Need to use your language learning time more wisely? Here’s a suggestion: block your time. That means, dividing your day into sequential chunks that span short time frames, then using those chunks in your planning and logging activities.
Say, you have 3 hours a day to spare for language learning. If you’re winging what to do during those three hours, you’ll likely find yourself alternating between different activities: a language software lesson here, interrupted by practicing a monologue you downloaded from YouTube, which is then interrupted by an exercise you remember you were planning on doing.
Obviously, that way of working isn’t likely to net you the best results. In fact, all that shuffling will probably have you losing precious minutes that you could have used productively.
A better approach will be to divide those 3 hours into chunks. Personally, I like 30 minute chunks, but you can go lower if you’re more comfortable with it. Then, I schedule my language activities within those 30-minute bubbles.
Doing this allows you to focus on just a single activity at any one time. If you suddenly remember the YouTube monologue during the middle of your language software lesson, you can hold off on shifting your attention to it, since you have it penciled in during the next 30-minute block. It’s a more efficient way of managing your time — one that could generate significant results in your language learning efforts.
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