Lack of time is the most common excuse for not making progress toward your language goals (or goals in general for that matter). But even if you’re very busy, the truth is you have plenty of time to learn if you consider the amount of time you can randomly pick up throughout the day. Do you have a commute to work or school? Do you take time in the morning to read or watch the news? Spend any time on social media each day? If so, you’ve got ample time.
But even if you don’t have blocks of time to yourself, you can find slices of time throughout the day: whether it’s the few minutes it takes to use the restroom or 90 seconds of rest between sets at the gym, time can add up. When you realize that it takes only 15 minutes a day to make significant progress towards your language goal, lack of time is no excuse at all.
But lack of time was never the issue, it’s your lack of interest. If you’re motivated to do something, you will find the time. So if you’re not finding time to study Japanese, it’s likely you aren’t motivated by your language study. That doesn’t mean you lack a genuine desire to learn Japanese. It often just means that your language habit feels like work.
And if your language habit feels like work, you’ve got a problem. That’s because if you do not genuinely enjoy the time you take engaging with Japanese each day, you will never find the time it takes to engage consistently with the language. Remember: language learning is a marathon, not a sprint. That means an unenjoyable language study habit will spell doom for your language goals, no matter how “effective” your language habit might be.
This means the key to building an effective language habit is to make your language-learning process enjoyable. If listening to Japanese audio on your commute or using your language app to read Japanese feels like a chore, you won’t be motivated to engage with Japanese and will struggle with making progress. Instead of making excuses about not having enough time, focus on finding ways to make your language journey more engaging and enjoyable.
Once you start looking forward to engaging with Japanese content you’ll discover ample opportunities throughout the day for continued progress. By transforming how you approach learning you’ll be surprised by how much time you suddenly find to learn Japanese each day.