Today, I want to talk about time management and language learning. You've heard me say before that the three keys to success in language learning are time, the amount of time we spend with the language. Therefore, time management becomes quite important. Our attitude towards the task and towards the language and motivation in general. And third of all, that ability to notice what's happening in the language, which I will describe in another video and which is very much related to our attitude and how much time we spend with the language. But let's just deal with this time issue. To me, the first thing when it comes to time management is to avoid distraction. And that means to know why you are learning the language, to be convinced that this is an important thing for you to do so that you stay in the moment. You don't begrudge the time that you spend on the language, listening to the language, reading the language, speaking the language. Even though you may not realize, or you may not feel as if you're improving, you have to stay within the moment. You have to think this is where I want to be now. I don't want to be somewhere else so I can avoid all those distractions because I'm totally into what I'm doing. So that motivation, that sense of wanting to be in that language learning moment. Time management is a big part of successful learning, especially when it comes to language learning. Second of all, set a schedule. There are different activities, and in my case, I have different schedules for different activities. So, when I wake up in the morning, I listen. I listen while getting the dishes out for breakfast, while preparing breakfast, and I also clean up after breakfast, and I listen while I do these things. If I'm ever in the car, I listen. So that's my listening schedule. Very often, I work out in the evening and do my kettlebell routine while watching Heather Robertson or Juice and Toya. But while doing that, I listen. I have a special set of headphones that I hook up to my ear so they don't fall out. Those are my schedules for listening, but I have a schedule for working on my iPad, doing the lesson. I do that typically around five o'clock in the evening, five or six in the evening, sometimes after dinner. So that's my schedule for my iPad linking type activities. But I also read a little bit before going to bed. Typically, I'll have beside my bed both a book that I'm reading in English, which is more pleasurable in a way. But I'll also have a book in the target language by my bed. So that's another time set aside for my specific language learning tasks. Stay on task, use goals, use the various prods, the statistics that we've built into LingQ, like a streak. If you signed up for a streak, you have to maintain your streak. You have to do something every day. You have to maintain a certain activity level. I have set a goal, for example, because say the longer term goal is that my wife and I are visiting Turkey. So I said when I was at about 8,000 words, from five years ago when I did Turkish, I said, I want to move that up to 35,000 known words between June and September, the end of September, which I have done. I'm now at 35,000 known words. It's a specific goal. It helps me stay on task, which is a big part of time management. Another thing, do the important things first, prioritize your activities. So since my goal was to achieve 35,000 known words in Turkish, every The first thing I did was to knock in 200 or so new known words. The remaining additional known words would come from my, you know, listening and reading activities, particularly my reading activities. But in order to get that 200 a day, you know, well on my way to achieving that, I would go to. Typically, you know, five minute long lessons and in our, uh, lesson page on the iPad, a little right hand corner, I can go through my vocabulary list. I'll go through there looking at either new words or links that I've previously saved and move as many of them as I can to known. Admittedly, it's easier to do in Turkish than perhaps in some other languages because There are so many forms of the same word, especially verbs, but that was my goal. So I get rid of that task first, every day. Next tip is with regard to speaking; speaking is important. I'll stress the importance of input to get a certain vocabulary going, but then you have to have regular interactions where you can speak. Uh, you might have a regular meetup wherever you live, where you can practice your language. Or you have online tutoring sessions. Typically with my online tutor, my link tutor, I will buy five or 10 lessons and I will schedule them Tuesday and Friday with the one tutor, Wednesday and Friday with the other tutor; it's scheduled. It's always the same date. I know when I have them. Scheduling your speaking or output opportunities, I think, is also important. I think to manage time, we have to keep track of our time. At LingQ, we track your time per se, and we track your activity level. You can look at the last seven days; you can look at the last three months. You can see how much time in total you're spending, because your words read, your LingQs saved, your hours of listening, these are all indications of time that you have spent on the task, time that you have spent with the language. You will see how much in total you've spent and how much it fluctuates from day to day. I think it's important. If we're going to manage our time, we have to be able to measure our time. And a lot of statistics at LingQ help you measure your time. The next tip is to have a favorite place for your favorite language learning activities. To me, the kitchen is a big part of my listening. My kitchen and my car is where I do a lot of listening. That's the place for listening. Uh, I have a favorite chair that I sit in when I'm working on my iPad, and that's where I do most of my listening. The vast majority of my iPad is for linking, working with texts to save words and phrases, or to review them. Beside my bed is my favorite place for reading paper material, but I don't use the iPad by the bed. So, in other words, having a favorite place for a specific activity, I think, helps to create a habit. That will help you manage your time and make sure that you do those activities. Multitasking. There is a time for multitasking and a time for not to multitask. The form of language learning that lends itself to multitasking, In my view, listening is a great activity for multitasking. I may decide that if I'm exercising, which requires a little more concentration, I will listen to easier content like the mini stories. Whereas if I'm doing the dishes, which doesn't require much attention, I'll listen to more interesting or more difficult content. However, there are times when you don't want to multitask. You obviously can't be reading and driving. If I'm working with my text and looking up words and phrases, then I'm not multitasking. And so it's very important that I avoid distractions, that I avoid going off to my iPhone or having the television on in the background or any of that kind of stuff. That cannot be combined with reading and looking up words and reviewing words. So there's a time for multitasking and a time for focus. Now, I've already said that a key to time management is that ability to focus, that ability to stay in the moment, the feeling that you want. To be doing this, you want to be learning the language. You recognize that you're improving with every minute that you spend with the language, even though you don't sense that you're improving. But the converse to that is there are times when you simply don't want to do it. And there you have to be able to let go. If you're not in the mood, if you don't want to do it, you might be fresher tomorrow. You might be keener tomorrow. Don't force yourself when you're not in the mood. Do something else, watch a video in the language, maybe, or do something else. Something totally different. Go for a run. Anything that takes you away from the task that enables you to recharge your batteries is going to help you come back and focus, and is going to help you manage your time effectively. Because, again, to summarize, if we want to be successful as language learners, we have to spend time with the language. We have to spend that time effectively, productively, with a positive attitude. And if we do those things, I hope that that little bit of my personal perspective on time management and language learning can be a useful reference for some of you. I look forward to hearing your comments. Thank you.
Steve's YouTube Videos, 10 tips for managing your time as a language learner
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