Hack My Japanese Study Routine

I recently picked up studying Japanese again. I would say that so far everything is going alright but I'm looking for ways to sort of spice things up some more. Not only that but I fear that what I'm doing may not be as effective as what I could or should be doing.

I work 40 hours a week so there is only so much I can do but I've been going through Kanji Flashcard 1 by White Rabbit Press, listening to Japanese music and studying individual vocabulary lists, usually a list of verbs or themed lists like animals, buildings, etc. I typically will take anywhere between 10-15 cards and study everything on those cards for an entire week. Every 50 cards or so I'll go back and review all of the ones I had studied before. The review is quick and usually consists of me trying to write the kanji without looking and come up with the meaning. If I take too long or guess wrong I write that kanji/word down on a separate list to study some more along with the new set of cards I began studying.

Sometimes I'll read articles from
http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/easy/

and write down vocabulary words I don't know to study later.

I'm ultimately studying to pass the JLPT 2 this year but I'm not doing anything specifically for that test, just trying to boost my vocabulary. I'm thinking about getting the second volume of those kanji cards as well. There are about 750 in there and at 6 words a card that's a decent 4500 new words though I'm thinking reading in context might be better for me in the long run.

Hmmm, what do you guys think? Any other suggestions?

Sounds fine as far as vocabulary and kanji are concerned. Can you read the NHK "easy" articles alright in terms of grammar, without trying to guess the meaning from the context? You seem to be quite focused on vocab and kanji, but also grammar is important too; I would probably try the JLPT sample tests (some available online, more in bookstores) to see where you need to reinforce. Best wishes!