How does Heisig/memorizing Kanji help when I still can’t use it to make sense of anything? For example I learn 明 means bright? But if I didnt already know what 明日、明るい、明らか meant, I can’t imagine I would find out solely by knowing that kanji? Heisig doesn’t even teach the pronunciations.

Maybe the first one I might make a stupid guess and think “bright day?” “bright sun?” but its still far from the true meaning.

I’m kind of lost. Maybe i’m going about this wrong? I didn’t start the 6000 more most common words Anki because I was thinking that if I memorized kanji first, then I can be able to read them before knowing what it means.