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How can I practice Japanese every day?

Practise Japanese every day with a short, fixed routine: about 10 minutes of reviews and new words with spaced repetition, 5 minutes of reading or listening to real Japanese, and 5 minutes of output – say or write a few sentences with words you just learned. Consistency matters more than length.

The 20-minute routine

  1. Reviews first (5–10 min). Clear the words that are due today.
  2. A few new words (5 min). Learn them with their example sentences.
  3. Read or listen (5 min). A graded reader, a song or the example sentences of today’s words.
  4. Use it (5 min). Write two sentences with new words, or read a sentence out loud and shadow the audio.

Keeping the habit

  • Tie it to something you already do daily (coffee, commute).
  • Keep a minimum: on bad days, do only your reviews.
  • Track your streak – but don’t restart from zero if you miss a day.

I Love Kanji is built for this: it shows today’s reviews, suggests how many new words to add, and ends each session with a reading sentence. Start now.

Sources

  • Cepeda, N. J., Pashler, H., Vul, E., Wixted, J. T., & Rohrer, D. (2006). Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin, 132(3), 354–380.
  • Dunlosky, J., Rawson, K. A., Marsh, E. J., Nathan, M. J., & Willingham, D. T. (2013). Improving students’ learning with effective learning techniques. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 14(1), 4–58.

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Last reviewed 2026-10-09 by the I Love Kanji team.