Learning a word once is not the same as being able to use it. My current routine is deliberately small:
- Find one natural example sentence.
- Notice the common words that appear around it.
- Write one sentence about my own work or daily life.
- Revisit it after a day, a week, and a month.
For example, maintain is more useful when I meet it in a phrase such as “maintain a steady pace” than when I only memorise a translation. The surrounding words give the new vocabulary a place to live.