My daily schedule goes like this:
1. If I have more than 20 failed cards, I revise some (usually 20) and flag them as learned.
2. If I have time for that, I do a lesson (I try to make the stories myself, but look the kanji up on the site if I have no good idea).
3. Review expired.
4. A short break, do something else (to not jump to the added cards straight away).
5. Review added (failing the cards I forgot)

Now I'm at 1426 cards and so far it worked out somehow, although failing new cards is frustrating (even though I usually remember >80%).

So how (in what order) do you use all the parts of RevTK?

Hi humpolec, this is one of the reasons that some people prefer anki, so you don't have to worry about it.

Your way sounds fine. Personally I always review expired ones first, that's your number one priority. No matter how busy you are you should always do your expired kanji. My second priority was failed cards, I always put all my failed cards back into the system the same day. If you let failed cards lie around failed, you'll just give your mind more time to forget them, so don't.

Tobberoth Wrote:If you let failed cards lie around failed, you'll just give your mind more time to forget them, so don't.

Also if you don't pay enough attention to the failed cards you'll end up in the position of "I'm finished, er, except for that huge pile marked 'fail'", which isn't much fun...

when you guys have finished reviewing expired kanji, what do you do with the failed stack in the study section? I usually take a quick break and then go straight to the failed kanji to study again, only to find that I remember the stories then and don't feel like I need to firm up the stories anymore. EXCEPT that the next time I get around to reviewing, I'm once again drawing a blank.

Did that make any sense?

I add new cards or review expired cards first. If I don't think of the answer fast enough or miss a stroke I fail the kanji. When I first started I wrote every kanji at every step. However, as I progressed I saw that if my stories were developed well enough I didn't have to write them at all. In fact, I found that writing them took away from focusing on the stories.

My number one rule is, never leave nothing in the Failed/Never Tested and One Review piles. At the same time I always clear the Failed/Never Tested BEFORE I clear the One Review pile. So by the end of most days there are only cards in the 2+ Review piles.

When cards expire I follow the same pattern. This works for me. Something else might work for you.

TheSlakey Wrote:I usually take a quick break and then go straight to the failed kanji to study again, only to find that I remember the stories then and don't feel like I need to firm up the stories anymore. EXCEPT that the next time I get around to reviewing, I'm once again drawing a blank.

That's why I wait a day (or a few days) after failing a card before putting it back on the 1st stack. If the second period is ~3 days, the first ought to be more than half an hour...

I'm still trying to figure out how all this all works So I add cards as I desire, making up stories to help me, and mark them as learned. Then I come back to the site as I desire (at some interval, daily?), and review expired cards, and then add new ones again when I want to progress?

Does the system alert me somehow if I have cards to review, or am I just expected to visit the site daily and check on my situation? Sorry if I'm missing the whole point here - and thanks!

I'm somewhere around frame 1800 and I have started writing kanji again. (Having previously said, that I stopped) Now I only write kanji during reviews, and not when I study. I use that time to work on my stories... revising, editing, replacing.

This is my current method, and it's been working better than the previous two.

bmherold Wrote:Then I come back to the site as I desire (at some interval, daily?), and review expired cards, and then add new ones again when I want to progress?

Does the system alert me somehow if I have cards to review, or am I just expected to visit the site daily and check on my situation? Sorry if I'm missing the whole point here - and thanks!

I think you get most out of the site (and SRS's in general), if you do visit it daily, check your situation, and review all your expired cards. It's going to take at least a month, minimum, to get through Heisig, and probably much more. If you do anything daily for a month, it starts to become a habit; you just do it without thinking and it feels weird those days you can't do it. Once you get to that point, you're really just letting the SRS work for you, and it's plain sailing.

The best part of my day now is when I get up, sit in my beanbag chair with laptop and a cup of coffee, and go through the expired cards on this site for half-an-hour or an hour. It's a real pleasure.

See, learning doesn't have to be a chore!