I'd recommend watching the Installation and use of Anki guide by Jouzu Juls, the rest is all my own opinion and what I found useful in 3 years of using Anki
I found that not showing the next review time above answer buttons really helps since you don't consider card times anymore
Oftentimes pre-made decks have bad or lacking formatting. Fortunately Anki cards use simple HTML and CSS. If you want to change it you either ask ChatGPT or Deepseek to get it changed (tiresome) or you do like a 4 hour html and css course and it is quite simple to set up.
Some quirks of Anki html on the side:
{{Field name}} is what you need to add into the html code for it to actually display the field's content and case does matter.
if a field only contains an image then (even though it's not written into the html) you can manipulate it in css via the img functionality.
To change anything about the default text input box you have to use "input{...: !important;}" for it to change anything
Works with {{tts language_LANGUAGE-VARIANT:Field name}} and the language has to be specified for it to work(language codes can be found here for Japanese it is jp_JP)
Ruby (furigana) functionality:
Your fields have to be in the format 世[よ]の 中[なか] meaning first the Kanji, then the Kana in brackets and where a new furigana is supposed to start there has to be a space before the Kanji, Yomitan as well as the AJT Japanese add-on do this automatically but there might still be mistakes.
You can add dictionary links through links like <a href="https://jisho.org/search/{{field name}}">
Allows you to switch, replace and move fields easily
Allows you to easily add furigana and pitch accent patterns to cards
Allows you to add information to a specific field or systematically replace the content of a specific field among multiple cards
Allows you to block parts of an image to test yourself
Allows you to change your Anki wallpaper from basic grey to a specified image and change the opacity
After installation a new tab will be available at the top called AnKing, click it and click on Custom Background and Gear Icon --> click on Open Image Folders --> add your preferred wallpaper --> go back to the window and click on the three dots on the right --> select your wallpaper
Allows you to have an overview over your knowledge of Kanji, sorted quite neatly
Adds a heatmap graph to Anki's main window, which visualizes your past and future card review activity
Adds tons of new statistics to Anki's deck stat page which can help you identify weakpoints or strongpoints in your reviewing style or help you identify trends (e.g. rising review speed can show that you're doing Anki at the wrong times of the day where you're less concentrated)
If you hold shift while clicking the stat screen it shows you your true retention for that deck which is more accurate than Anki's Retention based solely on how often you pressed the Again button
Allows you to draw and write into your anki card (temporarily) using your mouse or drawing tablet (perfect for practicing handwriting)
Removes the Again and Easy button from your Anki reviewer thereby forcing you to either decide between knowing the card (pass) or to fail. Also: Anki fsrs (scheduling system) is bad with again and easy reviews and schedules them badly, so sticking to fail and good also leads to a better and more accurate algorithm
Adds a bar to the top that tells you how long you will need to finish your current deck at your current pace
Adds a bar to the bottom that counts down and only refills once you finish your card. Great for pacing yourself and making sure you don't spend too long on one card
If you have a specific time per deck you want to achieve then you should set your total health to your average cards a day multiplied by your card time and set the Answer recover to your desired time per card, when you're faster than desired you will gain life and if you're slower then your life will fall
Also, for visual appeal I would set it to be on the top and be really just like two to three pixels tall and to let it start from 0 on the right
Allows you to add custom Sounds that play when you answer a word correct or wrong
Makes the edges of your screen flash green or red depending on if you got the card right or wrong
If you realize that you're taking way too long for your Anki and often lose focus then livesplits are the ultimate solution.
Note down your average cards per day and average review time for each of your decks. By multiplying these you can find out how long you take on average per day. Now you have to consider if how much you want to shave off of your daily Anki. Livesplit uses cumulative times meaning that split 1 is just one time, split 2 is the time for split 2 + the time of split 1 and so on, so you need to calculate them up. For me personally I limit my anki to 45 minutes for about 650 cards I do per day on average. For that I calculated my average times, gave them to chatGPT and told it to shave off, where I have the fewest cards and to leave time for the bigger decks. That way it's dynamic for you to be able to achieve your goal without constantly falling behind on one deck and then being five minutes too early on another deck.
After you calculated how long you may take per deck you will want to set up your splits, right click the livesplits application and go on edit splits, then you name them in the order you want to do your decks and put in a new comparison, into that comparison you will want to put your desired times in cumulative form. Hit OK and right click the livesplits application again, then you click on edit layout and add your splits, the detailed timer, the previous segment, the current pace and the graph (set to your comparison).
Boom, you're set to go
What am I even doing here???
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