I've set a goal for myself to study every day. Do I achieve it? Yes. How? Small targets.
What image did you think of when I stated "study every day."? Me sitting at a desk, pencil in hand with piles of text books around me. Masami drilling the meanings of Japanese particles? Me, wearing a kimono writing kanji with a brush and ink? Spending hours and hours reading through a Japanese-English dictionary? No way! I would consider myself a casual learner (some would say a slow learner which would not be quite correct.).
So how do I study every day?
Easy. I study for 10 minutes. I know I can spare 10 minutes out of one day, so that's what I do. Actually, on average I study about 30 minutes per day because I want to learn more.
"If you can spare 30 minutes a day for studying, why not set your goal at 30 minutes day?"
Good question.:
1) 10 minutes is enough time to learn something new or reinforce what I know.
Great, I'm gaining confidence or expanding my knowledge. Win and/or win.
2) At 10 minutes I have succeeded my goal.
I feel good about that, which, motivates me to study a bit more. Hooray for succeeding small targets!
3) I can guarantee 10 minutes of distraction free time.
30 minutes is possible but I can get, 100% certain, 10 minutes of distraction free time .
4) There's only so much you can study in 10 minutes.
There's no chance of study fatigue so I don't feel like studying is a burden or troublesome. Again, it makes me want to get back to the books, applications, recordings or whatever resource I'm using to study.
These are the reasons why I study for 10 minutes every day. Because of these things I feel encouraged to study every day. If I'm not feeling up to studying one day, well, it's only 10 minutes and I'm done. Simple.
I may not be fast tracking my learning but I'm also not giving up and stopping learning altogether.
Hooray for succeeding small targets!
Duncan
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