Feeling guilty watching screaming goat videos instead of working? Cut yourself some tons of slack. Haven’t exercised since summer? Cut yourself some tons of slack. No time to write “good enough” replies to the emails stacking up in your inbox? Cut yourself some tons of slack. Did something for no good reason? Cut yourself some […]
Tag Archives: habits
That Thing You Used to Do (#EdMarchSanity 3)
March is over, but, like March Madness, #EdMarchSanity continues into April! A simple way to refresh your classes without needing to learn or do a bunch of new stuff is to dust off a task or routine that you haven’t done in a while. This may seem obvious, but I’m amazed when I think of […]
Energy from a New Pastime (#EdMarchSanity 2)
Not half an hour ago, an online student of mine remarked, “Isn’t it amazing how invigorating even the idea of starting a new book is?” The comment confirmed my plan for this second installment of #EdMarchSanity. (Here is the first, featuring eight zero prep activities.) This advice is paradoxical, but, if you want a major […]
Can You Cut One Thing?
February finds many of us in a long, gapless stretch of work that ranges from humdrum to harrowing. New Year’s resolutions to work smarter or spend more time with family or hone a hobby are buried by snowpack, and we retreat into ourselves or suffer panic or just put our heads down to make it to […]
The Importance of the Next Thing
No, this isn’t about tech trends or teaching fads. It’s a confession and a simple solution. Confession: My reading-and-listening habit in one of my target languages almost disappeared this winter. Why? Because I hadn’t lined up the Next Thing. The Next Thing The Next Thing is the resource you plan to use just as […]
Guided Meditation in the TL
Sometimes I use guided meditation to relax or to help me fall asleep. Because I enjoy it and in order to get a bit more out of life, I usually listen in a language other than English. (My partner recently said to me that the fact that I use even sleep meditation to get more input […]
Same Conversation (Notes from Italy, pt. 3)
Note: This is part 3 of a summer series with notes on learning and interacting in another language. The series is inspired by my Italian interactions, but can apply to any language! See part 1 for two stories illustrating the goodness that comes from interacting with people in their own language and part 2 for […]
What Are My Goals? (Learner Edition)
This is the second in a series of posts about goals for language learners and teachers. The first post raised a lot of questions for myself and others, questions I’m eager to explore in the rest of the series. For now, though, because this is a site for learners as well as teachers, I want […]
1 Trip, 3 Tips (aka Lessons from Holland)
No, I haven’t been in Holland ever since my last post almost three months ago–the longest break, by far, in the youngish life of this blog. But my return from a week in the Netherlands gives me a good way to halt the hiatus. (If you’re curious about actual reasons why this blog has been so […]
The Focused Filler, a Simple Language Learning Habit
This is a simple refinement of my Tricks and Triggers for Opportunistic Language Learning. Those are great, but even they call for some advance planning to be of optimal use. As the academic year has begun and projects have been rolling in, I’ve needed to make my opportunistic language learning even simpler and more automatic. […]