Ten minutes

Have noticed with my oldest daughter recently (she’s currently 6). If she is able to commit even ten uninterrupted minutes to an activity everyday then she makes massive amounts of progress.

Reading for example. She’s currently learning in two languages. And just these small, focussed steps, make a huge difference.

This made me think of language acquisition (or any other skill for that matter). I remember hearing, from multiple places, if you can’t commit at least 30-60 minutes a day to acquiring a new language then you won’t make much progress.

Ok, well that’s a very arbitrary number that’s going to set a lot of people up for failure.

It would be better to start with ten minutes per day. Ten, 100% focussed, minutes.

Commit to doing ten minutes every day for a week. Language acquisition is a marathon, not a sprint.

Ten minutes sounds like too much? Do five. the point is to form the habit, not torture yourself with something new that you’re not yet good at.

After a few weeks, you’ll start to see some progress. You will gain momentum and committing additional time will be easy. Even enjoyable.

This tactic can be applied to any artistic endeavour. Piano for example.

Start small. Form a habit. Gain momentum. Keep going.