It's a classic beginner mistake to load up a 20000 word deck and start learning it when you have no relationship or connection to the cards. Create a card when you first see the word in real life, with that example sentence on the back, and it's so much easier to remember. At least for me anyway.
Those large word decks can be useful though. Download deck, immediately suspend all cards, and then start un-suspending cards as you learn the words. I also add notes to the cards as I go.
I have a similar strategy for the Ultimate Geography deck. I want to know where every country is on a map, as well as their capitol and flag. So I suspended all cards, and then periodically enable 20 new ones, and learn as I go. That often means googling the location or pronunciation the first time I encounter the card.
(I use the low-key Anki configuration with Pass/Fail buttons plugin)
Everyone's different, but the act of creating the card itself helps motivate me to learn it. I really enjoy having a hand-curated deck. Though I can see larger decks being useful if the card is annoying to make (like your geography example).
The opposite theory is that getting _some_ exposure to the information, even if you can't actively recall it, is still valuable. When you encounter that information in the wild, your brain then has an existing pathway to strengthen.
How do you find the time/energy to get the example sentence on the back of each card? Do you have a process/method to make it easier?
When I encounter new words in real life, it tends to be all at once (i.e. watching a show while making dinner). I scribble the word quickly on a nearby notepad and don't have time to look at it again until I'm bulk-uploading new words later. It bothers me that I'm maybe not getting the full benefit of Anki, because I'm missing the context and/or example sentences.
I would love to hear ideas about how to resolve that timing issue.
I seem to retain more from those 20k word decks you mentioned than my personal decks, likely because they come with example sentences and context that my personal decks are missing.
