How to *stay consistent* with language learning (even when you don’t have time)

hey guys and welcome back to my channel if you  need to learn a language but you're busy as hell  

I get it lately I have been giving my work a lot  of time and whatever is left I try to move my body  

eat something healthy and sleep and so yeah  I totally get it language learning can often  

just fall to the bottom of your list because  yes we all know this if you're not using the  

language regularly you will start losing it but  here's the good news there is a way to continue  

learning and improving your skills even when  your life is super chaotic and you don't need  

more time you just need a better system and in  this video I'm going to share my system with you  

this video is also brought to you by Squarespace  but more about them later as always I have made a  

free guide for you guys for this video called the  Loweffort Fluency Formula it's basically a super  

simple system that helps you integrate language  learning into the life that you already have  

without spending more time on language learning  the guide also includes a weekly tracker to help  

you have a visual overview of your language  learning you can get it absolutely for free  

by clicking the link in my description so let's  start talking about my loweffort fluency formula  

when I was preparing for this video I really  wanted to give you a system for when you truly  

really don't have time for language learning when  you try to be consistent but you notice you know  

weeks after weeks that you're just not consistent  and you just can't find time in your schedule for  

language learning like there's no additional time  so what I'm proposing in this video is using the  

time you already have but using it in a better way  so the first area I want to talk to you guys about  

today is moving your body so while you're moving  your body you're going to be doing something in  

your target language because I really hope that  most of you guys watching this video exercise  

consistently so what I personally do because I  do exercise consistently i do yoga bouldering  

swimming sometimes I just go for walks that is  also absolutely okay so in those moments when I  

do all of that I try to watch workout videos  in my target language let's say I want to do  

a yoga flow so instead of searching for this  flow in my native language Russian I'm going to  

do it in English or in Spanish so this way I'm  kind of doing two things at once i'm moving my  

body i'm working out while practicing my language  you're not spending any additional time but you're  

still getting things done the next thing that I  personally do is I try to listen to a language  

podcast while walking or maybe listening to music  in my target language instead of listening to  

music in my native language that is something  that happens automatically right now when I go  

outside first I have to grab my headphones and  then I listen to something while I'm walking  

somewhere or maybe while I'm in the Uber because  if I know that today I just don't have a lot of  

time for language learning or maybe I don't have  any time for language learning at all this is  

such a simple and small thing I can still do also  those of you guys who are going to the gym you're  

probably using a lot of different apps to maybe  track the weights you're using or I don't know  

to keep track of the food you're eating so why not  change the language in these apps instead of using  

your native language using your target language  as well the next area we're going to talk about  

is doing your chores or maybe cooking again it's  just something we all have to do i'm sure you  

probably do those things every day or almost  every day so you can add language learning to  

this as well i personally don't like cooking that  much this thing that I started doing originally  

started with me wanting to make cooking more  enjoyable making homemade meals is way cheaper  

than ordering food food is also way healthier for  me so that is why I do that but what I started  

doing is I started watching YouTube while cooking  or maybe listening to a podcast while cooking and  

eventually I decided to incorporate language  learning into my cooking routine now I try to  

listen to something in English or in Spanish while  I cook my food when you're doing laundry you can  

do the same thing when you're washing the dishes  you can also do the same thing and when you're  

even planning food like planning all the recipes  you want to make creating a list you can also do  

that in English in Spanish in any language you're  learning basically the principle is whatever it is  

you do you try to think if it is possible for you  to do this thing in your target language instead  

of your native language and another little thing  that I really like to do is I like to talk to my  

smart assistant like Alexa or Google or Siri when  I say "Alexa set a timer." Or "Alexa what time is  

it?" I do that in English or in Spanish because  that is a great way for me to practice my speaking  

skills and guys if you're currently working on  embracing your own unique voice you have to know  

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your skills and launch your dream project okay so  the next area is going to be social media social  

media is something we give a lot of our time and  energy to so why not make it at least a little  

bit educational and I'm not saying only follow  creators who teach English because yes it's going  

to be beneficial but I think eventually you're  going to get bored because you're going to open  

Instagram or Tik Tok and your whole feed is just  educational content and sometimes we don't want  

to be learning anything and that is why we need  to trick ourselves into believing that we are not  

and the way you're going to do that is you're  just going to follow creators who speak your  

target language and who talk about their lives i  follow a lot of people who speak English who speak  

Russian my native language and who also speak  Spanish so every day when I open Instagram and  

check my stories like all of the content reals  and posts I will get a mixture of all of these  

languages obviously you can also join different  communities on Telegram on Discord connected to  

language learning or maybe communities that are  just in your target language that are connected  

to something completely different but I do  really like Reddit for the purposes of just  

reading something in your target language you can  join so many different subreddits and participate  

in a lot of different drama if you like reading  what people are complaining about or maybe you  

want to share your own story you can do that  on Reddit and the final area is going to be  

your everyday tasks what I usually do is every  single morning I write my to-do list so I always  

do it in English because I want to practice my  language and I want to do it in a way that feels  

fun and that feels like I'm not spending any more  additional time on language learning so you can  

write your to-do list in your target language as  I said before your grocery list any kind of list  

just write it in English now I'm also a person who  loves journaling and so I could be journaling in  

my native language but I don't i prefer to journal  in English even if it's just simple sentences even  

if half of your writing is done in your native  language maybe the other half now is going to  

be done in English instead when I plan my work my  workouts my social life I use a calendar so when  

I use a calendar everything I'm typing there is  happening in English so you can do the same thing  

like all of your reminders everything you have to  do all of your doctor's appointments you can write  

all of those things in English when it comes to  your tech your phone your computer you can also  

change the languages there my phone is always in  English so you pretty much have a lot of proof  

that you can speak this language and that you're  practicing it regularly another thing you can do  

is obviously talk to chatt any kind of AI you're  using in your target language and also Google  

random questions you know sometimes you're walking  around outside you see a random tree so search for  

all of these answers and try to read all of the  information that Google is going to be giving you  

in English and Spanish in your target language i  think for me the idea behind today's video is if  

you're noticing that you don't have a lot of time  to dedicate to language learning you're not being  

consistent I don't want you to give up completely  i don't want you to start saying that well I guess  

language learning is not for me i guess I'm  just not good at languages i don't want you  

to try to study harder either i want you to look  for a system that is going to fit your life your  

lifestyle oftenimes when it comes to creating new  habits and achieving your goals it's not really  

about adding more it's not about dedicating two  hours every single day to language learning it's  

about changing how you do what you do already  because the things that you already do they take  

up a lot of your time every single day so that  becomes a perfect opportunity for you to integrate  

more language learning in a very easy way so  the biggest takeaway I want to give you guys  

today is if you're beating yourself up for not  studying a lot for not practicing your language  

every single day please stop instead ask yourself  how can I live in this language at least a little  

bit today and then continue asking yourself  this question tomorrow the day after tomorrow  

you get the point so I think it's going to be it  for today's video if you liked it please don't  

forget to give it a thumbs up and subscribe to my  YouTube channel if you want to see everything we  

talked about today on paper in a document I highly  recommend getting my loweffort fluency guide so to  

get it just click the link in my description and  share your email with me if you guys are looking  

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tips and learn how to make language learning feel  like a game I have a video about it right here so  

you can click right here and start learning a  language as if you were playing a video game