is to use the kanji/story to get to the meaning.  That's it.  Simple right?  Just fill in that blank, son!

How do I set this shiz up?

You know, I was going to walk you through changing decks and altering card formats and all that (EDIT: FINE, HERE YOU GO! Stop your whining!), but I decided typing all those directions and taking screenshots would take too much time.  So I made a deck for you - download this. I'd like to upload this to Anki's public decks sometime, but if you haven't guessed already I'm pretty lazy.

Now put it in Anki:

1. Open Anki
2. File (ファイル) > Import (インポート)
3. Name the deck > find it on your computer
4. Win

A little about how I chose this deck (feel free to skip this part if you want :p):
I basically took the most popular public deck on Anki - Heisig's Remember the Kanji (RTK) 1+ 3, with cards of all 3000+ kanji from the books so you don't have to put them in manually - and edited it to suit my lazy needs.  This is an old deck, however, so if you have the new 2011 edition of RTK 1 with additional joyo kanji, there are some kanji missing and number differences (if you have an older RTK 1 addition, you can get the supplement PDF here).  There are updated RTK public decks, but you're better off using the old one and adding more kanji yourself later.  Why?  Because this deck is set up to smoothly link each kanji to its corresponding page on RevTK (according to the old numbering system), which I highly recommend you use.  There are also public decks that utilize Kendo's Lazy Kanji mod, but the problem with those is that they include all the stories for you.  Once again, the best way is to create your own stories, and you don't need the temptation of these things being done for you. haha

If you look at the first 10 kanji in my deck, I gave some samples of how to go about setting up the cards.

• Story field - see above.
• Info field - this is where you enter the Japanese readings and English meanings.  For Mac I use JEDict (offline app) which works awesome; just copy-paste.  With a little research I found JEDict Lite for iOS and Android, or you can use Kotoba for iOS if you like.  But no matter what platform you use, Jim Breen's WWWJDIC website has a great kanji dictionary that, if I'm not mistaken, powers most of the dictionaries you see above.  Just search for the kanji, and copy the Chinese readings (音読み), Japanese readings (音読み), English meanings, and possibly even name readings.  Cool stuff.
• Example field - if you end up failing the card so many times that Anki deems you unworthy of its knowledge and automatically leeches it (this is, in general, a good thing since it's better to let go of items that are frustratingly difficult), try entering in an example sentence so you can get a better grasp of its context.  Ideally, this shouldn't happen until you've already finished learning kanji the first time around and are used to seeing kanji in sentence format.

How to review

After you've learned your kanji for the day and made the necessary additions to the fields above for said kanji, I'd suggest waiting until the next day and then... you're ready to begin your reviews!!

Start up the deck and you'll be given the question side of the flash card.  Read the story and try to write out the kanji without looking at the kanji.  If you can do that AND come up with the meaning, you can grade yourself on Normal or Easy depending on how confident you feel.  If you need to look at the kanji but can still remember the meaning, it's Hard.  And if you can't figure out the meaning no matter how hard you rack your brain, that sucka's WRONG.

Remaining issues

The main problems with this method as it stands are two-fold.  Firstly, since you're initially trying to write the kanji without looking at it, you have to kind of... cover it with your hand or something since it's in the question field.  And that's annoying.

Secondly, while I am using this method for the time being to learn RTK 3 kanji (hit my 2159th the other day!), I can't say it's a long-term commitment.  Why?  Because it just uses too much English.  English in the story, English in the keyword, English in the other meanings, English on RevTK, even using English programs and websites to find the information.  *shakes hands vigorously*  Uck, too much!  The further I get into Japanese, the less I want to use English as a crutch.  So you can bet I'll be looking for some all-Japanese-all-the-lazy-time solutions to come.

Until then, try it out, see if it works, and adjust it to fit your style.  As long as you're learning those kanji, it's all good.  If you aim for 20-30 a day, you should be able to get that done with an hour of work if your fast.  Good luck!

Read on:

• Kanji is Easy
• SRS FTW
• Kanji Notes 1.5: Inputting Lazy Kanji in Current Anki Decks