Language lessons, like many types of at-home studies, are best done free from distractions and interruptions. Those can break your concentration, after all, stealing your focus away from the lessons at hand.
The good news is, most of the daily interruptions that get in the way of your language sessions can be avoided with some advanced planning.
- Cellphone. Turn off your cellphone’s ringer. Let messages add up and calls go to voicemail for the hour or so you’ve scheduled for your language learning.
- Internet. Log off from chat, close your email inbox and close your browser while you’re at it. Maximize your language learning software’s window (full screen), so there’s nothing to distract you.
- People. Let people in your house know that you don’t want to be distracted for the duration of your lessons. Make sure they know what time you start and what time you finish. Unless something’s urgent and important, instruct your roommates/family members not to interrupt your work.
- Internal interruptions. A lot of the time, interruptions will come right from you. You know, like when a thought suddenly crosses your mind and distracts you from the job at hand, or when you notice the bills on your dresser and start worrying about making this month’s payments. For those instances, you’ll have to learn to manage your internal interruptions. Common strategies include keeping an interruption log so you can see patterns or scheduling whatever thoughts come to mind so you can get rid of them for now.