the "Not do" part was what seemed really unique for me... I know I always tend to focus on what exactly I want to get done, but never see the "not doing the things that prevent you from reaching your goals" as actionable items too
I'm defo going to try this, the last few months have been rubbish personally. A lack of motivation in all aspects of life, like studying, going to the gym, eating healthily, etc. Hopefully this can help kick all the bad habits I've picked up. Thanks for sharing this idea
Tracking my time spent on each activity helped me TREMENDOUSLY because it told me immediately how much time I spent and why I may be weaker in other things like listening.
These journals can very useful but can also be a doubled edged sword. In much the same way that people get trapped in a mode of talking about language learning instead of doing language learning, people can easily become obsessive with their journals and spend excessive amount of time managing them. Just keep it simple.
I did this several times throughout my life. It works for a few weeks or months but then life happens and I need to just focus on one thing and leave the rest unattended which adds extra stress when I have to check those boxes, so I stop doing it altogether There are daily habits that are simple enough that you can (and sometimes must) commit to them on a daily basis (like drinking 2l of water or taking a shower). But if something takes more than 30' or an hour, there will be days you just cannot do that thing so the best thing is to just put a weekly goal for those So this works... Sometimes... Under specific circumstances. I wouldn't use it as a long term solution. Though it definitely can help you increase your discipline and leave behind bad habits
To me it always becomes an internal philosophical thing at some point (enjoying life vs. achieving something), so going 100% productive every day would never be an option. Especially because it's not just Japanese and I also want to maintain e.g. fitness and music and achieve things at work. Every extreme method falls apart sooner or later.
Honestly this is by far my toughest obstacle. Not having class deadlines or anyone else in my life also studying Japanese, I find it almost impossible to keep myself accountable for actually properly studying. It’s caused me to forget what I learn, and when I finally feel bad again and decide to buckle down, I’m just studying what I did last time because it didn’t stick completely after enough time passed. This is very helpful, and I hope there are any other things you could suggest to help with keeping self accountability for keeping up consistent studying.
I'm exactly inside the same loop but the thing is that i don't even know how to study sometimes. Maybe i'll try the 15 min kanj videosi and then grammar, etc 🥲
I hope trying this can help! Adding one or two things you want to cut BACK on to the list is a really important part that can help with this. And staying consistent is the best way to make sure things start to stick. Also, going back to OLD stuff, and seeing if you understand it easier now can be good, too. 😊
great job on the piano! that’s pretty good progress for only 1 month (Im currently studying Japanese and piano each day, progress is slow, but at least there is progress)!
You really hit the nail on the head when you talk about accountability. That "future person reading the notebook" or "Future you having to write down the reason" is so powerful. I finally quit pornography completely when I told myself "Everytime I look at porn, I have to tell my wife about it". I tried for YEARS to drop it and finally just someone keeping me accountable was the answer. This video is awesome, keep it up!
I like the idea of writing down WHY I haven't met my daily goals. Then I'll be able to see what the roadblocks are and come up with a method of how to deal with those.
@@ToKiniAndy Should have added really happy I found your channel love your content, broken down into great format and easy to take in. You're making it WAAAAY easier to want to learn Japanese. Also making learning much easier! so thanks all round really appreciate the time you take to make all this stuff, keep It up!!
I have been using HabitShare for a while as well, with a friend. It helps keep me on track just by knowing they 'might' someday look at it. It works most of the times though after getting used to it it loses a bit of effect on new topics
I tried to learn japanese but gave up in three days .Not for the reason you expect .I stopped learning because it is useless I can just rewatch naruto and learn words meaning just to understand anime .I know I won't ever live in Japan so writing , talking and grammar are useless
Something i heard about a while ago that i've been more concious about the past 2-3 months is willpower. you have more will power in the mornings than you do later in the day when you have to make all these micro choices throughout the day and by the time you get home and have time to study its so much easier to choose something more pleasurable to do rather than your study. With that i've been trying to wake up a little earlier and get in at least my reviews and making some anki cards before work, then i can make some more if i want to reach a 20 card count that day or just immerse in reading or listening when i get home since listening is more enjoyable for me than reading and making flashcards
I'm already doing this. In fact. when days I Want to stay up late and play video games as a hobby. I some how fed the study guy to thinking that learning Korean and Chinese or extra Japanese on top are much more fun and productive. because instead of wrecking my sleep with video games I'm wrecking my sleep with languages in which I'm going to study anyway. most important it's fun. because it's furfilling doing assigned mission and goal with a chance of an entertainment at the end. it's A subtle way of gamifying life without the cringe of you think about it, and it works for me.
Should be: On my exercise bike with my head in my Vision Pro, doing Anki cards or watching content with Japanese audio. Was: Looking at my phone reading random junk when a notification from TH-cam pointed me at this. I also bought a few journals from Kurzgesagt when I got my 2024 calendar (so, like in November) and just unwrapped the Habit Journal. That looks like it's got a ramp up time, so starting the journal *right now*. Thanks for the video!
One method I’ve found effective for myself is “no guilty habit (in my case, osrs) without first doing my Japanese.” This encourages me to not delay my Japanese study, and the study behavior is rewarded by being able to play osrs and creates a positive feedback loop.
Have been trying this technique now since 05.14.24 and at the start was a pattern of me, doing all for 1-2 days and then for the next 2 days I didn't do anything. That pattern repeated itself 3x until I finally got my pushthrough moment on day 05.26.24. Which I started completing all tasks daily.
What's been helpful to me (and this may be more of an adjacent tip to the solution presented here), is to combine Japanese study with habits I already have established. For example, I already have an established habit of getting up early to march in my room for extra steps before work. I combine that with watching Japanese language videos (whether specific learning videos or comprehensible input), thereby strengthening both habits. I also march and listen to a study material (previously an audio bible) while brushing my teeth/washing my face, etc, as well as while I'm getting dressed in the morning. Combining all those habits/daily requirements gets me both an easy 7000 steps and 1.5 hrs of Japanese study before I leave my house for work. Listening on the way to work= +40 mins. Reading comprehensible materials on the toilet= +another, what, 40 or so mins spread throughout the day? This has really helped me to log significant time with the language, and I've seen some exciting improvements in a short time. I hope this may be helpful to others as well!
I like this! Reminiscent of "habit stacking," but I think will work better for me. Habit stacking is tacking a new habit onto an established one. While it's been shown to be very effective, it hasn't worked very well for me. I often don't have the necessary time before or after my already established habits to tack on a new one; however, language learning can certainly be done simultaneously with many of my currently established habits! I love this idea. Thank you for sharing! I'm not sure why but it hadn't really occurred to me to try that.
Really enjoyed this video. I am a teacher and I am always trying to help my students (and myself) with time management. I started learning Japanese in December with Duolingo (eye roll). I have since added Genki and I very recently found your videos. I am coming to Japan..to Nagano! for a teacher exchange program.
Accountability doesn't work for me since I'm too old to care. 😂 Also, if something feels like an obligation I'll lose interest fast. But, luckily my "what I do for fun" is literally studying Korean and Japanese, so I'll spend hours a day at it anyway. Like watch gaming or vlogs in Korean or do Japanese listening comprehension practice tests. My language app streak is already at over 1000 days. Household chores and stuff are a different story tho, I ignore/procrastinate the sh*t out of those 🤣 ....but then we're back at "too old to care" lol.
I am actually doing this and it’s been 3 months since but not yet for studying Japanese. For other things, like reading for 10 minutes after lunch. I experimented with it and revised it according to my personality. Here are some tips. I get easily bored for doing the same goals for a month that by near the end of the month, I tend to not do some of them, and the tracking makes it tedious so what I do is i make it per week. I change goals per week therefore, in just a little time, I can see there overall percentage of my goal completion. -goals should change per week or carry over some goals from past weeks but add little revision. For example last week, my exercise goal was to exercise 10mins every morning. Now my goal is to stretch every morning then 10mins of strength training immediately after work. Also add red ticks for rest day. It is considered as okay not to do and completed. -I add condition of time per goal so I know when to do a certain. It is my trigger to do the habit. For example, read 10mins IMMEDIATELY after eating lunch, exercise after playing with dogs. Do the new goals after things you already do in the daily basis. -Make it small quantity as much as possible. Like 10mins, 5mins of walk every hr, 10pages of reading. So just by doing small things, you get to tick marks and accomplished goals. Add more as you progress.
I am actually doing this and it’s been 3 months since but not yet for studying Japanese. For other things, like reading for 10 minutes after lunch. I experimented with it and revised it according to my personality. Here are some tips. I get easily bored for doing the same goals for a month that by near the end of the month, I tend to not do some of them, and the tracking makes it tedious so what I do is i make it per week. I change goals per week therefore, in just a little time, I can see there overall percentage of my goal completion. -goals should change per week or carry over some goals from past weeks but add little revision. For example last week, my exercise goal was to exercise 10mins every morning. Now my goal is to stretch every morning then 10mins of strength training immediately after work. Also add red ticks for rest day. It is considered as okay not to do and completed. -I add condition of time per goal so I know when to do a certain. It is my trigger to do the habit. For example, read 10mins IMMEDIATELY after eating lunch, exercise after playing with dogs. Do the new goals after things you already do in the daily basis. -Make it small quantity as much as possible. Like 10mins, 5mins of walk every hr, 10pages of reading. So just by doing small things, you get to tick marks and accomplished goals. Add more as you progress.
Been really struggling with not hitting my goals, and stressing over not having time when I know I have some time despite my 2 hour commute time every day with my job. Will really try hard with this method. Thank you for your content!
Thank you... I feel guilty because I haven't been studying as I would like. The method seems simple enough to do every day, unlike others I've tried before that are overwhelming.
I actually just started journaling in a similar way recently. It's been life changing! You have some really good tips in here that I'm going to start implementing immediately. ありがとう ございます!
I fell off the study wagon after a month of birthday hell and then another crazy busy summer month. So I'm coming back to this, but I'm going to try it slightly modified, where instead of things I don't want to do, I will be putting a "don't do until you're done" thing in the far column. There aren't any things I do that I particularly want to quit, so I'm going to use it to enforce more of a work before play kind of thing.
Also, as a tech and systems kind of guy, it's tempting to use a gamified app or read a book or start using a system or whatever, including that journal I said I had...but the time to read and set that up is just another form of procrastination. This video takes six minutes to watch, then grab anything you can write on, and set it up like Andy says. I'm doing that right now, then it's off to my Anki deck. Then later once you've started with small steps, if you want to build a system around it or gamify it or use an app or whatever, that's good.
I am already spmewhat consistent in my learning, but I am procrastinating reagrding my thesis, so I will try this and give my feedback in a few weeks! Ty!
I think this video fits exactly my current situation. Because I really want to do it but I keep doing exuses every time in order not to, but again I recover courage and I let it down, without reaching anywhere. But now it feels like it were normal, not a reason to worry but a tool to reach further. And that makes me realize the real purpose is to enjoy the joruney, more that accept it will be painful and hard. considering all this, Is this a good course to start? I am interested in joining it, but I don't know to much Japanese so I don't know if it is appropiated for me.
Checklists have been a go-to staple for me when I need to get things done. It was the only way I was able to write 12 essays (10+ pages each) within 2 weeks for college. I never thought about adding entries for boundaries as well. Neat!
It always ends in loss of desire. at some point I no longer feel an emotional attachment to diaries and notes, I just sincerely wish to stop learning useful things and start scrolling the Internet. Breakdown is inevitable. Either I quit immediately, or I force myself to continue through and quit with irritation. Going to small intervals doesn't help either. I have to force myself to do even 15-minute intervals of the thing.
this is more of an open-ended question, but if anyone has suggestions for notebook/journaling apps that could work for this method, please drop it somewhere! physical notebooks are super effective, but they also aren't super accessible to everyone
for every day life activities i might try this someday but for studying Japanese speficially I don't think i'll do it. and the reason is i tried it before when studying kanji, so i started to use the application called kanji study, and it gives you a reminder every day when you don't study so you don't lose your study streak. but honestly after a while even though i had a 193 days streak, it started to feel like a job more than doing something fun for studying, i would study kanji randomly on the app just so i don't lose the study streak. for me i started studying japanese because i wanted not because i was forced to do it like school . and it was fun, so i don't do these reminders and must study every day routines. of course not that it's bad , it's just FOR ME i found it un effective and not fun so i stopped doing it
I did something similar in a spreadsheet many years ago, then stopped but picked it up again a few months ago. It does help my motivation to see a green instead of a red cell. I track around 20 things atm, however most aren't goals but rather just curiosity, how often I do them
Sounds cool. Only problem...I don't think I'd care if someone found the journal and it was bad. Still marking things not to do as actionable items is a good idea. I might think about it
I like the method and thank you for all of the great content! I usually can get an hour of study in every morning before work, but when I try to study later in the day after work, I don’t feel as if I have the same mental capacity to retain the information. In your opinion, is it even worth doing a second study session if it doesn’t feel productive?
I'm for sure gonna try this im trying to study a lot over the summer. But I keep finding myself on Instagram doom scrolling. I'm trying to work ahead in genki before the semester starts my goal is to finish the book and start on genki 2 by the time next semester comes.
not a joke comment. usually when I reflect on why I failed yet again at doing important things, it's because I am a worthless piece of shit and I hope that the people around me didn't notice yet. been telling myself that for a long time now and when other people tell me otherwise I have to push myself to believe them.
Had an idea like this before but then forgot about it the next day lol. Now that I'm reminded I will definitely try it starting today. Will come back next month for update Great vid! Thank you for sharing
Funny timing for this video as recently I've really needed to see something like this. I went from a 3 month streak of 4 hours of studying/practice a day to maybe a couple attempts at grammar/vocab then just playing Fallout till I sleep. While playing Fallout I just keep thinking about that fact I'm gonna get worse at what I've already learned yet just continue to play anyway cx. Hopefully this method helps!
The nice thing about this, is that if you don't check things off one day, it's not like you forget the next day what you did and didn't do the previous day. So you can just check (or not check) the previous days boxes off the next day. 😊
Top about playing piano (or more just music in general). Don't use a metronome or ar least have it beat once per bar not once per beat. They're good fir practicing at first but when trsint to play adhering to them too strictly will make your music feel lifeless and monotonous. Put some feeling into it instead
My goal with piano is actually related to my drum playing. So practicing piano with a metronome makes my timing on drums better. But I’m only using it for certain songs right now. 😊
Physically writing it out also helps because 1) you're creating a physical artefact of your goals/antigoals 2) writing things by hand makes them more real mentally, like how taking physical notes is better for memory than typing notes it's also an excuse to get into fancy and expensive pens and inks and paper
Great hack. Use that same desire for dopamine. I’d argue this isn’t the “other guy” finally winning-I’d argue this is still your Netflix or Final Fantasy guy being happy because you’re still feeding him dopamine from that box check. It just has that added impact of being productive, too! Great tip!
I think I'm already quite organized and productive, yet I do appreciate the format suggested with the notebook. Generally, I use reoccurring tasks with todolist, but they focus so much on the "today" that you don't really see the "chain of successes" that much. Right now, I'm trying to do something similar but where I actually state what I am really doing. Sometimes I might think I've checked the box "30 min of Genki", when in fact I might have been a bit dispersed. So instead of checkbox, I tend to note "Genki Lesson 15", so now the more time is spent before I write "16", the more guilty I am and that's what push me to move forward. Of course, you can't plan everything like this, you can't just say "I want N4 level for end of the year", this doesn't make sense since you need to focus on the process and not the outcome. Yet, if you can states things like "I want to be at page X of that book", now you have a "goal" that is a bit more process-driven than outcome driven (of course, one could argue it's still an outcome, but it's a more predictable one)
I know this sounds bad but ima start this first thing tomorrow, I've been STRUGGLING with focusing on studying Japanese and other things. Thank you so much!
Started something similar using the 12 Week Year (just read notes, what a long and boring read). What I ended up doing is use Google calendar to give me tasks which consequently nag me to do my anki, 30 minutes reading/grammar, 30 minutes immersion/listening daily. Turns out I just needed a constant nag :P
I just started doing this today, and I'm going to add in a couple things to the Learning/Goal Diary that you laid out here. 1. I'm going to add in a small section, on the page where you write down the things that kept you from learning as much as you could have, that includes a summary of something I actually learned. I believe this will help to feed the "Wants to Learn Guy", by being able to look back and remind myself "Oh you learned this on that day and made progress!", while discouraging the Lazy Guy with the mistakes he made that day (I.E. too much time gaming, watching corn, etc.) 2. Keeping track, as best as I can, of the actual time spent doing each activity, both good and bad. This just feels like a natural step up from simply giving a check to the "good" activities, while also giving me a concrete amount of time I can look at when I waste time by doing the "bad"' activities. Similar to the first, I think that writing down the time spent with activities will encourage me by showing how much time i've spent doing good things, while also showing how much time was wasted on unnecessary things. It may help with getting better at time management(?) I may add other things to this as i continue forward, but we'll see. Hopefully in a month I'll be able to come back to this comment with a reply, to update how I feel about these small additions to the Journaling and how it could, possibly, be improved upon ^_^
As a behavior analyst, this is super on par with other recommended practices. If you had an "accountability partner", to check on your notebook frequently, you could possibly improve this process. Better yet, if your accountability partner benefits in some way (while you lose something, for example, lets say you pay them $1 everyday you miss), it may help them keep you accountable and will make you not want to ever miss a day. Although, this is a bit more of an extreme process. Consistency is really the most important part. Don't skip the progress recording!
Way to go on the piano progress! This is on top of the marathon you have been prepping for?!? I’ve been bullet journaling as a to-do list for ages, but never thought to include the tasks I do that aren’t productive. Or the reasons why I didn’t complete my to-do list. I’m not quite sure how I would incorporate that. 🤔 My biggest issue with making the journal any more complex than a simple list is that I get bogged down by the beautiful Pinterest bullet journal trackers to add and then feel so overwhelmed that I never make them and just go back to the list. I’m going to rewatch this and see if I can internalize the tips a bit more and come back with questions.
Reminds me of this quote that I saw a while ago "Discipline is the strongest form of self love. it’s ignoring current pleasures for bigger rewards to come. It’s loving yourself enough to do whatever you need to do, to give yourself everything you’ve ever wanted. It’s giving up the good for the great." I've been pretty decent with self-discipline, but I am really excited to have something concrete that I can look at and track my progress.
Really funny timing for this video! I started doing this as a return to a form of bullet journalling a little over a month ago. I started because I wanted to keep myself accountable, but ALSO because I have 3 main pursuits right now which are to learn Japanese, art, and to improve my fitness and I want to keep my motivation up for them. Since each of these are very long term goals, I wanted to give myself a short term accomplishment in the form of checking a box at the end of the day to recognize that I am making progress even if I don't see quick results. Mine is set up slightly differently, I have a monthly chart like you outlined here, but I fill in the number of minutes I did of that task each day instead. (plus a bonus column for steps taken) After the monthly chart, I have a daily log where every morning I write the date and make checkboxes for the main tasks I want to accomplish, which includes those tasks from the chart. That part is to mainly remind myself to set an intention for that day so I don't forget. I also write little notes in the daily log when I have ideas, struggles, or good things that I accomplished or happened that day that I want to remember. It's worked great so far! I've kept at it and I'm excited to write in my journal every day and see if I can trend my time spent on the things I want to do upwards :)
I only had my right headphone in and I sat here for like 10 seconds trying to figure out why I couldn't hear the piano. LOL. There is a book called Atomic Hearts that goes over creating good habits to where they almost become second nature. Might be worth a good read. Setting a time via a journal on when you are going to do stuff was one of the key suggestions made when creating habits you want to keep.
There is definitely something about accountability as I don’t like disappointing other people but seem to be OK with disappointing myself. I definitely think check list helps. I use it for many other things in life like chores etc but I think what might end up happening with this is I would quit the journal altogether if I can’t achieve my goal and don’t want to write the reason why because after all the accountability is still within myself. I will definitely give it a go as I’m deep in procrastination forest at the moment.
it’s been such a long time of being super excited to learn, then getting discouraged and stopping for weeks- building bad habits instead, then forgetting everything I learned. having your future self keep you accountable is brilliant. thanks for this vid😮💨
I already have something like a checklist/routine but still, I sometimes do to much from the one and miss a lot from the other. Like, the last weeks I studied nearly only japanese and let slide english and italian. So this will help me for sure, thank you :D
I have this going about now haha. I had school to push me. Always a deadline and always had to meet expectations for my language classes. Now that I have no expectation until it matters I don't feel the pressure to learn. Gotta start again like fast.
i have used bullet journaling for years.. but lately i've gotten a bit lax. This reminded me of why i did it in the first place. i also used to have habit trackers for each month... but i kinda let that go a year or so ago. And i LOVE the idea of saying WHY i didn't do something on my to-do list or WHY i did do something on my don't-do list. okay... time to set it up starting today!
This sounds brilliant. This is what i struggle with by doing the things I have already learend over and over again like practicing kana flash cards. I am going to try this for several things that want to get done but struggling to get started.
"talking about learning, instead of actually learning"
you had to make it personal 😭
the "Not do" part was what seemed really unique for me... I know I always tend to focus on what exactly I want to get done, but never see the "not doing the things that prevent you from reaching your goals" as actionable items too
I think that is probably the KEY part that has made this whole little experiment go off so well. 😊
seems like common sense though
Actually calling me out, I’m so surprised I got here this early tho
I'm defo going to try this, the last few months have been rubbish personally. A lack of motivation in all aspects of life, like studying, going to the gym, eating healthily, etc. Hopefully this can help kick all the bad habits I've picked up. Thanks for sharing this idea
Good luck! You've got this!
I hope it can help! We're cheering you on over here! 🎉
Tracking my time spent on each activity helped me TREMENDOUSLY because it told me immediately how much time I spent and why I may be weaker in other things like listening.
☑️ No more watching "How to Learn Japanese FLUENT in 6 months" videos.
These journals can very useful but can also be a doubled edged sword. In much the same way that people get trapped in a mode of talking about language learning instead of doing language learning, people can easily become obsessive with their journals and spend excessive amount of time managing them.
Just keep it simple.
I followed Reysu’s idea since the start of the year. The biggest issue is that I ignore the journal, just as I ignore any other notification. 🤷♀️
Actually since January 26 😅
Came to learn how to study Japanese. Left with a great life lesson. Much appreciated!
I did this several times throughout my life. It works for a few weeks or months but then life happens and I need to just focus on one thing and leave the rest unattended which adds extra stress when I have to check those boxes, so I stop doing it altogether
There are daily habits that are simple enough that you can (and sometimes must) commit to them on a daily basis (like drinking 2l of water or taking a shower). But if something takes more than 30' or an hour, there will be days you just cannot do that thing so the best thing is to just put a weekly goal for those
So this works... Sometimes... Under specific circumstances. I wouldn't use it as a long term solution. Though it definitely can help you increase your discipline and leave behind bad habits
To me it always becomes an internal philosophical thing at some point (enjoying life vs. achieving something), so going 100% productive every day would never be an option. Especially because it's not just Japanese and I also want to maintain e.g. fitness and music and achieve things at work. Every extreme method falls apart sooner or later.
Honestly this is by far my toughest obstacle. Not having class deadlines or anyone else in my life also studying Japanese, I find it almost impossible to keep myself accountable for actually properly studying. It’s caused me to forget what I learn, and when I finally feel bad again and decide to buckle down, I’m just studying what I did last time because it didn’t stick completely after enough time passed. This is very helpful, and I hope there are any other things you could suggest to help with keeping self accountability for keeping up consistent studying.
I'm exactly inside the same loop but the thing is that i don't even know how to study sometimes. Maybe i'll try the 15 min kanj videosi and then grammar, etc 🥲
I hope trying this can help!
Adding one or two things you want to cut BACK on to the list is a really important part that can help with this.
And staying consistent is the best way to make sure things start to stick.
Also, going back to OLD stuff, and seeing if you understand it easier now can be good, too. 😊
What helped me was finding a SRS system that actually held my attention. Right now it's WaniKani
great job on the piano! that’s pretty good progress for only 1 month (Im currently studying Japanese and piano each day, progress is slow, but at least there is progress)!
You really hit the nail on the head when you talk about accountability. That "future person reading the notebook" or "Future you having to write down the reason" is so powerful. I finally quit pornography completely when I told myself "Everytime I look at porn, I have to tell my wife about it". I tried for YEARS to drop it and finally just someone keeping me accountable was the answer.
This video is awesome, keep it up!
I like the idea of writing down WHY I haven't met my daily goals. Then I'll be able to see what the roadblocks are and come up with a method of how to deal with those.
"If Japanese takes 30 minutes a day, it might cause me a little trouble"
"But would you lose?"
"Nah, I will have fun"
How did you know I was playing FF14 and pretending it was studying Japanese?!?! I feel so called out 😂
My name is "Race" but in Japanese it comes out as レース. That means the name "Reysu" is already taken. This is a first for me
Very nice system! Coincidentally I started with the piano yesterday but with no structure, would love to know what resources you've used so far
I’ve been using the app Simply Piano on iPad. It’s surprisingly fantastic!
I use habit tracking app. The days streak really helps as the pain of breaking long streaks works a charm! 150 days in a row of Japanese study now!
Nice!
@@ToKiniAndy Should have added really happy I found your channel love your content, broken down into great format and easy to take in. You're making it WAAAAY easier to want to learn Japanese. Also making learning much easier! so thanks all round really appreciate the time you take to make all this stuff, keep It up!!
Any app recs?
Which app? I was using Habitica for a while, but fell out of the habit. 🤦♂I don't want to delay, so starting with paper right now.
I have been using HabitShare for a while as well, with a friend. It helps keep me on track just by knowing they 'might' someday look at it. It works most of the times though after getting used to it it loses a bit of effect on new topics
Also, I have always appreciated your candor, and you use it to effect here.
I tried to learn japanese but gave up in three days .Not for the reason you expect .I stopped learning because it is useless I can just rewatch naruto and learn words meaning just to understand anime .I know I won't ever live in Japan so writing , talking and grammar are useless
Idk man. I used to tell myself the same thing but you never know 😏
Something i heard about a while ago that i've been more concious about the past 2-3 months is willpower. you have more will power in the mornings than you do later in the day when you have to make all these micro choices throughout the day and by the time you get home and have time to study its so much easier to choose something more pleasurable to do rather than your study. With that i've been trying to wake up a little earlier and get in at least my reviews and making some anki cards before work, then i can make some more if i want to reach a 20 card count that day or just immerse in reading or listening when i get home since listening is more enjoyable for me than reading and making flashcards
just thinking about having to prepare such a jounal and update it every day brought back my will so study
Haha! Whatever works I guess! 😊
I'm already doing this. In fact. when days I Want to stay up late and play video games as a hobby. I some how fed the study guy to thinking that learning Korean and Chinese or extra Japanese on top are much more fun and productive. because instead of wrecking my sleep with video games I'm wrecking my sleep with languages in which I'm going to study anyway. most important it's fun. because it's furfilling doing assigned mission and goal with a chance of an entertainment at the end. it's A subtle way of gamifying life without the cringe of you think about it, and it works for me.
Gonna have to add "Go to sleep by 11" to that list. 😅
Should be: On my exercise bike with my head in my Vision Pro, doing Anki cards or watching content with Japanese audio. Was: Looking at my phone reading random junk when a notification from TH-cam pointed me at this. I also bought a few journals from Kurzgesagt when I got my 2024 calendar (so, like in November) and just unwrapped the Habit Journal.
That looks like it's got a ramp up time, so starting the journal *right now*.
Thanks for the video!
One method I’ve found effective for myself is “no guilty habit (in my case, osrs) without first doing my Japanese.” This encourages me to not delay my Japanese study, and the study behavior is rewarded by being able to play osrs and creates a positive feedback loop.
I love in your genki lessons when you say コーヒー 👍🏼 it sounds cool
When I don't want to focus on study amd play videos I compromise and play video games in japanese 😂
I will have to try this notebook method!
Playing video games in Japanese is a huge win in my book. 😊
Have been trying this technique now since 05.14.24 and at the start was a pattern of me, doing all for 1-2 days and then for the next 2 days I didn't do anything. That pattern repeated itself 3x until I finally got my pushthrough moment on day 05.26.24. Which I started completing all tasks daily.
僕ことが、ゲーム遊びはつまなったになりました。。。毎日ひまから勉強だけ出来ます🙏😭 (I kinda wanna make progress tho..)
Thought I was being attacked there for a second at the beginning... but we are all good, I don't play League, FFXIV, and don't have Netflix.
What's been helpful to me (and this may be more of an adjacent tip to the solution presented here), is to combine Japanese study with habits I already have established. For example, I already have an established habit of getting up early to march in my room for extra steps before work. I combine that with watching Japanese language videos (whether specific learning videos or comprehensible input), thereby strengthening both habits. I also march and listen to a study material (previously an audio bible) while brushing my teeth/washing my face, etc, as well as while I'm getting dressed in the morning. Combining all those habits/daily requirements gets me both an easy 7000 steps and 1.5 hrs of Japanese study before I leave my house for work. Listening on the way to work= +40 mins. Reading comprehensible materials on the toilet= +another, what, 40 or so mins spread throughout the day? This has really helped me to log significant time with the language, and I've seen some exciting improvements in a short time. I hope this may be helpful to others as well!
I like this! Reminiscent of "habit stacking," but I think will work better for me.
Habit stacking is tacking a new habit onto an established one. While it's been shown to be very effective, it hasn't worked very well for me. I often don't have the necessary time before or after my already established habits to tack on a new one; however, language learning can certainly be done simultaneously with many of my currently established habits! I love this idea. Thank you for sharing! I'm not sure why but it hadn't really occurred to me to try that.
Making lists and, more importantly, ticking things off thosr lists is very satisfying. So I do expect this will work.
Really enjoyed this video. I am a teacher and I am always trying to help my students (and myself) with time management. I started learning Japanese in December with Duolingo (eye roll). I have since added Genki and I very recently found your videos. I am coming to Japan..to Nagano! for a teacher exchange program.
Accountability doesn't work for me since I'm too old to care. 😂 Also, if something feels like an obligation I'll lose interest fast. But, luckily my "what I do for fun" is literally studying Korean and Japanese, so I'll spend hours a day at it anyway. Like watch gaming or vlogs in Korean or do Japanese listening comprehension practice tests. My language app streak is already at over 1000 days. Household chores and stuff are a different story tho, I ignore/procrastinate the sh*t out of those 🤣 ....but then we're back at "too old to care" lol.
I am actually doing this and it’s been 3 months since but not yet for studying Japanese. For other things, like reading for 10 minutes after lunch. I experimented with it and revised it according to my personality. Here are some tips.
I get easily bored for doing the same goals for a month that by near the end of the month, I tend to not do some of them, and the tracking makes it tedious so what I do is i make it per week. I change goals per week therefore, in just a little time, I can see there overall percentage of my goal completion.
-goals should change per week or carry over some goals from past weeks but add little revision. For example last week, my exercise goal was to exercise 10mins every morning. Now my goal is to stretch every morning then 10mins of strength training immediately after work. Also add red ticks for rest day. It is considered as okay not to do and completed.
-I add condition of time per goal so I know when to do a certain. It is my trigger to do the habit. For example, read 10mins IMMEDIATELY after eating lunch, exercise after playing with dogs. Do the new goals after things you already do in the daily basis.
-Make it small quantity as much as possible. Like 10mins, 5mins of walk every hr, 10pages of reading. So just by doing small things, you get to tick marks and accomplished goals. Add more as you progress.
I am actually doing this and it’s been 3 months since but not yet for studying Japanese. For other things, like reading for 10 minutes after lunch. I experimented with it and revised it according to my personality. Here are some tips.
I get easily bored for doing the same goals for a month that by near the end of the month, I tend to not do some of them, and the tracking makes it tedious so what I do is i make it per week. I change goals per week therefore, in just a little time, I can see there overall percentage of my goal completion.
-goals should change per week or carry over some goals from past weeks but add little revision. For example last week, my exercise goal was to exercise 10mins every morning. Now my goal is to stretch every morning then 10mins of strength training immediately after work. Also add red ticks for rest day. It is considered as okay not to do and completed.
-I add condition of time per goal so I know when to do a certain. It is my trigger to do the habit. For example, read 10mins IMMEDIATELY after eating lunch, exercise after playing with dogs. Do the new goals after things you already do in the daily basis.
-Make it small quantity as much as possible. Like 10mins, 5mins of walk every hr, 10pages of reading. So just by doing small things, you get to tick marks and accomplished goals. Add more as you progress.
Been really struggling with not hitting my goals, and stressing over not having time when I know I have some time despite my 2 hour commute time every day with my job. Will really try hard with this method. Thank you for your content!
Question : does your tokiniAndy Genki course also have flashcards for each chapter's vocab? Thanks
Thank you... I feel guilty because I haven't been studying as I would like. The method seems simple enough to do every day, unlike others I've tried before that are overwhelming.
I actually just started journaling in a similar way recently. It's been life changing! You have some really good tips in here that I'm going to start implementing immediately. ありがとう ございます!
I fell off the study wagon after a month of birthday hell and then another crazy busy summer month. So I'm coming back to this, but I'm going to try it slightly modified, where instead of things I don't want to do, I will be putting a "don't do until you're done" thing in the far column. There aren't any things I do that I particularly want to quit, so I'm going to use it to enforce more of a work before play kind of thing.
Also, as a tech and systems kind of guy, it's tempting to use a gamified app or read a book or start using a system or whatever, including that journal I said I had...but the time to read and set that up is just another form of procrastination. This video takes six minutes to watch, then grab anything you can write on, and set it up like Andy says.
I'm doing that right now, then it's off to my Anki deck.
Then later once you've started with small steps, if you want to build a system around it or gamify it or use an app or whatever, that's good.
I am already spmewhat consistent in my learning, but I am procrastinating reagrding my thesis, so I will try this and give my feedback in a few weeks! Ty!
I think this video fits exactly my current situation. Because I really want to do it but I keep doing exuses every time in order not to, but again I recover courage and I let it down, without reaching anywhere. But now it feels like it were normal, not a reason to worry but a tool to reach further. And that makes me realize the real purpose is to enjoy the joruney, more that accept it will be painful and hard.
considering all this, Is this a good course to start? I am interested in joining it, but I don't know to much Japanese so I don't know if it is appropiated for me.
Thanks for the video I'm actually going to try this out.
P.S. the Minami Kotori figure on the Piano is cute.
Checklists have been a go-to staple for me when I need to get things done. It was the only way I was able to write 12 essays (10+ pages each) within 2 weeks for college.
I never thought about adding entries for boundaries as well. Neat!
It always ends in loss of desire. at some point I no longer feel an emotional attachment to diaries and notes, I just sincerely wish to stop learning useful things and start scrolling the Internet. Breakdown is inevitable. Either I quit immediately, or I force myself to continue through and quit with irritation. Going to small intervals doesn't help either. I have to force myself to do even 15-minute intervals of the thing.
this is more of an open-ended question, but if anyone has suggestions for notebook/journaling apps that could work for this method, please drop it somewhere! physical notebooks are super effective, but they also aren't super accessible to everyone
for every day life activities i might try this someday but for studying Japanese speficially I don't think i'll do it.
and the reason is i tried it before when studying kanji,
so i started to use the application called kanji study, and it gives you a reminder every day when you don't study so you don't lose your study streak.
but honestly after a while even though i had a 193 days streak, it started to feel like a job more than doing something fun for studying, i would study kanji randomly on the app just so i don't lose the study streak.
for me i started studying japanese because i wanted not because i was forced to do it like school . and it was fun, so i don't do these reminders and must study every day routines.
of course not that it's bad , it's just FOR ME i found it un effective and not fun so i stopped doing it
I did something similar in a spreadsheet many years ago, then stopped but picked it up again a few months ago. It does help my motivation to see a green instead of a red cell. I track around 20 things atm, however most aren't goals but rather just curiosity, how often I do them
Sounds cool. Only problem...I don't think I'd care if someone found the journal and it was bad. Still marking things not to do as actionable items is a good idea. I might think about it
あ、アンディさんのピアノの技術がだんだん立派になっていますね！よくがんばりました！私も日本語で同じことをしたいんですね。
Gonna try this digitally purely because my handwriting is slow and terrible lol.
Lol, I also did the same thing completely by accident. I'll take some tips in your video to improve. Thank you
I like the method and thank you for all of the great content! I usually can get an hour of study in every morning before work, but when I try to study later in the day after work, I don’t feel as if I have the same mental capacity to retain the information. In your opinion, is it even worth doing a second study session if it doesn’t feel productive?
I'm for sure gonna try this im trying to study a lot over the summer. But I keep finding myself on Instagram doom scrolling. I'm trying to work ahead in genki before the semester starts my goal is to finish the book and start on genki 2 by the time next semester comes.
not a joke comment. usually when I reflect on why I failed yet again at doing important things, it's because I am a worthless piece of shit and I hope that the people around me didn't notice yet. been telling myself that for a long time now and when other people tell me otherwise I have to push myself to believe them.
i have dissociative identity disorder and this was extremely confusing at first.. i felt like a russian nesting doll! LOL
I laughed out loud, wasn't expecting 'no porn' hahaha - great video Andy :)
Fun video to watch on my second monitor during a yokai watch grind in ff14
do you have any future plans to do N1 grammer
うわぁ、似ているような日記をつけますが、どうして出来なかった理由をつけなきゃならないのは酷すぎる、僕には無理www
後、先生ピアノすごく上手！一ヶ月にしては本当に殊勝です。音楽を読めるようになっているのも立派だと思います！ガンバレ！
（数年引いていますが僕には楽譜をちゃんと読めるのはまだ難しいw）
２５年間ドラムをやっていますから、それのおかげだかもしれません。でも、とても楽しいから、もっともっと練習したいです！楽譜は難しいですよね。😭
見てくれてありがとうございました！
My version of this is time tracking. If i don't do any language immersion in a day then i just get a fat 0 next to that day and my stats go down.
Had an idea like this before but then forgot about it the next day lol. Now that I'm reminded I will definitely try it starting today. Will come back next month for update
Great vid! Thank you for sharing
Looking forward to hearing how it went! 😊
3:57 He said it xD
This method do wonders if you really don't hate what you need to do.
bro why are you stalking me
the story in the first 2 minutes is literally me 😭
Good tip, but I tried this so many times in so many different ways and it never works on me
I’m trying this out for multiple things! I’ll let you know how it goes
Hi, i wanted to ask if Kanji and japanese are different or if it's samething
I'm going to try this. There are a million things that I want to work on so I am going to start with one and go from there.
Funny timing for this video as recently I've really needed to see something like this. I went from a 3 month streak of 4 hours of studying/practice a day to maybe a couple attempts at grammar/vocab then just playing Fallout till I sleep. While playing Fallout I just keep thinking about that fact I'm gonna get worse at what I've already learned yet just continue to play anyway cx. Hopefully this method helps!
I hear you. I've been there before, many times! I hope it can help, too. 😊
Just change the game or Netflix to Japanese 👍
one of the 53.2 people in my head has decided to give this a try.
In the lung run this may turn inro a potential source of stress
I would need another journal to keep track of the times I actually did keep the journal vs the ones I didn't and why I didn't
The nice thing about this, is that if you don't check things off one day, it's not like you forget the next day what you did and didn't do the previous day. So you can just check (or not check) the previous days boxes off the next day. 😊
Top about playing piano (or more just music in general). Don't use a metronome or ar least have it beat once per bar not once per beat. They're good fir practicing at first but when trsint to play adhering to them too strictly will make your music feel lifeless and monotonous. Put some feeling into it instead
My goal with piano is actually related to my drum playing. So practicing piano with a metronome makes my timing on drums better.
But I’m only using it for certain songs right now. 😊
Nah needed this badly because I’ve been struggling to lock in so much lately. Wasting time on bs. Needed this
I don't see my adhd ass doing this.
Physically writing it out also helps because
1) you're creating a physical artefact of your goals/antigoals
2) writing things by hand makes them more real mentally, like how taking physical notes is better for memory than typing notes
it's also an excuse to get into fancy and expensive pens and inks and paper
im gonna give it shot!
arigatou
Great hack. Use that same desire for dopamine. I’d argue this isn’t the “other guy” finally winning-I’d argue this is still your Netflix or Final Fantasy guy being happy because you’re still feeding him dopamine from that box check. It just has that added impact of being productive, too!
Great tip!
I think I'm already quite organized and productive, yet I do appreciate the format suggested with the notebook. Generally, I use reoccurring tasks with todolist, but they focus so much on the "today" that you don't really see the "chain of successes" that much. Right now, I'm trying to do something similar but where I actually state what I am really doing. Sometimes I might think I've checked the box "30 min of Genki", when in fact I might have been a bit dispersed. So instead of checkbox, I tend to note "Genki Lesson 15", so now the more time is spent before I write "16", the more guilty I am and that's what push me to move forward.
Of course, you can't plan everything like this, you can't just say "I want N4 level for end of the year", this doesn't make sense since you need to focus on the process and not the outcome. Yet, if you can states things like "I want to be at page X of that book", now you have a "goal" that is a bit more process-driven than outcome driven (of course, one could argue it's still an outcome, but it's a more predictable one)
I know this sounds bad but ima start this first thing tomorrow, I've been STRUGGLING with focusing on studying Japanese and other things. Thank you so much!
Started something similar using the 12 Week Year (just read notes, what a long and boring read). What I ended up doing is use Google calendar to give me tasks which consequently nag me to do my anki, 30 minutes reading/grammar, 30 minutes immersion/listening daily. Turns out I just needed a constant nag :P
I just started doing this today, and I'm going to add in a couple things to the Learning/Goal Diary that you laid out here.
1. I'm going to add in a small section, on the page where you write down the things that kept you from learning as much as you could have, that includes a summary of something I actually learned. I believe this will help to feed the "Wants to Learn Guy", by being able to look back and remind myself "Oh you learned this on that day and made progress!", while discouraging the Lazy Guy with the mistakes he made that day (I.E. too much time gaming, watching corn, etc.)
2. Keeping track, as best as I can, of the actual time spent doing each activity, both good and bad. This just feels like a natural step up from simply giving a check to the "good" activities, while also giving me a concrete amount of time I can look at when I waste time by doing the "bad"' activities. Similar to the first, I think that writing down the time spent with activities will encourage me by showing how much time i've spent doing good things, while also showing how much time was wasted on unnecessary things. It may help with getting better at time management(?)
I may add other things to this as i continue forward, but we'll see. Hopefully in a month I'll be able to come back to this comment with a reply, to update how I feel about these small additions to the Journaling and how it could, possibly, be improved upon ^_^
As a behavior analyst, this is super on par with other recommended practices. If you had an "accountability partner", to check on your notebook frequently, you could possibly improve this process. Better yet, if your accountability partner benefits in some way (while you lose something, for example, lets say you pay them $1 everyday you miss), it may help them keep you accountable and will make you not want to ever miss a day. Although, this is a bit more of an extreme process. Consistency is really the most important part. Don't skip the progress recording!
Way to go on the piano progress! This is on top of the marathon you have been prepping for?!? I’ve been bullet journaling as a to-do list for ages, but never thought to include the tasks I do that aren’t productive. Or the reasons why I didn’t complete my to-do list. I’m not quite sure how I would incorporate that. 🤔 My biggest issue with making the journal any more complex than a simple list is that I get bogged down by the beautiful Pinterest bullet journal trackers to add and then feel so overwhelmed that I never make them and just go back to the list. I’m going to rewatch this and see if I can internalize the tips a bit more and come back with questions.
Reminds me of this quote that I saw a while ago "Discipline is the strongest form of self love. it’s ignoring current pleasures for bigger rewards to come. It’s loving yourself enough to do whatever you need to do, to give yourself everything you’ve ever wanted. It’s giving up the good for the great."
I've been pretty decent with self-discipline, but I am really excited to have something concrete that I can look at and track my progress.
Really funny timing for this video! I started doing this as a return to a form of bullet journalling a little over a month ago. I started because I wanted to keep myself accountable, but ALSO because I have 3 main pursuits right now which are to learn Japanese, art, and to improve my fitness and I want to keep my motivation up for them. Since each of these are very long term goals, I wanted to give myself a short term accomplishment in the form of checking a box at the end of the day to recognize that I am making progress even if I don't see quick results.
Mine is set up slightly differently, I have a monthly chart like you outlined here, but I fill in the number of minutes I did of that task each day instead. (plus a bonus column for steps taken) After the monthly chart, I have a daily log where every morning I write the date and make checkboxes for the main tasks I want to accomplish, which includes those tasks from the chart. That part is to mainly remind myself to set an intention for that day so I don't forget. I also write little notes in the daily log when I have ideas, struggles, or good things that I accomplished or happened that day that I want to remember.
It's worked great so far! I've kept at it and I'm excited to write in my journal every day and see if I can trend my time spent on the things I want to do upwards :)
I only had my right headphone in and I sat here for like 10 seconds trying to figure out why I couldn't hear the piano. LOL. There is a book called Atomic Hearts that goes over creating good habits to where they almost become second nature. Might be worth a good read. Setting a time via a journal on when you are going to do stuff was one of the key suggestions made when creating habits you want to keep.
There is definitely something about accountability as I don’t like disappointing other people but seem to be OK with disappointing myself. I definitely think check list helps. I use it for many other things in life like chores etc but I think what might end up happening with this is I would quit the journal altogether if I can’t achieve my goal and don’t want to write the reason why because after all the accountability is still within myself. I will definitely give it a go as I’m deep in procrastination forest at the moment.
it’s been such a long time of being super excited to learn, then getting discouraged and stopping for weeks- building bad habits instead, then forgetting everything I learned. having your future self keep you accountable is brilliant. thanks for this vid😮💨
I've been doing this for A couple months and it's pretty great. Not only does it develop a form of self accountability, it helps me see trends.
I already have something like a checklist/routine but still, I sometimes do to much from the one and miss a lot from the other. Like, the last weeks I studied nearly only japanese and let slide english and italian. So this will help me for sure, thank you :D
I have this going about now haha. I had school to push me. Always a deadline and always had to meet expectations for my language classes. Now that I have no expectation until it matters I don't feel the pressure to learn. Gotta start again like fast.
i have used bullet journaling for years.. but lately i've gotten a bit lax. This reminded me of why i did it in the first place. i also used to have habit trackers for each month... but i kinda let that go a year or so ago. And i LOVE the idea of saying WHY i didn't do something on my to-do list or WHY i did do something on my don't-do list. okay... time to set it up starting today!
This sounds brilliant. This is what i struggle with by doing the things I have already learend over and over again like practicing kana flash cards. I am going to try this for several things that want to get done but struggling to get started.
I've seen this video in my feed a dozen times already. I'm so glad I finally decided to click on it. This could very well be life changing.Thank you!