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+--- Thread: Getting back on track from burnout (/thread-4872.html)
Getting back on track from burnout - axlmccracken - 2010-01-22
Well, I burned myself out, and didn't do any of my studies for about 2 months. I watched a Japanese movie the other day that I've been meaning to for a while (if you must know it was Paprika, and it was awesome!) and it reminded me that somewhere lurking in the back of my mind I wanted to learn Japanese. So over the past few days I've been trying to push myself into logging on to the site. I finally logged in today with the goal of reading through all of my stories and trying to make them more fun to read (that was where I messed up in the first place.) I logged in (had a bit of trouble remembering my user name) read the updates (awesome on going open source!!) and let loose a huge sigh at seeing that I had 207 expired reviews. So my questions now are:
Where to Start?
1. Should I just start over from the beginning and delete what I have so far?
2. Attack them all at once in one sitting when I have the free time?
3. Start with reviewing a set number per day.
a. How many and how often?
How to stop burnout?
1. ???
2. Suggestions?
So, any help with these questions would be appreciated greatly!
edit: proof read my entry and realized I had quite a few errors... oops
Getting back on track from burnout - LegionOfDeicide - 2010-01-22
To lower the stress that might come through huge reviews in your circumstance you could start over again. Go at a steady pace, whatever is comfortable for you. If you want to do 5 a day, do it. You could start small, like 5-10 a day and then every week raise it up a bit ( like +2 more every week ) until you get to like 25-40 a day. Kinda ease up there. Whatever works so that you can remember the kanji better.
Now if you do attack them all day, you could do like as much as you can in a hour and then take a brake for a couple hours and then do as much as you can again in an hour.
Personally, when I reviewed kanji I went at a steady 20-25 a day. If I felt burned out I would just not review and do something else and wait until I didn't feel burned out anymore. Also in times where there were 150+ reviews a day ( due to not reviewing for like a week ) I would just put on my headphones listen to music ( Japanese or English ) and start whittling the reviews down. I look at it this way. As long as I am getting some reviewing done ( even if it is like 10 a day ) then that is better than not reviewing at all.
To overcome burnout you could find more inspration for learning Japanese. Like talk with your friends or family about your studies. ( I find great motivation when I get myself wild up talking about Japanese
You could think about why you wanted to learn Japanese in the first place.Those are just a few suggestions. There are plenty of well experienced people on this forum who could answer your questions. Also, if you take a look around the forum you could possibly find questions that you want answers for that people who have been in the same situation as you have asked.
Keep head strong!
Getting back on track from burnout - lagwagon555 - 2010-01-22
I got up to 950, and stopped for 6 months, so I was in a similar state to you.
Definitely don't delete your cards, just go like normal. Review them all. I ended up failing 80% of them, so my failed pile was enormous. However, they really do come back to you very quickly. I spent a week going through the stories, keeping ontop of reviews, and soon I was back to where I was before. Doing an hour a day was enough to put 700 or so cards back into the system, no worries.
What actually caused my burnout was trying 100 per day. Bad idea. Some people can manage it, but after 3 days I was literally sick of RTK. So I simply left it. The best thing to do to avoid burnout, in my opinion, is go slow and steadily, and don't focus on a deadline. Just keep doing little bits as often as you can, and don't try to fill quotas. It's like reading a book, they seem to go alot quicker when you don't count the page numbers.
Some people find the opposite, that goal oriented (50 per day, an hour per day) is better. Just try and see what works best for you!
Oh, and never add cards while you have anything in the fail pile (if you're using this site, rather than anki). The fail pile should always be your top priority.
Getting back on track from burnout - LegionOfDeicide - 2010-01-22
lagwagon555 Wrote:What actually caused my burnout was trying 100 per day. Bad idea. Some people can manage it, but after 3 days I was literally sick of RTK.Oh god, I agree with you 100% I tried that as well and it kicked my ass.
Getting back on track from burnout - wccrawford - 2010-01-22
NO! DO NOT DELETE! Deleting will put you back at scratch and further in the hole than ever, but not you have these really easy ones that feel like they are just wasting your time. They are a serious demotivator.
Just start doing reviews. Do as many as you feel like, and no more. Don't set goals that will just be broken. Have fun with it.
And don't stare at the piles. They mean nothing. Just do what you want, when you want.
Getting back on track from burnout - vgambit - 2010-01-23
http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3447
Getting back on track from burnout - Grinkers - 2010-01-23
vgambit Wrote:http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3447Does anybody know what happened to him? It was fun reading his posts
Getting back on track from burnout - vileru - 2010-01-23
Grinkers Wrote:Please see Reply #56vgambit Wrote:http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3447Does anybody know what happened to him? It was fun reading his posts
Getting back on track from burnout - ta12121 - 2010-01-23
To reduce burnout, i'd say just add less and do less. I mean i'd love my deck to have around 200 reviews per day, b/c i can easily fly by those so fast and efficiently. Nowadays i have like 400-600+ reviews daily to do. And that's just my sentence deck. I have 2 for kanji, another one is tae kim guide to grammer and kana. I'd say timebox yourself and do it in 30mins or 20mins. If you find it boring, it may not be the sentences that are effecting you. Like for me i always enjoy japanese now. Even if i have to do so much reviews daily. Like it's just second nature to me now. I'm actually trying to find out more ways to do more efficient SRSing and more ways to improve my japanese by doing things daily. But i hear ya. Burnout does happen to all of us, but for me personally i never have taken a break. I have don't get me wrong, but last time i did that it was like 1 day max. And my reviews well piled up fast. So doing it daily is what the SRS is known to be effective for. So that's why those reps should be finished efficiently and fast!
Getting back on track from burnout - auxetoiles - 2010-01-23
Grinkers Wrote:http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3722&page=3 (See the second last post on the page.) He got busy with life, apparently...? Not sure if he's back on track yet, but he hasn't been active on here for a while, I don't think...vgambit Wrote:http://forum.koohii.com/showthread.php?tid=3447Does anybody know what happened to him? It was fun reading his posts
Getting back on track from burnout - thurd - 2010-01-23
axlmccracken Wrote:3. Start with reviewing a set number per day.This is your answer, how many depends totally on you but I'd say more than your daily reviews and you will be back on track.
a. How many and how often?
Getting back on track from burnout - axlmccracken - 2010-01-23
Thanks for all of your tips everyone, I think I'll be back on track soon. I'm going to try out what blackmacros suggested in his post while I work down my reviews stack. Maybe not 100 new kanji per day and certainly not for eight hours per day (god I wish I had that much time...) but using the same method of switching tasks so it doesn't seem quite so daunting.
edit: Okay, I seem to be getting back on track pretty well with this strategy. I'm down to 58 kanji needing review, and I seem to remembering *some* of them, though not all. My percentage per 20 studied kanji started out this morning at around 15% remembered out of 20, I'd go study the ones I forgot, then move on to the next batch of 20 expired. My percentage remembered out of my last batch of 20 today has increased to about 75% and I've only got about 60 of my original ~200. Thanks for the tips and help everyone!
Getting back on track from burnout - axlmccracken - 2010-01-23
Just finished my expired stack, of the 207, I forgot 104, but I've still got 15 sitting in stack 6, 43 sitting in stack 5, 37 in stack 4, 7 in stack 3 and 1 in stack 2. I remembered just under 50 percent of them, so I'm feeling pretty good ^_^;
Getting back on track from burnout - Koos83 - 2010-01-23
That's not too bad indeed! Well done!
Getting back on track from burnout - LegionOfDeicide - 2010-01-23
Hey, it is better than doing nothing at all
Getting back on track from burnout - hereticalrants - 2010-01-24
It's pretty hard to burn out doing the thing I use as a distraction while watching TV. When twiddling your thumbs just doesn't cut it, break out the SRS.