Hi folks,

I am looking for a little bit of advice on how to study with minimal time. Basically, I've gone from studying 5 hours a day to studying nothing. A lot of it has to do with changes in myself and changes in my life, but what I'm hoping for is a way to slowly make my way up to N2 in reading, listening and writing from a low N3. So...

What would you do if you had less than an hour a day to study?
What would you do if you didn't use Anki, much, if at all?

Time frames are no problem. If it takes a year or 10 years both are ok. I plan to commit about an hour a day to actual study and then probably do immersion type activities like enjoying TV, music and a few books, but nothing hardcore.

I can't explain why, but from my experience music, enjoying tv and drama is not a very good idea, if you want to make the most of your time. That's one of the reasons why I don't watch drama anymore.

From my experience: socializing with people(helps solidify grammar and makes output flow), srs and READING!
(especially manga, read emails from friends, twitter, read random things in Japanese on net, FE (for example) "how to install windows media player on windows or 仲良くなる方法、ペラペラ喋る方法、or whatever small thing which interests you that comes into your mind.)

If it were my case, I would defnitely srs and read hardcore in that given time (I'm probably a small bit higher level than you, but all it takes to read a manga is 1-2 hours!)

Also don't forget motivation! Pick some good material! And I think socializing is also extremely good for motivation.

Dramaとか makes me only feel addicted, but I don't really get motivation to srs or read from watching things.

Interaction will engage a lot more of your brain than viewing TV. Reading books should be good, too, if you're interested in that. Anki is a fine idea for maintaining vocabulary and characters, IMO.

it depends which area you really want to improve most... if it's reading, read, if it's listening, listen, if it's speaking, speak, etcetc. You won't get much mileage from any one thing for any of the other things anyway, so i'd try to balance them somehow (maybe half a week on each)

I think it depends on your level how you should go about it. If your level is low, you'll probably be better off spending that hour a day SRSing quite often, but if you're more advanced you can pretty much do what you want and still pick up a lot of stuff and retain it anyway, so...