The Weekly Loop
The 9 to 5 Japanese Routine
Once you have finished Kana Bootcamp and the JP1K Starter Deck, you are ready to step into the full 9 to 5 Japanese routine.
This is where the schedule becomes the engine of your progress. It is simple, repeatable, and sustainable: the same loop every week for 2 to 5 years, adding up to 10,000 words and thousands of hours of exposure.
The Big Idea
You learn new words on weekdays and rest on weekends. Every weekday morning you mine about ten new words, then review them in the same session. Saturday and Sunday are rest days: you clear your reviews and add nothing new.
Mining a small amount every morning keeps the daily workload tiny, and it means you learn the exact words you just mined while the scene and audio are still fresh.
The Weekly Routine at a Glance
Monday–Friday (the core)
- Morning (~1 hr): Mine about ten new words from native content, then do your Anki reviews and learn those ten cards.
- Daytime (~1 hr): Passive listening to audio from the content you are mining.
- Evening (~1 hr): Raw immersion: anime, drama, or film, with no subtitles.
Weekend (rest days)
- Reviews only (~30 min): Clear your Anki reviews and set new cards per day to 0.
- No mining, no new cards. Optionally watch something raw for fun, but there is no obligation.
That is roughly three hours per weekday plus quick reviews on the weekend, about 15 to 20 hours a week, like a part-time job at Japanese.
How Many Words Per Week
- ~10 new words per weekday → about 50 new words per week.
- Some will fail or get deleted; what matters is the roughly 50 you keep, week after week.
- At this pace you steadily approach 10,000 words over about 2–5 years, depending on retention and consistency.
Why This Loop Works
- Predictable: The same structure every week means no decision fatigue.
- Fresh: You learn each word the same morning you mine it, so the context is fresh.
- Sustainable: Mining ten words takes minutes, not a two-hour weekend session.
- Rest built in: Weekends recharge you and let the week's words consolidate.
Learn the Days in Detail
This overview gives you the big picture. Next, dive into the posts that explain each part:
Weekly Loop Checklist
- Finish Kana Bootcamp
- Finish the JP1K Starter Deck (~800 words solid)
- Mine ~10 words each weekday morning, then review
- Passive listening by day, raw immersion at night
- Rest on Saturday and Sunday: reviews only, no new cards
- Stay consistent → 10,000 words in 2–5 years
This is the core loop. It does not change. You just keep repeating it until Japanese becomes natural.
Mine each morning. Review daily. Immerse nightly. Rest on weekends. Repeat.
Continue on to Monday–Friday: The Core Routine.