Hello! I have been self studying for almost 6 months. Personally I use Tae Kim's guide (along with lots of of other resources), and I if I don't learn something new I at least review everyday. I believe you would get more out of it if you studied more than 1 hour each day, but that's hard to do. Do your research! I immersed myself as much as possible in the language, music, tv shows ect... Even now I find that I prefer Japanese music over anything else. Also I recommend using the teachers on here, I wish I would have earlier. It's not easy on your own, but don't give up and good luck!

What I did was focus on building Kanji and grammar at the same time. It makes Kanji less scary the earlier you start learning it. It also depends on how serious you are about reading though. You need to focus on speaking and listening also, but its hard to do that if you don't know enough grammar or vocabulary to understand what your listening too. Everyone has different learning styles so you need to find what works for you. Personally I like Tae Kim's Guide to Japanese along with 5 other resources that stuck with me. Research! haha Good Luck! List Of Other Resources: http://www.tofugu.com/2010/04/06/tofugu-100-best-japanese-learning-resources/ Tae Kim's Guide: http://www.guidetojapanese.org/learn/