What a first month actually looks like

The honest version, at the default of ten new words a day, with no heroics.

Week one

Twelve to fifteen minutes a day. Most of that time is new words, because you have almost no reviews yet. Seventy words in by the end of it. This week feels great and is slightly misleading, because the reviews have not arrived.

Week two

The first big wave of reviews lands, because everything from week one is coming back at increasing gaps and the ten a day never stopped. This is the week people quit. It is also the week the technique proves itself: the words with a good hook come back in under two seconds and the ones you rushed do not.

If it feels heavy, drop the new words to five a day for a week. The queue is self-correcting and nothing is lost. This is a much better move than skipping a day.

Day nine or thereabouts

Somewhere around ninety words held, the easiest story in your language crosses the share you can read without stopping. This is the first moment the whole thing stops feeling like flashcards, and it arrives much earlier than most people expect.

Week four

The early words have moved out to gaps of two and three weeks, so they are no longer in your day. Daily time settles back to around fifteen minutes and most of it is new material again. Around two hundred and fifty words held.

What two hundred and fifty words buys you

More than it sounds. The most common few hundred words carry an enormous share of ordinary speech, which is why the starter list is ordered by frequency rather than by topic. You will not be having a conversation. You will be reading a graded story without stopping, and understanding fragments of real ones.