Hello, my name is Abigail and welcome back to Polyglot Progress.
One of the questions I got asked when I did a q&a a few weeks ago was for some advice for getting into consistent study routine
and I decided I would just make a full video about this.
It's something that I get asked a lot, it's something that I feel like it's super relevant with the new year because a lot of people
are trying to get into new routines, and it's also something that I struggled with for a really really long time,
but I feel like I've kind of finally worked out for myself,
and so today I just want to help anyone who's still struggling with that
through the things that I learned through trial and error trying to get into my own routine.
And the great thing about this video is while I am going to be using language learning and language study as the overall example for this
video, you can definitely use this information in order to build a habit or get into any kind of consistent routine.
And so without further ado, here are my five tips and tricks for getting into a consistent study routine:
Number one: keep your routine personal.
I think one of the number one ways to have trouble getting into or sticking to a consistent routine
is trying to get yourself to stick to a routine that just isn't right for you.
It can be really easy to see or hear about someone else's routine and
see how well it's working for them and really want to apply that to your own life so you can see those results,
but then those routines don't often work out very well for us because they're not designed for us they're designed for someone else
and what made it a good routine for someone else might actually make it not a great routine for you or me.
I feel like there are several really crucial and important things to consider when you're designing a language routine for yourself,
the first one being your own goals for language learning.
And I feel like this one is kind of a really obvious example-- obviously if your goals are to speak,
incorporating a lot of speaking in your routine is going to be a good idea;
if you're someone that only strives to read incorporating a lot of speaking is probably not your best idea--
but again I think it can be really easy to see what other people are doing and really want to try out that routine
or kind of challenge they've set for themselves,
but it might not always line up with your language learning goals, especially in a more specific way. If someone is studying to take
an exam and you're studying because you want to be able to speak with family,
you're going to have kind of different words different things that you really want to approach first and foremost.
So it's just really important to consider what we want from the language we're studying/why we're studying that language to begin
with when we're designing a routine for ourselves.
And kind of on the other side of that you also need to consider your weaknesses
and what you're currently focused on improving in your target language or languages.
Your goal overall might be speaking with your family, but if you find that you're currently weakest in listening maybe incorporating more
TV shows/more YouTube videos/more listening exercises might benefit you a little bit more than just taking speaking classes.
And similarly if your goal is to improve your speaking, that doesn't necessarily mean that your routine should only involve speaking.
It should just kind of mainly mean that you're using reading/writing/listening as ways to benefit your speaking.
And even so I'm not saying you have to pick one discipline for me I like to be very well rounded
I like to have an equal level in all of the things that I can do in a language.
For me I just make sure that my routine is focusing on whatever I'm weakest in in a language
so I know that I'm weakest at reading in German so I try to emphasize that a bit more
I know that I'm weakest at speaking in Spanish so I emphasize that a little bit more
and obviously routine is a more actionable plan, it's not just goals
so it's not really enough to just say that you want to be improving your listening or your reading or your speaking
so when you're deciding how you want to improve those skills,
it's really important to consider what you enjoy doing and what you found works well for you.
This is the place where I see a lot of people kind of going wrong and where I think that social media and YouTube videos and all of
that can have, kind of, the most negative impact-- totally unintentionally!--
but if you want to improve your vocabulary and you know a ton of people love anki
it's easy to think that that should be what you add into your routine. But if you know that flashcards
really don't work for you or you just really dislike doing them they're probably not what you should be sticking in your routine.
you're going to have a lot of trouble sticking to this consistent routine if you really hate what you're doing,
or you're just not seeing any progress because the things that you're doing aren't things that work well for you.
There's lots of methods and approaches and resources for learning a language
and what works well for other people or what other people really like and find a must in their routine
doesn't necessarily have to be what you like, or find works for you or as a must in your routine.
Building new habits can be really hard and we don't mean to make it harder on ourselves by trying to stick with something that we're really
going to be sick and tired of or just bored of after a couple of days.
And on the flip side of that use what you do know you really like doing and what you do know really works well for your language
learning and even your own hobbies and interests outside of language learning.
If you know you love movies and TV, you know you binge watch every TV show that comes out on Netflix
find a way to make that part of your team, whether that's watching TV shows for listening practice,
watching a TV show and writing about it for writing practice,
watching a TV show and reading an article about it for reading practice,
or watching something and then talking about it with a tutor for speaking practice
use what you love, to encourage you to want to do the things in your routine. Make it so that it's not so much a routine that you
have to stick to so much as something that you're just excited to do as part of your day to day.
And with that, consider your lifestyle. This is the thing that I definitely have struggled with the most in the past
and again something that can be really easy to slip into when you see other people's routines
and get really excited by those and want to implement them in your own life.
There's a really common language learning tip where you just take the media you consume, like TV shows or books or movies,
and replace it with that in your target language
and overall it's really great advice and I frequently tried to build it into my routines. But I never stuck with them
And it's because I was thinking to ideally and not really considering what my lifestyle actually looked like.
During university I was majoring in film and therefore watching films in class and as assignments all the time,
I was reading articles for pretty much every class I took,
I was minoring in literature and reading often a novel a week for a class, and in multiple classes,
and I was majoring in French where I also would have to watch films or read books from around the Francophone world.
And so as much as I love reading and watching things
and as much as the idea of watching a film in your target language as a way to relax is a great idea
it wasn't actually a break from schoolwork for me and so as a result I wasn't ever really doing it outside of my assignments.
so trying to stick to a routine, where I would be reading books in my target languages/watching TV shows in my target languages
as a break from schoolwork sounds really great if you just read that online,
but for me it wasn't at all going to work because that wasn't how I lived my life,
it didn't fit with my lifestyle specifically and that was where I went wrong with that.
a much more personalized routine, where I thought about what I actually did do in my spare time (which was not reading or watching films),
or that simply acknowledged the limitations I had during the school semester versus when I was on a break,
would have been much easier to stick to and therefore so much more effective for me.
And then this is also a great time to think about your approach to learning or not learning multiple languages at the same time.
and for those of you who do study multiple it's a great way to think about how you want to structure that.
A pretty popular approach I tend to see is assigning different languages to different days of the week.
So in that case, you could be studying seven languages but you're only actually focused on one a day.
I think it's a great option if you're someone that wants to or needs to be studying multiple languages but you don't really like studying
multiple in one day because it leads to confusion or you don't really feel like you've got enough time.
But again, this is so personal and I know now for me that I definitely prefer to have contact with more than one language a day.
In fact, my ideal would be to have contact with all of the languages that I speak or I'm studying every single day.
And this just kind of goes back to my overall goals again because I want languages to be a part of me and a part of my daily life,
so sequestering French to Monday only just feels a little bit weird to me.
So my routine currently involves me using at least four languages a day counting English which I use
day to day with family and work and that sort of thing and hopefully eventually I'll have built enough relationships and spaces in my life
that I'm kind of naturally using every single one of them in one day.
I tried for a really long time to make that language a day thing stick, and I always felt the kind of offness I feel when it's been a while
since I've had contact with the language.
I was trying to get myself to stick to a routine that was literally the antithesis
of my goal of having every language involved in my life, every single day.
I'd just seen it work for so many other people and so it felt like it should work for me as well.
So overall probably the most important thing I will say in this video is make sure that the routine that you're trying to stick to
reflects the things you like doing that you want to be able to do/that you're working on improving/that you already can do in languages
And don't let any of that get clouded by other people's routines. Your routine is your routine, not anyone else's.
and trying to stick to something that was literally made to fit into your life is obviously going to be way easier
than trying to stick to anything else.
Number two: start small and manageable.
This is definitely another reason that my routines previously didn't always work out
and I think it's also a lot of why people's New Year's resolutions fail.
I know for me when I design a routine, it is always based around the ideal. It's what I would love to see myself doing
every day or every week-- whatever the routine is based around--
and that might mean that there is a lot of difference compared to my life at the moment and that's not necessarily a bad thing,
I think it's good to kind of figure out where you would like to see yourself,
but going from one routine in life to a completely different routine in life, very quickly can definitely be a bit overwhelming
and just hard to stick to because it's a lot of changes to be making in your life.
And so when we come up with this new routine or when it's the start of the new year it's really easy to want to just dive in headfirst
and totally change everything and stick to this new routine
but the change ends up being really sudden and really intense and then often leads to burnout or just
sticking with it for a few days and then kind of falling back into old habits.
This was a big problem for me last year around New Year's. I knew it was time for the new year... I wanted to get really excited...
I wasn't studying languages pretty much at all...and so when the new year rolled around I tried to just
dive right into a new approach to language learning a whole new routine and it didn't really work out. I did it for maybe a couple of
days, if even that, and then continued on with old habits.
Starting with small changes and habits and adding more over time is going to be a lot easier to stick with
and therefore a lot more effective in making long term change.
So go ahead make the ideal routine, but then scale it back a little bit. What does it look like in the stage before that?
And before that? Start from there and then as you begin to build these habits and stick to your routine
add on the amount of time you want to study for or the amount of activities you want to do a day.
Don't use all of your energy in that first burst of routine and burn yourself out or end up hating the routine.
Language learning is more than a marathon-- it's a lifelong process. So use that energy to make long term consistent change
instead of going hard and fast in the beginning.
There really is no rush and you'll probably end up seeing faster progress this way anyway.
Number three is to force the habit a little bit at the start and to track how often and when you're doing it.
Getting into a consistent study routine and building habits is so much easier when they're personalized and made for your life
but even then habits are not built in a day. So as you start to get into consistent study routine
you're probably still going to have to force it a bit at first.
I'd love to be the person I was when I was younger and constantly be reading and finishing books,
but I'm not and currently I don't really have a habit of picking up a book whenever I have a spare moment.
And so as of currently I need to set time aside to read and I need to set myself numerical goals
like number of pages read or number of books read in order to make that happen.
Eventually this is going to lead to a habit of me having a spare moment and picking up a book instead of
looking at the same six webpages on a loop for an hour
but for now, it needs to be a little bit more setup in order to get me to do it.
An easy way to keep up with this is to track what you're doing. Have a habit tracker you check off
or a log where you write down what you did that day and you'll be able to see the consistency building and
figure out ways to better fit it into your life, whether it's noting a day where you need to adjust your routine a little bit
because of other commitments or simply seeing that you need to be a little bit more intentional with setting aside time
to focus on your routine, tracking what you're doing can help you to
stick to this routine while you're still working on building it into a natural habit.
And that's the thing, it won't be a habit at first. So start more fabricated and constructed and in time
it will become more natural and something you don't really have to actively push yourself to do.
Tip number four is to be disciplined while giving yourself leeway.
This one might sound like it goes against the last tip but hear me out here.
In 2018 I set myself a goal of studying every single day. It didn't matter what language it was, it didn't matter what I did
in the language, I just needed to put a little bit of time into studying a language, every single day.
I was having a hard time studying consistently while I was at school
so the idea behind this was to just build the habit of having languages in my life every single day.
And I did it, I did something every single day for 365 days.
And at the time I was really proud of myself for accomplishing that goal, but I didn't really feel as proud of the progress I made
with each of the languages I studied.
It's not that I didn't do anything that year-- I got my Spanish and Italian from nothing to intermediate ACTFL scores--
but it was because I was taking weekly lessons in Spanish and Italian and reviewing the material between those.
The routine that was working for me that year was those set lessons and the time between them,
not the forced daily habit. And sometimes I would be about to go to bed and realize that I hadn't done anything and I would
make myself do something, and through that I began to dread it or just really dislike it as I was doing it
and that should never be the case. If you hate your routine, something is wrong.
But the reason I'm mentioning this is the thing that I learned the most comparing this time
and this routine with my current routine in this time in my life
is that you have to give yourself leeway when it comes to your routines.
I still try to study every single day, that is part of my routine, but I am so much more patient
and understanding and relaxed with myself, when that doesn't happen.
And it's not that I let myself slack off, when I can tell that I'm kind of slacking off and I could study but I'm just like "eh"
that's when I make myself do it. But when I'm having a rough day or I'm really stressed because of something else
or I'm just so busy that I'm exhausted by the end of the day, I let myself have the day.
And in 2018 I wouldn't, and I didn't, let myself have those days
but you know what doing 10 minutes of memrise or anki just to say that you studied that day
isn't really doing that much for you it's not worth it.
According to multiple scientific studies we learn better when we're happier and I think even just on a personal level
if you think about studying and you're studying and you really hate it and the whole time you're really just thinking about
what you'd like to be doing instead you're probably not absorbing that much information.
You're going to learn and retain so much more if you do it when you're really excited about what you're doing
and happy to be doing it and focus fully on the material.
And not only is studying when you're having a really hard day going to lead to less effective results that night,
you're also going to see negative associations with your routine, and if you're trying to do this through a
negative mental health time, you're likely to also burn out.
While it may seem like you have to commit to your routine at first and forever
that's not the case. It's so much better for the long term if you allow yourself to do part of the routine or take a day off.
As long as you're taking stock and making sure that you are not just having a discipline problem that day
you're not being undisciplined, you're just making a smart choice for the routine in the long term.
And number five, don't be afraid to change your routine.
The point of a routine is to build an approach where you are consistently doing all of the things that you want to do
in order to meet your goals and to possibly enjoy the process a little bit more
and so again while discipline is a vital aspect of this, having flexibility and willingness to change is just as crucial.
Use that tracking that you did figure out how you can change and adjust your routine to work better for you whether it's
what you're doing in the routine or when and how you're doing it.
If you may be intended to read 50 pages in your target language a day and you're finding that you're either not reading 50 pages
or when you are hitting 50 pages you're not really getting anything else you want to do done, take a step back,
decide what's most important for you and adjust. Maybe set aside certain days where you're going to focus on reading 50 pages
and not so much worry about the other habits,
maybe scale back the number of pages or create a time based goal so you can balance the reading with the other tasks,
or maybe decide that you only actually care about the reading goal and focus on that.
There's no right answer to this and personalization is going to be key again.
But no matter what, it's important to adjust your routine to work well for you.
Yes, if you're not sticking with a routine and you know it's because you haven't been disciplined
and you've been letting yourself kind of slip back into bad habits you're trying to avoid, that's one thing
definitely don't adjust the routine to allow the bad habits,
but when you're not sticking with a routine because something about it isn't working well for you
change it and make it something that is working well for you.
When you create a routine you're not committing to it for life.
At first it's kind of like a trial period even so feel free to adjust it to make it work better for you.
And even after that kind of trial period, it's important to adjust your routine as time goes on.
Your goals are going to change with your level, with your lifestyle, with your own internal thoughts towards languages
and language learning, and your routine should reflect what you want right now,
not what you wanted six months ago. Your life and lifestyle that you've built this routine around are also bound to change
whether that's moving or starting or leaving a job or going back to school or graduating, or having a global pandemic happen,
your day to day life is not always going to look the same. And so just as it's important to build a routine that
fits your lifestyle when you're first getting started, it's also important to just that as your lifestyle changes.
So those are the five main things that I feel like have really helped me stick to a consistent study routine this time around.
I hope that through sharing them maybe you are able to work through some of the problems you're currently having with
getting into or sticking with a consistent routine,
but again, don't be disheartened if you don't stick to the routine at first.
Take a step back, figure out what's keeping you from sticking with it, and adjust as needed.
Habits don't happen immediately but they can happen pretty quickly if you work to make sure that it fits in
with your personal needs and lifestyle.
If you've got any other tips for sticking to a consistent routine that I may have missed I would love to hear them down below.
I will see you next Wednesday. And remember, practice makes progress.