It’s autumn / winter again and already dark when I leave Work. How do you motivate yourself to study when it feels like you have to go to bed already.
I thought to do some easy things during the dark seasons, but I don’t know what that could be. Do you have any suggestions?
Well, having a fixed minimal routine always helps in such situations.
This is one of the great things about WaniKani, btw. Even when you don’t feel like it – you can just open your reviews and start doing it. Yet even if doing your reviews would be the extent of your Japanese studies during a day – that means that day hasn’t been wasted, Japanese-wise.
Having a daily routine really helps a lot.
Anyway, may the Great Cat of Meowtivation return to you and may the Great Cat of Purrseverance help you with your studies! 
I would switch from “learning mode” to “fun mode” or maybe “cozy mode” as it’s the cozy season ^^
How about only doing maintenance SRS (just reviews no new stuff) while doing some fun/cozy immersion? Or is immersion still too much? Maybe just some really easy tadoku graded readers, then?
For me, a mindset switch is what helps me everytime my motivation goes down. There are soooooo many things, you can do that involve japanese: maybe it’s time for a few cooking/baking sessions? origami season? Just writing good looking kanji for decoration purpose without the goal to actually learning them? Maybe getting into japanese sports or music?
I agree with the above: make your goals very small and do (eg) 5 minutes of reading / a few sentences every day.
SRS is your friend: probably if you scale back on new lessons, you can keep WK ticking over for the long haul.
I heard that a top marathon runner said the hardest part of his training was tying his shoe laces, knowing what was ahead; then for him the rest was not so bad. Everyone struggles with the mental aspect.
Be kind to yourself and celebrate your achievements so far!
I had many periods like that. Just keep on reviewing stuff, when it’s possible. I advice to find something nice, some new anime or manga to get into, it’s always cheer me up.
Still do your WK reviews daily and do some more passive immersion at night like watching japanese tv, youtube or anime or listening to podcasts.
Audio works better than silent-only reading in my experience. Bonus point if it’s not too difficult. No need to worry if you made it only 10 minutes in, but don’t stop there either if you feel like it.
Being more interactive should also be helpful, but I haven’t tried much of that.
Video games, visual novels (music with or without voice acting), a sub-episode in an anime episode (5-7 mins instead of 25), short YouTube or other kinds of video shorts, etc.
I echo what’s been said about minimal daily requirements. You can bolster this by pacing yourself, eg only ten lessons per day. You can also make it less burdensome, such as by using the Tsurukame app and switching it to Anki.
Watching your daily progress really helps, so long as you understand the incremental nature of the improvement. Which implies having some metric to measure against, whether word count, hours studied or whatever.
Integrating reviews with other tasks really helps - ideally your reviews are mostly done by the time you get home for instance. This is easier if you prioritize them over other things.
And then just cutting yourself some slack when you feel off. Do what you can and come back to it tomorrow. It feels better doing half your reviews than doing none and breaking the streak - that’s when you start to become ok with giving up.
Unfortunately it still is too much. But it has been some time since I read tadoku. Maybe I can read more now.
I haven’t done any Wanikani for several months now.
Immersion is still too much for me. I doubt that it would be very helpful If I understand less than maybe 20 %.
Could you setup a muted video call with a study buddy ?
Just to share the strain with someone ?
Else… my custom solution is to stream the reviews sessions when not motivated… even if no one is watching (99% of the time) you can’t cheat or open another tab because of the live / screen recording. This helps a lot to go through the pile regularly.
The effort/habit is still to start the stream but since it takes less than one minute it’s easy and quick.
I don’t have a study Buddy. I’m completely alone with my self-studying. (If I don’t Count This Forum)
If you only study when you are motivated you wont make it far, at least it will be very difficult and slow and even more demotivating. Motivation is fickle, it comes and goes. It is not reliable at all.
Language learning is more about discipline. You need to be disciplined to keep being consistent, separate from motivation. Make things easy to do. Make it so starting a study session requires minimal effort and is always visible. You can try tricks like “I will just do 1 minute” and let yourself continue once you get in the flow. Which can often happen.
I want you to make it in the long run, not the sort term. I want you to reach your goals, and surpass them. So I really want you to really think about this point. Is motivation really that important? Or are discipline centric systems more important? Doing things in a way to make it easier for you to start and then continuing as much as possible beyond that.
I wish you good luck. I hope you find your discipline and keep studying.
Great time to rewatch or reread the things you enjoy in Japanese. I have a couple series of manga and shows I watch when I just don’t want to do intense study but want to make sure, I get something done in the language for the day.
For me those are (from easiest to most difficult):
-Chainsaw Man
-Dan Da Dan*
-One Punch Man*
-Berserk
Dan Da Dan and One Punch are around the same level, but One Punch has some longer dialogues that can be a chore in the tournament arc.
I am sure anime with EN sub works for consolidating vocabularies, though it doesn’t build up new vocab and grammar much. You might be able to find similar things, but shorter.
SRS could be a good way to build vocabularies without forgetting old ones.
Who knows about grammar, other than reading. (or maybe speaking)
I’ve decided to give SRS / vocabulary learning another Chance. I now know a lot more words, that i +1 Sentences should be possible.
I will also continue copying the example Sentences of Japanese from Zero 4&5.
You can always watch with subs and try to find the words you know when listening.
I am studying every day for several hours. I Just have a Problem with the current season.
ding ding ding!
This is quite close to whats mentioned in Atomic Habits. Quite good habits book.
Is the book good / helpful? It’s on my wishlist.