What is the optimal amount of time to study? I understand the concept of spaced repetition – and it has helped me learn – but how do you break down your time blocks? If you have five hours a week to study it would be better to do an hour a day instead of one long chunk, right? Any other insights?

I find it's most helpful to get a routine where you study about the same amount of time per day. If I vary too much I tend to get a lot of reviews piled up.

It's also good to practice in multiple sessions per day if you can work it.

I feel like your optimal study time is a function of your schedule and your habits. During the school year (I'm a teacher), I put in half an hour of Skritter clock time each day. I find that, for myself, I get much faster and more efficient after 10-15 minutes of clock time in one session, so I find the single-session more efficient for me.

I aim for an hour by the Skritter clock each day, but as FatDragon writes, it depends on other factors. With summer here (travel and kids at home) it just isn't possible. The best for me is that hour - which is really two hours by the clock on the wall - half in the morning and half in the evening.

Inconsistent study times produces long queues which, for me, can be discouraging. It can also push some characters back enough that instead of reviewing just as I am about to forget them (the SRS ideal time), they're pushed to when I have well and truly forgotten them so I have to start over again and therefore get deeper in the hole.

I have found that if I do much less than an hour a day I cannot cover my reviews and add characters so I am at best treading water and not gaining anything, at worst getting further behind.

I'm doing about the same thing, but I'm using Skritter to learn both Mandarin and Japanese. I try to go at least 30 minutes for each every day, and lately I've had the time to hit both goals.

One important note which has helped my morale lately... after the clock hits 30 minutes, I keep going until I write one character or word correctly. I don't quit on a wrong answer, in other words.

I do twenty minutes a day in one go. Easiest for me to maintain. Regularity is most important. Scheduling will work slightly better with two sessions a day, and much better with at least one.

For a fixed X of time available, spread it out as evenly as you can for the best effect, without making it so demanding that you won't be able to keep it up.

"Scheduling will work slightly better with two sessions a day, and much better with at least one. "

What do you mean by this? Sounds contradictory to me.

Oh, I just mean that even if total study time is the same, studying every day gives a big benefit over studying not every day, and studying twice a day gives a small benefit over studying just once a day.

This is because when you study more frequently, the really short-term items have a chance to come up earlier than after a whole day and so don't get forgotten as much.

I usually have a set distance in terms of chapters of the books I am going through. I just spent 6 weeks away from all character studies while prepping for grad school exams. When I came back the queue was so big I just nuked it and am starting over. However, All of the stuff I put on Skritter is review and/or from a physical source (textbook, etc). That means I can say in my head, I want to review half of book number x.

For example, today's goal is to clean my queue and then get half a book done. That will probably be an hour or two by the clock. I find having goals in terms of words/sources to be better than time on the clock.

FWIW, I've been through periods when I was able to study twice a day and times when I could only do once a day and I think twice a day is *much* better, for the reason Nick gives of getting another repetition on words I am just learning.
By the way, I think that means that it would be very useful to (somehow) change the scheduling bias so that a word which was 'studied 8 hours ago, 110%' came up sooner than one which was 'studied 3 days ago, 120%". Even though I know that a very regular practice schedule is best, my schedule invariably means there will be exceptions and a queue of reviews will build up. When I have a day when I only have a little time (or if I want to do a quick review session before bed), I'd like to get practice on words which I am just learning rather than ones which are established and just coming up for review. Waiting till the next day is less likely to make me lose an 8 day word than an 8 hour word.

I do all my Skrittering on the can... which can make for some long bathroom sessions. If I've had a lot of fiber, 15min/day tops. If too much dairy foods or food poisoning, I easily cross an hour a day...

klutz14159 - this is the funniest post I've read in a while. I hope that if you live with other people, your place has two or more bathrooms!