How do you get Japanese readings to stick?

I’m about 1500 words and 1000 kanji into learning Japanese, but I still struggle to recall readings.

To help, I made two Anki card types:

1. Kanji-only (no sentence) to test recognition without hints.

2. Audio + kana reading, to focus on sound.

But honestly, many words just sound the same to me, and the readings aren’t sticking. Anki’s starting to feel like a grind, and I’m questioning if my method is really helping.

For those with 5k+ words:

Was the beginning that hard too?

What helped you retain aside from immersion?

Appreciate any advice.

Edit: I'm not talking about kanji readings, but vocab readings. Poor choice of words.