If you don't wanna read all this loo at the bottom:

Hi! I just started RTK 4 days ago. I've been going steady at learning 40 kanji a day, breaking it up in two sessions. I'll do a review on this site, and then a second one near the end of the day on anki (this one is 2 days behind the one on this site); alongside, doing the test for 40 new added kanji from the previous day. Also, during the time i learn the new kanji, i'll make flashcards alongside with it, and just add the stories later on in the day. Anyway, the reason i'm posting is because when i searched through the forums, i see that there are so MANY ways one can go through RTK, and with the amount of time it takes me to do everything in a day, i think my method is inefficent.

1: I take about an 1hr to 11/2hr each sesson (I have a notebook i write the kanji order in followed by writing it 3 more times, followed by flashcards)
2: Doing the previous day review (which is about 20-30mins each)
3:finishing my flashcards by putting the stories in, as well as putting stories online (which depends on time but is usually an hour)

I'll also review my flashcards at the end of the day and at the beginning of the next. I've only gotten 8/160 wrong in total so far. But i'm concerned, what if this is becuase its still early on and later on i figure out that 8/160 could turn into 600/1000. Moreover, if it takes me 2-3hrs everyday to do 40 kanji, isn't their something wrong with that. i'm ewally new to the heisig's method and i really am intrested in learning japanese, i just don't want to screw up now only to pay for it later.

Basically, i'm asking: What is the best method for learning kanji each day?

You shouldn't review on the site and then two days after in Anki, you'll waste time reviewing early. You should trust your SRS system and only review cards as they're due. If I were you I would choose one system(this site or anki or whatever you want) and stick with it.

Hey, and welcome to the forum! (and to Heisig and to Japanese)
So no, there is nothing wrong with you, since you're an English speaker, you're perfectly in the 2 hours for 25 kanji average.
But yes, you should only use one SRS system. You get more exposure but probably less long term retention, and when you will start having lots of reviews (from 1000) you won't be able to keep up (without mentionning the time you lose for doubtful results).
Also, with a little practice (after 500), you can try to write the kanji only once if you want: you'll write it plenty of times when you'll review.
Good luck!

After reading Eratik's post I noticed I may have sounded a bit cold, sorry for that. Good luck with your studies!

PS: Ditch Heisig (j/k!)

Oohh! Nother Kanji lover in the South!

Not enough of us are there? ;D

Allow me to echo what the others have said above. I'd save the anki for later, when you start getting a butt ton of kanji going (1000ish maybe) and then maybe use it to review up from scratch. Then hide it. Use the site for SRS and Anki for "mid term" and "final" exams.

That'll get you a little Anki practice without bogging you down. Anki really starts coming in handy when you start working on vocab.

As for right way or wrong way, there isn't one. Yes, you will forget. You will have kanji that sail right on through, never giving you a problem. You'll have those you forget constantly, until you wish you could delete them permanently for existence (brute-force comes into play here) and the most annoying, to me, are the ones that sail off to column three review on the site, and then you fail them beyond all hope. So they start over.

Don't fret about it.

If you feel your reviews are going fast enough, drop down to writing them just once. Everthing else sounds about right. Stories will often take you a lot longer than you'd think, and the initial review for new kanji should take a short while as well.

Ease back on flashcard reviews, at least those that aren't on the site. It'll speed you up a bit. Also, writing the kanji in the air, or on your leg will make sessions go faster. Don't get me wrong here, I live and die by my paper flashcards, but I've learned a few lessons with those.

All in all, you're doing good, just keep it going and you'll be fine.

Also, I'd like to apologize to anyone who made it through all that crap, or even more amazingly made sense of it. I've had a three year old all day and I didn't sleep at all last night so I'm a little whacko. But my sister is having another baby today, so I'm happy anyways.

Cheers,
A

ようこそ! 初めまして。どうぞ宜しく。

As the others have already told you, there is no right or wrong way.

When i began with my daily 34 it took about 2 to 3 hours in the beginning. This has now dropped down to about 1h 20min to 1h 38min. The more time consuming task right now is reviewing, as the numbers of kanji start to grow, but that is managable pretty easiliy.

I second what EratiK suggests about just sticking to either Anki or this website. You don't have to write the kanji more than once either. I did that as well when i began, but i stopped soon, at around frame 70. Because there really is no need to write kanji more than once. Just do it for those kanji that you don't feel comfortable with when you come upon it.

What i would suggest you could do:

Do your 20 or 40 kanji in one go. Or better yet, drop the number you are learning to something you can handle without exhausting yourself.

Concentrate on the stories and the writing of the kanji in your session. When you are done add the flashcards afterwards.

Reviews will start to grow, so you might consider not adding so many cards, but you will get the feeling what is right for you.

If it's 8 / 160 you got correct at the moment thats great. Don't worry too much about failing later, there is always room for error. Not every kanji sticks right from the get go. So, yes, you might fail some cards in later stages. But Anki, or this website, should keep you in good shape - because you review the cards more than once over time.

So, again, don't worry too much, you will do fine.

頑張ってね！
Nagareboshi

I'm only in the 700s, but I've found the most important thing is to change things to suit yourself. I found some of some of Heisig's primitives quite hard to work with, so every time a new one comes up I now stop and think about whether it works for me before deciding to use it. Sometimes I also decide to attach an additional meaning halfway through a lesson. Doing this makes stories quicker and easier to create and remember.

I also recommend changing your method to fit your mood. Both highly detailed and almost detail-less stories (and everything in between) have obvious advantages, so do whatever is going to keep you going.

With regards to passing poorly remembered cards, I think this is very individual. I know that if I pass card I made a mistake on I will often make that same mistake next time, but if you think you won't do that then I doubt it's worth failing the card. You'll probably start to be able to judge whether a mistake was a one off or something that needs correcting.

P.S. I forgot this because it seems obvious to me now, but I didn't do it at first and from comments in this thread I can see that others don't. Allways check the story of a card you don't know, and treat it like an initial learning (ie. form an image (try and reafirm your original one) and write the kanji) before flipping it. This way your reinforcing the semantic links rather than the visual ones, which is the whole basis for RTK.

Hey artamine,

Looks like you're off to a good start! If you are like me, I wanted to use Anki and also a web-based one when I wasn't at home with my laptop (i.e. at work). I found out that Anki has an online version that you can sync with your Anki deck at home. That way you are studying from the same deck and you won't have any overlap!

Thanks for all the great replies everybody! Its great to know i can get some advice from a great community. Anyway, from what i've read i think i'm just gonna do 40 all the way, because i did notice doing 20-20 does make me less willing (and when i did 20 in the morning i still feel like doing more); yeah and i'll stop anki (until i get to like the 1000's, i still think going over the ones previous learnt is important).
Wish me well!

My two cents.

I started doing SRS at about 250 Kanji. I found that up to that point, the Kanji weren't so difficult storywise to remember.

I wouldn't wait until the 1000's to SRS, mainly because if you go through Heisig very quickly, a good suggestion is SRS daily just to check memory, or at least every three days.

Other than that, 40 a day is a good clip to go at. Like most people say, you will figure out how you remember the Kanji after awhile. I mean, I can't seem to forget 愛　, the kanji for love, but I always forget much easier Kanji.

cheers