Welcome back! In the last post we talked about setting time goals, but goals don’t mean anything if you don’t know how to reach them, and time doesn’t mean anything if you don’t use it correctly. So how can you make sure you reach your goals of spending time on English and using your time correctly? The answer is: prioritizing (which you probably guessed from the title of the article).
Prioritizing English Studying Time
Now, you’ve set your time goal for each day. Should you beat yourself up if you didn’t reach that goal? It’s one thing if you are a police officer that has been working 12 hours a day trying to find an escaped prisoner and felt too tired to reach your time goal, and it’s another thing if you spent 4 hours today watching YouTube and didn’t feel like it.
If you aren’t reaching your time goal because you are spoiling yourself with entertainment, you should feel bad about turning your dial down to 30-minutes a week. You need to be prioritizing English over entertainment (which, did you know, doesn’t rest your brain but numbs it?).
The difficult decisions are when we have lots of responsibilities and if we say yes to all of them, we don’t have time to practice our new language. We were busy doing important things, right? We have to be honest with ourselves when we decide how important these things are, and how important our new language is. This is where prioritizing is most important.
Now, everyone’s priorities are different. Does your job require you to learn? Your language is a high priority. Is this something you are doing just for fun? It’s a low priority. Are you learning because your spouse speaks it? High priority. Is it because you want need to pass an exam to get into your dream career? Probably high priority.
When prioritizing the tasks in our lives, we need to get a good idea of where learning our new language fits in. Then, making decisions is much easier. Then we know when to say no and have a good reason to say “no”.
Is it near the end of the day, you’re starving, but you only have enough time to do your hour of study or make dinner? Order some food online or take your computer to the restaurant and eat there, studying while you wait. Or, you could make this your “listening hour” and put on a graded audiobook and make a simple meal so that you actually listen.
Is this the last day of the week, you have one hour left, and your friend sends a text inviting you to chat about something? Better learn how to say “no” in a good way, because your English is more important. “Sorry, dude. I’ve really gotta study right now. How about tomorrow?” is a perfectly good response.
Prioritizing Studying During English Studying Time
That’s a funny heading. What does “prioritize studying during English studying time” even mean? Well, it means that when we are spending your studying time, we should actually be studying. You know what I’m talking about. You’re as guilty as me!
Prioritizing Study Activities
So you have prioritized learning, you set aside an hour a day or something like that, and now you sit down to study. Now what?
If we don’t plan what we will be doing in those study sessions, we’ll end up going through countless Instagram posts, surfing the web hopping from article to article, or watching a series of vocabulary videos on YouTube.
But these aren’t good methods. We have to make sure that our study time is effective.
I always make a plan of what I will do in those study sessions. If you don’t have a study plan, you aren’t prepared to learn. It’s like going to a battle without your weapons. Your body is there, but you are completely useless!
My study plan has never been very complicated. I simply have a short list of a few tasks that I know help me learn. I prioritize my core learning activity, because that results in the best learning, and then I have 4-5 other tasks I can choose from to fill up the rest of the time.
I like to have variety so that I don’t feel like I get stuck in a rut. If I only have one learning activity, then it will work well for a while, but eventually it will get old, and I will feel the need to switch it out. If I have a variety, I can go a lot longer without needing to look for a big change. A variety also helps us develop in more areas.
A good core activity is something that uses your brain (not just watching or listening, but using) and has structure. When I learn a new language, I always make Rosetta Stone my core activity until I finish their whole course. This way I know I will learn according to a tried and true learning path, and I won’t waste time on unimportant things.
Your core learning activity is your top priority.
My second priority is always Anki. If I don’t put my new language in Anki, I can’t keep up with my other studies, and I can’t remember things in the long run. Actually, sometimes I have to put Anki as my top priority, depending on how long my new vocabulary list is and if its growing or shrinking. When I am learning more new words than I am putting into Anki, I have to prioritize making new Anki cards again and bring the new vocab count down before I learn more words.
Going through your core activity really fast isn’t good. Slow down and use other learning activities to support the core activity so you don’t lose what you worked so hard for.
Then I have my tertiary tasks. These are usually focused on one or two skills, or just a fun way to meet new language. I could spend time reading a graded reader, doing some listening, watching a video and adding new words to my vocabulary lists, practice writing, reading grammar articles, or other “low brain power” activities. I use these as fillers, because on their own they cannot produce long-term, healthy growth. They are great supplements to your studies. They are like vitamins. You can’t live on vitamins, but they can be healthy to add to your meals.
To give an example of what prioritizing your learning activities can look like, let’s say I have two lessons a week on Tuesday and Thursday. My time goal is 5 hours a week, 1 hour a day, with Anki review every day (not counted towards the hour). A normal week could look like this:
| On Monday, I could spend 30 minutes reviewing and preparing for Tuesday’s class. I still have 30 minutes left, so I practice writing the new words from last week and from what I will learn this week. I do Anki on the bus. |
| Tuesday, I do Anki while eating breakfast, and after work I have a 1-hour class, so I’m done for the day. |
| Wednesday I review Tuesday’s lesson by adding new words to Anki, adding pictures and audios to the flashcards. I don’t finish after 45 minutes, but I have to preview Thursday’s class, so I did that, taking notes on new words. I review Anki in bed after I turned off the lights because I forgot to earlier. |
| Thursday I have a 1-hour class again, but I’m feeling good afterwards, and so I spend 30-minutes putting the extra words in Anki. I do Anki review while waiting in line at the grocery store. |
| Friday, I have one last hour. I do Anki review while sitting on the toilet. Then after work, I finish adding the new words to Anki, and I have 25 minutes left. I feel a bit tired from the previous two days’ hard studying, so I listen to some learning podcasts on topics I like, taking notes on what I learn. |
| On the weekend, I rest from my studies because I met my goal, and I celebrate with ice cream for me, my wife, and my kids. I feel like studying more, but I know that if I try too hard, I will soon be demotivated, and I want to be excited and ready to study hard again next week. |
Prioritizing Learning during Your Study Session
In other words, plan not to be distracted. Don’t allow every little thing to pull you out of your studying. By preparing a little, you can get much more from your session than if you walk into it hoping English will magically teach you itself without you putting in any effort.
Silence your phone. Go somewhere others won’t bother you. Go to the bathroom before the hour begins. Grab the things you need and put them next to you. Sit facing away from the window (windows always pull my eyes away from what I’m doing!). Have a nice drink on the table. Chew some gum to prevent you from snacking (a big time waster). Start a focus session on your computer.
Focus sessions are a great study method. I don’t use them often, but when I feel that I can’t focus, I do.
On my computer, there is a button that comes up if I click on the clock that says “Focus”. I can choose how long the session will be. It automatically gives me 5-minute breaks every 20 minutes of work. I love doing this when I struggle.
And that’s it! These tips work for me, since I need a flexible study schedule to fit my crazy life as a dad. I used to put lots of pressure on myself and found out that it only slowed me down. Instead, trying to have variety, flexible time goals, rewards, and grace on myself when life is too difficult to study all make it easier for me to grow.