How to learn languages when you have no time at all

Sometimes people ask me how I manage to find so much time for language learning. Honestly, I don't. I have a job and a family, am always busy and always tired. So, it's a constant struggle to make some time for language learning, especially because  I'm trying to learn several languages at the same time. But how to do that, if one has no time whatsoever? I can't give a definite answer to this because I'm still looking for an answer myself but I'd like to share some of my ideas and steps for getting more structure in my language learning.

1. Get your priorities straight

There are so many things I'd like to learn but as my time budget is limited, I have to think about what's really important for me, right here and right now. So, the languages, I really want to make progress are Spanish, Arabic and Russian. I'm intermediate in Spanish and this is my focus language. I take classes, do a language exchange, record videos of me speaking Spanish, correspond with several friends in Spanish, I listen to podcasts, participate in Facebook groups, do grammar exercises and so on. Sounds like a lot but I just do a little bit every day. I started taking classes in Arabic again (twice per week). The most important thing for me is to stay consistent and not to take a break from Arabic classes again. I'll also start to record videos of me speaking Arabic. And then there's Russian. I postponed taking classes because I just can't take more classes right now. But I'm listening to podcasts in Russian and learn a little bit vocab and grammar here and there. Write messages or short posts in Russian.

2. Breaking bad habits

I don't have time? Maybe I just have a bad time management using my leisure time for other things than language learning. I took a look at how I use the little time I have for myself. I don't watch TV nor do I play computer games but I chat with friends and I post in social networks like italki and Facebook. I figured that posting in English about topics not related to my target languages is basically a waste of time. Especially when one risks to get banned for no reason like on italki. So, I stopped posting on italki and now I only post on Facebook in language learning related groups and most of the time in one of my target languages, especially in Spanish or French. And I'm trying to chat less in English and more in other languages.

3. If you don't have time, make time

One reason why I made much more progress in Spanish within the last year than in other languages was the fact that I reserved a certain time per week for my Spanish class while I was constantly changing the times of my other classes or sometimes even skipping them. And when I started skipping them, eventually I would stop taking them. So, now I committed a certain time for my language classes and my language exchange. No matter if I'm prepared or not, deadly tired or stressed out, as long as I don't have a work meeting or am out of town, I do my classes and my exchange. It also helps, that my family knows, Friday 8 pm is my Spanish time. I prebooked my Arabic classes several weeks in advance, so that the time is reserved in my calendar and I'll stick to eat no matter what.

4. Establish consistency and accountability

In April I took part in the #languagediarychallenge by Joy of Languages. It's been a great experience. Reading the posts and listening to the recording of the other participants was very inspiring and motivating and as I didn't want to be the lazy person who never posts anything, I tried my best to keep up with daily postings. In the beginning I posted in several languages but leaned towards Spanish later. Inspired by other participants I started to occasionally record videos of myself, which is a good method for overcoming the shyness of talking and also have something to document the progress. So, I started establishing a good habit of doing something for my target languages on a daily basis and I put myself out there to get some feedback. It's been so great that I'm continuing with this challenge in May as well (this time focusing on Russian) and also am taking part in the 30-Days-Speaking-Challenge by Huggins International. This is such a rewarding experience. It is a very encouraging and inspiring community. Language lovers from all over the world are posting audio and video recordings daily and giving each other feedback. I feel totally at home in this community. I post an audio every day in Spanish and am alternating with additional audio or video recordings in other target languages as well. So far, I did recordings in Japanese, French, Chinese and Italian.

5. Taking it step by step - reasonable goals and micro-habits

Reaching fluency in a language is a long and challenging journey. Let's face it, the way I'm studying languages, I won't reach C2 in any of my target languages any time soon. And it's also not my goal. I'm not in a rush and rather than seeing the whole road I'd like to take the approach of Beppo, the roadsweeper from the book Momo:

“You see, Momo,' he [Beppo Roadsweeper] told her one day, 'it's like this. Sometimes, when you've a very long street ahead of you, you think how terribly long it is and feel sure you'll never get it swept.'
He gazed silently into space before continuing. 'And then you start to hurry,' he went on. 'You work faster and faster, and every time you look up there seems to be just as much left to sweep as before, and you try even harder, and you panic, and in the end you're out of breath and have to stop - and still the street stretches away in front of you. That's not the way to do it.'
He pondered a while. Then he said, 'You must never think of the whole street at once, understand? You must only concentrate on the next step, the next breath, the next stroke of the broom, and the next, and the next. Nothing else.'
Again he paused for thought before adding, 'That way you enjoy your work, which is important, because then you make a good job of it. And that's how it ought to be.'
There was another long silence. At last he went on, 'And all at once, before you know it, you find you've swept the whole street clean, bit by bit. What's more, you aren't out of breath.' He nodded to himself. 'That's important, too,' he concluded.” - Michael Ende, Momo

So, right now I'm trying to set mid-term and short-term goals for all my target languages. Even English, even though I haven't been studying it, since I left school but I'm aware of the fact that I should do something about my punctuation, so I put that on my list. Just in case I feel like working on my English. I do have the long-term goal of fluency for Spanish but my mid-term goal is to first get a solid B2 and some of my short-term goals are working on the subjuntivo and on my pronunciation (namely the sounds of "r" and "d").

But how to sweep the road step by step when I got no time for sweeping? The trick is to take so tiny steps that it's hard to say "I ain't got no time for that" and in time this tiny steps or micro-habits will accumulate and turn into measurable progress. The most inspiring article that I have read on this topic is this blog post by Joy of Languages: http://joyoflanguages.com/language-learning-habits/. The article explains that you should combine daily routines with tiny learning habits, like reading one paragraph in a book while having your morning coffee or reviewing one word on your flash card app when reaching the bus stop. The good thing about it is that you can't really have an excuse for not doing this tiny exercises and normally you would get hooked and read more than one paragraph or review more than one word.

How did I find time to write this blog post? I have no idea. It took me a week and every day I wrote a couple of sentences. Et voilà, I finally succeeded. And now back to language learning.