are you focused?
Short-term and long-term focus endurance is one of the best things to have.
By short-term, I mean being able to sit down and work on ONE specific thing for a predetermined amount of time. I won't say much more about short-term focus because there's an abundance of productivity experts (I don't mean this sarcastically, as there's a lot of valuable and intriguing information everywhere...this is one reason it can be hard to focus). Some of the best areas to build one's immediate focus endurance are: reading, writing about a topic until some clarity is reached (at least for the writer), and listening to long-form interviews about complex issues without letting one's mind wander.
In an attempt to articulate the importance long-term focus, I'll share an experience I had many years ago at the first language immersion program I attended as a student.
During this intensive program, there was a separate, extra-curricular group that got together to discuss literature excerpts with our lead instructor in the target language. When I was invited to join, I said yes immediately because I thought it was what I should do to get the most out of the program. "All of it, everything that's available, I want to be a part of it"—this was not far off from my literal response at the time.
If I remember correctly, I attended one meetup, and it was challenging. Despite wanting to participate in more of the literature group discussions, I stopped attending and felt guilty.
What I didn't realize was, to get the most out of the program, what I needed to stay focused on was what I was already doing: keeping up with the course work, going to what extra curricular events I could handle, and autonomously activating as much of the material as possible…without feeling guilty.
The other issue was that, if I'm being honest, I didn't enjoy talking about literature that much at the time. Discussing literature is something I grew to enjoy with more perspective. However, back then, I liked movie nights, going to cafe's, role-playing exercises, and walking around town while trying to use the language outside of the classroom.
One of the great things about language learning is that language is necessary in all areas of life.
It's great to get out of your comfort zone often, but know yourself and know your goals. Apply your efforts in the most relevant areas for where you are in your journey and stay focused, in the short-term and long-term.
Language Learning Tip of the Week
Activate what's in front of you.
In many immersion programs, students are ideally placed at a level that implements lexicon they're already familiar with, and the program allows for activation of material as opposed to learning it for the first time. Activation, in other words, is about creating one's own sentences and spontaneously contributing to conversations with the given material in personalized ways.
A few days ago, I uploaded a quick video about why less is more in language learning. I felt it needed to be said that while I'm a huge proponent of immersion, it's common for language learners to try and learn from too many different sources of information, especially in the beginning. The filtering of worthy sources I shared can be distilled down to 3 guidelines: study what you can use, study what you're familiar with in your native language, and study what excites you. (One caveat to the guideline on excitement: it doesn't have to be something you were passionate about before your language learning journey, maybe it's something you discover in the target language that sparks your interest).
Don't overwhelm yourself with too much material that you can't apply in the near future.
Build your short-term and long-term focus by activating what's within reach, and build on new blocks of knowledge as they present themselves (the order in which these are activated is seldom important for improving overall proficiency level).