Like I said in Phase #2, when talking about studying the kanji, reviewing your flashcards is something that you must do every day. There are going to be days when you are hungover, or sick, or depressed, or at Disneyland, or on a tropical beach, or up in the mountains far from civilization. You should still be doing (at least your review) flashcards on these days.

Sometimes I hear people say that SRS programs (like Anki) are overrated. They say that memorizing vocab can only take you so far. Maybe that's true. But all I know is that right now, at the moment of writing this sentence, my Anki decks look like this:

• Japanese Flashcards:
  • 17,357 Mature Cards (i.e. cards that are completely memorized)
  • 245 Young Cards (i.e. cards that I am still in the process of memorizing)
• Spanish Flashcards:
  • 3,374 Mature Cards
  • 399 Young Cards
• Portuguese Flashcards:
  • 1,071 Mature Cards
  • 1 Young Card
• Total Flashcards:
  • 21,792 Mature Cards
  • 645 Young Cards

There is something so reassuring about Anki. It's crazy to look at that list and realize that I have memorized around 22,000 vocabulary words spread across three languages. The main reason that this seems so surreal is that I don't feel like I'm studying a lot. I just wake up in the morning, spend about 30-45 minutes doing flashcards, then get on with my day. And before I knew it, doing that every single day led me to this situation I am in now.

Studying flashcards is by far the most important item in the chain. Actually, this might be the most important item in this entire study plan.