Don't bother with any of those in-your-head translations. Just erase the English from your brain and speak Polish directly. If you forget a word, look it up if you have to, then use it. After you've used it a few times, it will stick. Polish is pretty hard though, from what I can tell. Even Hungarian is easier.

I just write everything down. If I forget it in the next session, I repeat it again. The idea is that you eventually end up remembering them.

I'm learning Italian, just passed A2, and am probably gonna continue with B1 if the course schedule is right.

At the moment, I am having a vacation in Italy, and I realized that there's no more effective way than having use cases that you can relate on a personal level.

"Napoléon Mange Allègrement Six Poulet Sans Claquer d'Argent" and "Lise Beche Bien Chez Notre Oncle Firmain Nector" I let you translate it. Lines 2 and 3 of periodic table.

Watch a movie/show you're very familiar with, the kind of movie you know line for line in some (or many) parts.
Watch it in insert language and you'll have an exact comparison for those lines already stuck.

Flashcards for new vocabulary and learning songs in the new language seems to work for me.