The short answer is to stop using translation-based flashcards and switch to a method that builds direct mental connections between the word and its meaning, without English as a middleman. This means using images, example sentences, and personal associations instead of translation pairs. The goal is to make the German word trigger a concept or feeling, not an English word.
Here is why your current approach causes the problem. By drilling "will" paired with "will" (as in future tense), your brain stores them as equals. When you see "will" in German, your first instinct is to think of the English word, then wrestle with the meaning difference. To break this, you need to create flashcards that bypass English entirely.
Start by replacing your translation cards with three types:
Image cards. For concrete nouns, use a picture of the object on the front and the German word on the back. For verbs, use a simple animation or a sequence of images showing the action. For abstract words like "will" (meaning "want" in German), use a picture of someone pointing at something they desire, with the German word. Your brain will link the image directly to the German word.
Sentence cards. Take a sentence from a native source (a news article, a podcast transcript, a children's book) that contains the word. Put the sentence on the front, and on the back, put a simple definition in German (use a learner's dictionary like Langenscheidt or Duden for learners) and maybe a synonym. You are forced to understand the word in context, not in isolation.
Cloze deletion cards. Write a sentence with the target word blanked out. On the front, you see the sentence with a blank. On the back, the full sentence. This trains you to predict the word from context, which is exactly what natural understanding requires.
A practical next step is to go through your existing A1 deck and convert the most problematic cards (especially false cognates) into one of these formats. You can do this gradually, maybe 5-10 cards per day. For the false cognate "will", create a sentence card: "Ich will einen Kaffee" on the front, and on the back, write "möchten, wünschen" (synonyms) and a simple German definition like "etwas haben oder tun möchten". Review that card until the English word "will" stops popping up.
Another powerful technique is to add audio to your cards. Use text-to-speech or recordings from Forvo. When you hear the word and see an image, you build a sound-meaning link. This helps with false cognates because the sound is different from the English word.
Be patient. This process takes longer per card initially, but it builds real fluency. You may need to review each card more times, but the quality of recall will be much higher. Expect to feel slower for the first few weeks. That is normal.
Finally, consume content that is just slightly above your level. Read a simple news article or watch a short video with subtitles in German. Do not translate every word. Instead, try to guess meaning from context, then check with a dictionary only if you are stuck. This trains your brain to think in German.
A balanced approach is to keep some translation cards for very rare words, but for core vocabulary, switch to context-based cards. The tradeoff is more work upfront, but you will stop translating and start understanding naturally.