Your Study Routine

Now that we’ve discussed what to do with your time, we turn to the when and where of your learning: your routine.

This chapter has four sections:

How much time to spend
When to spend your time
Integrating your language into your life
Staying motivated
Habit

How much time to spend

Languages require a certain number of hours to achieve a high level at, and you cannot cheat your way out of this requirement. This brings us to one of the most important principles:

Principle: Spend as much time as you can with your language
The key factor determining how fast you learn your language is time. If you want to improve quickly, aim to spend as much time as possible learning. The more the better. It is far more important than having the perfect technique or using the perfect resource.

To help build your time with the language, it is important to study every day. Ideally, commit to study at least an hour per day. There is no maximum—the more you can commit each day, the faster you will progress.

When to spend your time

The best technique is to build a routine. To do this, have a set time each day you devote to study without any pauses or distractions. It helps if a block deals with a single resource, such as an article, course lesson, workbook chapter, or podcast episode.

It also helps to intersperse your learning. As long as you are doing a block of at least 20 minutes, then the rest of your learning can be interspersed throughout the day. Similarly, try to study consistently every day rather than doing it all at the end of the week.

There are lots of clever ways to help you spend more time than you otherwise would. We will look at these next.

Integrating your language into your life

Think of learning language as something that becomes a part of your life rather than something to set time for like a school subject. This enables you to spend far more time with the language than you otherwise would have. Here are some ways you can do this:

Switch the language of the media you consume
Try to find a friend or group of friends that speak your target language
Change the language of the devices you use
Once you are good enough, try to think in your target language

A big advantage of the modern world is you can easily take your study materials and content with you wherever you go. To do some extra learning, you can use the small bits of downtime throughout your day, such as on the bus, in a queue, or walking between class. Here are a few ideas:

Get a pen pal on a chat app such those listed in the table of language exchange resources; use any downtime to read and send messages
Use digital flashcards on your phone
Use a beginner course that has a smartphone app
Listen to podcasts while cooking, cleaning, walking, or during any activity where you don’t have to carefully focus
Carry a book with you

Staying motivated

Principle: Keep up your motivation
Maintaining motivation is key to succeeding at your language learning goals. Staying motivated is important because it will cause you to study more frequently, help you study longer, and reduce the chances you will give up. Becoming unmotivated can lead to stagnation as you find it difficult to sit and study for the required length of time. Pay attention to your motivation and focus on doing activities you know keep you motivated and interested.

Here are some ideas to help you keep your motivation high:

Use resources you enjoy—Try different methods and choose one that you enjoy the most. This will take the edge off the study process. Read more in the key tip .
Use content you find interesting—There’s lots of interesting content out there. You will find yourself enjoying learning your language a lot more when you find content you enjoy for its own sake.
Work towards your goals—Striving towards your goals, making progress, and successfully engaging with those parts of the language can be a motivating experience. It can be helpful to keep your goals around you. For example, hanging around with speakers of the language you are learning.
Refresh—If you feel yourself stagnating, try changing your routine by studying at a different time, studying in a different place, doing exercises you wouldn’t usually do, or using content you don’t usually use.

Habit

We are creatures of habit. Try to build a habit of studying at a regular time each day. The best time for many people is first thing in the morning, while you are still fresh and probably don’t have anything else scheduled. With a good habit, your automatic process should be to begin studying without you having to think about it. If you have to ask yourself “should I study or should I do something else?”, it takes mental effort to force yourself to study that will wear you down over time. Instead, your default should be this time is dedicated to study. If you want to use that time for something else, you need to find valid and specific reason.

It helps a lot if your interaction with the language is consistent. Try not to take long breaks from learning. Do at least a little bit every day. Too tired? Just do five minutes. Those five minutes now stop you breaking the cycle, keeping you in the habit of doing something every day and keeping the language active in your mind.

Another key to maintaining your habit and routine is discipline. Discipline is not an inherent trait, but a set of habits and mental tools that help one start projects and stay on-task. Not every day will you find it easy to keep your habit. If this is you, you may need to find ways to force yourself to at least begin studying. Try promising yourself to simply start with the intention of only doing five minutes. Usually you will find it easier to continue once you have already started.

Moving forward

You are now in a good position to start studying. All you need to do is begin searching for resources, then build a basic method and you are ready to start. From here, we will be looking at how to do your method better. The next few sections cover using the core resources effectively. I will then move on to the intermediate section, where we will discuss how to learn more effectively as an intermediate learner. If you have time, I recommend you continue to read after this chapter.