Talks about otome games, drama cds, and occasionally provides advice? Running away endlessly from my backlog of hobbies.

Ilinox

Unfortunately, not in particular. I have mixed feelings about the common views of building good habits, because while I agree with some of the steps I don't think things will ever become "easy" in the sense that you need to expend less effort to do something as time goes on.

It'll always take energy to be diligent about doing something and it's an increasingly uphill battle these days because the endless "content" on social media will always be more attractive to our brains and bodies compared to tiring ourselves out learning a language, exercising, or practicing a skill.

I think the best way to go about things is a combination of that Shiba Inu meme, the one captioned with "When someone forces you to go out and you actually have fun" LOL, and chunking things in a way where you do them and come out feeling equally productive and tired. See, the goal is to trick your brain into thinking that the effort you put in was worth it and that you feel satisfied after doing what you did. The worst case scenario is to go overboard in doing something and make yourself start to subconsciously reject spending effort for that "inferior reward" you got at the end, because this will make you drag your feet more and more when it comes to doing something.

Going back a little, how the Shiba Inu meme comes into play is that sometimes we do need to give ourselves a little boot to do something. Remember, rotting and passively consuming things will always be more attractive to our brains, but the hope is that once you start doing something you realize how it wasn't as bad as you thought and you end up engrossing yourself in the activity (this is where having hyperfocus or hyper fixation really helps LOL).

All that being said, I want to stress that it's never too late to learn something and I don't think giving yourself this pressure helps, instead it might push you to take on bigger loads than you can handle and that's why you find yourself unable to keep to your schedule of productivity. Your life is your life and there's no competition here, so if you need to take smaller steps like shortening the duration of how long you do these activities, or even just choosing one day of the week to do one activity, then I think you should do that! You can always adjust your schedule whenever needed.

I believe you can do it, and all your goals are achievable and admirable! You just need to find that right balance of what works for you (and your brain; treat it like a skittish animal that needs to be baited into doing things, but it also needs to be handled with understanding and love LOL).

Unfortunately, not in particular. I have mixed feelings about the common views of building good habits, because while I agree with some of the steps I don't think things will ever become "easy" in the sense that you need to expend less effort to do something as time goes on.

It'll always take energy to be diligent about doing something and it's an 

 these days because the endless "content" on social media will always be more attractive to our brains and bodies compared to tiring ourselves out learning a language, exercising, or practicing a skill.

I think the best way to go about things is a combination of that Shiba Inu meme, the one captioned with "

When someone forces you to go out and you actually have fun

" LOL, and chunking things in a way where you do them and come out feeling equally productive and tired. See, the goal is to trick your brain into thinking that the effort you put in was worth it and that you feel satisfied after doing what you did. The worst case scenario is to go overboard in doing something and make yourself start to subconsciously reject spending effort for that "inferior reward" you got at the end, because this will make you drag your feet more and more when it comes to doing something.

Going back a little, how the Shiba Inu meme comes into play is that sometimes we do need to give ourselves a little boot to do something. Remember, rotting and passively consuming things will always be more attractive to our brains, but the hope is that once you start doing something you realize how it wasn't as bad as you thought and you end up engrossing yourself in the activity (this is where having hyperfocus or hyper fixation really helps LOL).

All that being said, I want to stress that 

 and I don't think giving yourself this pressure helps, instead it might push you to take on bigger loads than you can handle and that's why you find yourself unable to keep to your schedule of productivity. Your life is 

 life and there's no competition here, so if you need to take smaller steps like shortening the duration of how long you do these activities, or even just choosing one day of the week to do one activity, then I think you should do that! You can always adjust your schedule whenever needed.

I believe you can do it, and all your goals are achievable and admirable! You just need to find that right balance of what works for you (and your brain; treat it like a skittish animal that needs to be baited into doing things, but it also needs to be handled with understanding and love LOL).

Ili, do you have any advice about building good habits? I want to get serious about learning Japanese, but not just that, I also want to focus on my fitness (getting old haha) and maybe write more? But this all goes out the window after a few days of productivity, its like a never-ending loop. I really admire that you learned JP when you were younger and now you're fluent in Chinese too. I know you said your background helps but it still takes effort and dedication to stick by it and reach a fluent stage. I just don't want to look back to now in 10 years and realize I wasted my time worrying about learning stuff "too late", it sounds so dumb saying it loud myself right now lol but in the moment you get lost in your head.

Ilinox

Habits