I got thrown off track by a week off vacation. Now I'm back and have 1800 reviews. I also have lots of other things demanding my time these days and for the first time ever I am feeling demotivated from Skrittering. When I try to get back into it, I find that I've forgotten tons of very basic characters, and this demotivates me even more!

Thoughts? Suggestions?

try and forget about the numbers and just do your 15 minutes a day or whatever religiously - eventually you'll get back into it.

I've had more than that to review in the past, but it's amazing how much you can knock that number down by in a single hour study session. Just remember don't get discouraged and start marking things you didn't know correct just to get the number down.

i've been away for months and just got back into it recently, so there are 4000+ items to grind through. keep at it regularly and it's not a big deal =)

Make sure to mark all those you don't know as forgotten, a big nasty red X. As suggested, try to do it all in a big chunk of time. Remember it, forgot it, you're just telling the computer your results. Don't even focus on learning while you're separating them out, just get it done. Once you get in the mood, it will only take an hour or two per thousand items.

Your memory will come back in no time (a day or two) as relearning is always faster and stronger than the first time.

Once you get through the relearning, you'll know them all much better than before, nearly as good as if you never took your vacation!

I usually have a dip after a vacation, but it always comes back with a big leap right afterwards when I get closer to zero items due.

hit up tones and definitions while having a good look at the characters as they come by - get that down to 0 then add writing
别灰心!

Perhaps use the "save me" feature to get the # of items due down, and not having the items come back gradually over time.

@Thomas , how do you do that thing where you separate the items? That sounds really cool

@jimi02

I have come to believe that occasional away time from Skritter actually reinforces the learning when you get back. I know it is tough and you can feel demotivated but you will be better for it if you stick with it.

What I did before is disable definition when I was trying to get back into things, as writing is more important to me and tones are way easier. Then when I got down to 0 I would re-add the definitions.

Also, every day just try to knock 100 items off your list. When you get going you may even do 200 or 300 per day. Just keep going for a week or however long it takes and eventually you will get down to 0. Just set yourself a reasonable goal every day (like go from 1800 to 1600 today).

@Bohan, I'm just talking about a mind-set. Don't focus on learning the words when you have that many, just focus on telling the system which you still remember and which you don't.

Just make sure you get them all done in the same day. The second day you should start your intensive relearning of everything you forgot, unless of course you like to have a big review pile staring at you while you're trying to learn...

I think this only works best after at least a few days away, not on your daily review pile.

skritterjohan: definitely, especially on the reinforcing thing. For me it seems that what happens is that stuff I don't know gets bunched together a lot more so I can figure out which bits I'm confusing with other bits.

It also means afterwards that I've got less stuff I only half know...

I've been through this many times and I can testify that what Thomas and skritterjohan are saying works.

This bears repeating:

skritterjohan: "Also, every day just try to knock 100 items off your list. When you get going you may even do 200 or 300 per day. Just keep going for a week or however long it takes and eventually you will get down to 0. Just set yourself a reasonable goal every day (like go from 1800 to 1600 today)."

I've also found that the longer you've forgotten something, the more powerful the relearning effect. So I don't feel bad about having 3,981 items due. ;)

James

http://www.skritter.com/forum/topic?id=40363005&comments=4

Thanks everyone, very useful and encouraging advice! Much appreciated.