The healthy language learning summary

I talked briefly about my condition in a previous post, and that I’m still looking for a diet that suits me.

I just read How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big, by Scott Adams. It’s a great book and a quick read. Scott talks about goals and systems, his entrepreneurial failures, and how he approaches fitness and diets. We have a similar opinion regarding the latter: There’s no one-size-fits-all diet! Here’s his system:

The healthy eating summary

1. Pay attention to your energy level after eating certain foods. Find your pattern.
2. Remove unhealthy, energy-draining food from your home.
3. Stock up on convenient healthy food (e.g., apples, nuts, bananas) and let laziness be your copilot in eating right.
4. Stop eating foods that create feelings of addiction: white rice, white potatoes, desserts, white bread, fried foods.
5. Eat as much healthy food as you want, whenever you want.
6. Get enough sleep, because tiredness creates the illusion of hunger.
7. If your hunger is caused by tiredness, try healthy foods with fat, such as nuts, avocados, protein bars, and cheese, to suppress the hungry feeling.
8. If you’re eating for social reasons only, choose the healthiest options with low calories.
9. Learn how to season your healthy-yet-bland foods.

We can use a similar approach with language learning. There’s no one-size-fits-all method, and we need to consider our preferences when crafting our own method.

The healthy language learning summary

1. Pay attention to your mood (happy, bored, exhausted, laughing, disgusted, …) after trying certain approaches. Find your pattern.
2. Remove boring (from your point of view, of course) tools, apps & tricks from your method.
3. Stock up on efficient tools, apps & tricks (e.g., SRS, songs) and let laziness be your copilot in learning with the right materials.
4. Stop using resources that don’t work for you.
5. Use as much efficient materials as you want, whenever you want, wherever you want.
6. Get enough sleep, because tiredness creates the illusion of slackness.
7. If your slackness is caused by tiredness, try efficient approaches, such as SRS, meetups, and one-on-one speaking to suppress the ‘slacky’ feeling.
8. If you’re learning for social reasons only, choose the most sociable approach with low grammar.
9. Learn how to make your efficient tools entertaining.

Et voilà.