welcome to srs! This is the reason i like use anki with updated and tweaked settings (i only do about 30 ish mins a day now, and i do them in between other things like sets at the gym)

If you want to stay with linq maybe think about just doing from native language into target language that your practicing speaking basically, and you dont have to do so many

This is the problem with SRS and is a reason why I gave it up nearly completely once I got about 1500-2000 words or phrases to "known". You simply can't keep up. If you take a day off or heaven forbid, a week or more, you'll spend several days catching up and eventually all your time would be sucked up in reviewing, and never learning new words.

As others have said, with reading and listening you get a "natural" SRS and you really don't need to do SRS at all. It's unnecessary.

Having said that, it *could* be useful in some cases. First of all, some people like to do it, or feel it is helpful for them. In that case, do it, but maybe limit it to 10% of your total study of the language. Or maybe just review the yellow words from a particular lesson you are studying. Or as some have mentioned, just check your level 3 words (or those that you rate as *almost* knowing)...maybe those words just need a little extra oomph.

You simply have to use some method of "filtering" what you will do on SRS, or take it out completely from your bag of tricks.

One thing I like to do (but have not been finding much time to do it) is to go through a lesson completely. Then perhaps one or more times, at different sittings, I'll go back into the lesson and jump to the yellow words and read the word in context in that specific sentence and try to guess the meaning...or perhaps look at a sentence or two prior to it, if you need more context. This gives you some extra review and also provides that word in context so you can maybe get the meaning. Jump to the next yellow word and do the same thing.

I still don't do the SRS flashcards though. If you just continue to read though you're essentially doing SRS naturally, in context. I also don't bother with lingQ 'levels'. A word is either blue (new), yellow (level 1/ seen before) or white (known). I just mark yellow level 1 words directly to known once I see them in text and feel I know them.

I know when I'm reading I see the same word over and over again, look it up every time because I've forgotten the meaning, and then one day I know it, so I mark it as known. My known word count builds up in the same way; I just don't have any level 2-4 words.

The most recent update to include the option to do some fun exercises in sentence mode (matching pairs) has been a nice change though. I won't do it every time but it might sometimes be fun for a minute or two after the odd sentence if I feel like it.

I also suspect I might try the odd sentence reconstruction exercise too since I'm learning a language with a different structure to English. But this will absolutely be the exception, when my brain is looking for some novelty.

I do not use the flashcard system. I consider that there are better uses of my time. I.e. more reading while listening.

Outside of lessons, I use flashcard to review level 3 words only. There is much smaller set of words. I realized checking level 2 words is not efficient as I don't have the exact context when they are used. It hindered my capacity to remember them.

I do use flashcard in after having listened, read and studied a lesson. Flash card for this lesson only.

You should be creating more LingQs than you can possibly review this way. It's far more efficient to learn this vocabulary by seeing it in multiple contexts over time. The important words will reoccur more frequently and will be learned soonest, and the other words will be learned over time. In effect, you review naturally as you move on to new lessons.

Reviewing this way, in context, is actually far more efficient and will allow you to learn the tens of thousands of words you need much more quickly and in a way that you will actually retain them.

Having said that, the review tools are there and can help you get started, or for a change of pace sometimes to do something different while still learning. Or, to help you focus on specific vocabulary lists which you can create by tagging LingQs and then filtering for these tags in the Vocabulary section. Do what you enjoy but heavy memorization is not really necessary.

I personally don't do SRS on Lingq.

I only go through flashcards in separate lessons, while I still remember where I met these words (and then read the text once more).

If you want, I guess you could assign some tag to words you consider "important", filter by it, and only drill these words. Or even use some SRS like Anki besides Lingq, where you will only add important words. Anyway, you shouldn't limit your reading amount because of flashcards.