How did it go?
What was your habit plan and did you stick with it?
If your cue worked on most of the days, that’s awesome. Building a habit doesn’t require absolute consistency. And even if you did score 100%, habits generally don’t form in only seven days. So keep it up!
If you practiced less than you’d hoped, don’t despair. Let’s be scientists here, and simply try to understand what happened.
There are only a few ways that this process breaks down.
Wrong context
The most common way that cues fail is that the context isn’t right. For example, you were going to play SuperCoco right before bed, you’ve got your reminder on your nightstand, but by that time you’re exhausted and keep falling asleep.
Something has to change. That might mean a completely different context (first thing in the morning?), or just a modification. Perhaps you need to go to bed earlier; or don’t practice in bed, sit on the couch until you’re done. Keep tweaking the context until you find one that works for you.
Motivation & expectations
The other common way that cues fail is that motivation drops. You were going to learn on your break at work, you saw your reminder on your desk, but you got discouraged after two days and played games on your phone instead. Your desire to learn Spanish hasn’t gone away—but something about the process left you discouraged. This is usually because it felt too hard—or was too easy and boring.
Sometimes people get discouraged because of mismatched expectations. Perhaps you took Spanish in high school and it’s frustrating to be back at beginner level. Perhaps you’re past beginner level and think you should be able to watch movies in Spanish by now (hint: movies are really hard).
Finding joy
In one key way, a learning habit isn’t anything like brushing your teeth. Brushing your teeth is a 2-minute drill that’s pure habit. But to spend 30 minutes or an hour a day learning Spanish, it’s got to be more than just a habit—you’ve got to find joy in the process.
The good news is: there’s a lot of joy to be found in language learning. We covered this topic in Lesson 3 on rewards.
Wrap-up
How long does it take for a consistent cue to really become a habit?
The answer is: it depends—there is no magic number. It can take several weeks to several months or even longer.
So hang in there and persist. If you break the streak, just start it up again. Pretty soon, your day won’t feel quite complete without some Spanish in it.
And that’s a great feeling.