Can somebody please help me with procrastination? I’ve been studying less and I really want to get fluent. But it’s been hard for me to study, and kanji as well is hard.
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I don’t know what your person journey has been like so far, but I would suggest creating some goals for what you’d like to achieve daily. Sometimes I have trouble when I focus too much on the big picture goal like “achieve fluency”. I think it’s important to create your own more concrete and easily achieved goals like “Do 10 lessons and 50 reviews in WaniKani every day” or “work through this chapter of a textbook” and eventually accomplish things like “pass N5 JLPT” etc. Once you create good habits and stick to it, it’ll be easier to avoid procrastination.
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For procrastination, something I find works well is giving having goals, and then rewarding yourself when you meet that goal. It can be something like if I finish my reviews every day this week I will go get ice cream, or maybe something like I can watch stuff on YouTube after I finish my reviews for the day. If a particular reward isn’t motivating you, try switching it up.
For kanji being hard, I completely get where you are coming from. Kanji are hard, and it takes time. That’s ok. You don’t have to learn everything perfectly the first time. If you find yourself getting stuck on some in particular, I find doing a bit of writing practice for that kanji or vocabulary helps. The act of writing something down can really help commit it to memory in a way that just typing doesn’t.
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unless you have to learn it for a certain reason, take your time. I don’t think there is anything worse than ruining your fun by forcing it. And like other ppl suggested: goals, things you enjoy in japanese (for me that would be anime/music but really can be anything)
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Just wanting to be fluent isn’t enough, if it was then everyone would be rich because they want to.
You need to first find a reason why. The easiest way is:
Find content that you enjoy in japanese. The more you learn, the more enjoyment you get out of it, the more you immerse and the better you get which makes you want to do more.
Then we have routines, always do all the reviews no matter what, multiple times a day, especially on days with new lessons.
If it gets too much, dial it back a bit, but never quit. If you want more, ramp it up a bit.
The killer of procrastination is set routines and set yourself a time when you do something no matter what. That way you don’t rely on willpower, you just do it without thinking and the reviews fly by because you are pretty much on autopilot.
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Also worth noting that not only can scheduling 4x 15 minute session be a lot easier than trying to fit in 1x 60 minute session, it is usually time better spent.
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True. When it was the most intense I did them like 10 times a day, but I also had 400+ reviews daily at that time. Much more manageble than doing all at once, the accuracy would tank for two reasons:
- Fatigue.
- Too long between reviews (especially true for really new items).
15-20min sessions is more realistic like you said. After that the normal brain tend to lose alot of focus. But that doesn’t stop you from taking a short break and then get back into it. So I totally agree.
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