When it comes to studying a language, how do you do it?

Here is how I go about learning a new language (I eventually developed this method while studying Japanese and I'm just starting German):
1) Pick up any beginner's book (My personal favorite is the "For Dummies" series) and go through it and pick up all the basic grammar and vocabulary I can. I try to study a little bit every morning and every evening.
2) I use some audio lessons in the car on the way to and from work.
3) I cut index cards into fourths, then I write vocabulary words that I want to learn on one side and the English translation on the other. HOWEVER, I rarely ever just write the word by itself. I always try to write a full sentence if I get one and learn the whole sentence instead of just the word. Sometimes I'll doodle on the cards. I carry these words everywhere with me and take a quick glance at them when I get a few seconds.
To prevent cards from getting too plentiful, I throw away a card after I feel I've memorized it and can recall it on my own. If some time later I find out I forgot a word, no worries, I'll just make one again. I'll get it down eventually. It doesn't happen often.
4) After I get a book out of the way, I use the "Rosetta Stone" (I just got an old version of German for very cheap) and I plow through that.
5) When I'm done with that, I then dedicate my study sessions to just watching MLP (or any other cartoon I can find online) with German subtitles, look for translated comics online, or just find interesting German websites. There is a restaurant nearby that gives out newspapers written in German and I go there every other week.
6) (I haven't actually done this yet) Look for people online to talk to in German.

What I focus the most on is just learning the words that I want to learn, and I try to learn them in context. If a word is important, and I don't want to study it, I don't. If a word is truly important, it will come up again and again. Eventually I'll see the common words that I don't want to study plenty of times and I'll memorize them. This is usually because I study them in context with other words that I want to learn.

So, if I where to start today and continue to study a little bit every day, I'm quite confident I would be fluent in German in 5-6 months. (Fluent =/= Native)

How do you like to study?