Creating Good English Learning Habits

Hi everyone, my name is Danielle from speakingenglish.co.il

Today, I am going to be sharing with you seven easy tips and tricks that will help you create good English learning habits. Despite what you may currently believe, it is not really that hard to create a new habit. If you implement these tips and tricks, you can begin developing new habits that you will actually stick with, today.

We believe that the formula to success is “effective learning methods + persistence = fluent English speaker.”

With the right English learning habits, you will already have a huge part of that equation. These habits are so important because they are what set you up for success. Once you develop them the right way, they become a part of who you are and then, it is significantly less likely that you will give up on your goals. Without the proper habits, learning English will be much more difficult and it is highly unlikely that someone can become a fluent English speaker without them. But don’t worry. By the end of this video, you will have everything that you need to know in order to great the best English learning habits.

Tip 1: Commit to Thirty Days: Researches have found that it can take as short as 21 days to form a new habit, while others have found that it can take as long as 90 days. Committing to practicing your habit once a day for a whole month, is a great way to start. It is a long enough amount of time to really implement this habit into your daily routine, but it is also short enough that you aren’t afraid to commit to it. You can do anything for thirty days, and chances are, at the end of the thirty days, you will have become so comfortable with your new habit, that you actually prefer your life with it, rather than without it. I have actually tried this method a few times in my life before and I have always had great success developing new healthy habits this way. Try making a commitment to yourself to practice English every single day for the next thirty days. By the end of the thirty days, I guarantee that your habit will have become a significant part of your life that you will never want to give up.

Tip 2: Consistency: After you have committed to thirty days, it is time to make a plan for consistency. You are significantly more likely to keep up with a new habit if you practice it every single day. It also helps if you practice this habit in the same place and at the same time when possible. Try writing down your new English learning habit. Remember, be specific, “I will practice my English on the computer every day at 14:00 for 30 minutes.” Notice in this goal, I will only be practicing for 30 minutes a day. It is important that you do not overwhelm yourself with ridiculously high goals. Starting small makes it much more likely that you will succeed.

Tip 3: Tell Others About Your New Habit: Need a little motivation? Tell others about the new habit that you are trying to create. It has been proven that people try harder when they know that others are watching. You do not want to have to tell everyone that you failed, so you force yourself to keep going, even when you don’t feel motivated. This helps to keep you on track. It is important to remember the saying “You are who you hang out with.” People often mimic the people that they surround themselves with. So, try to spend your free time with people who will support you. If you can, find others who are also trying to learn English, whether it is in person or on a forum online. This helps remove temptation to quit, and gives you a great support system when you feel like you want to give up.

Tip 4: Having a Trigger: A trigger is something that will remind you that it is time to practice your new habit. We have triggers in our daily lives all the time we just don’t notice them. Some common triggers include time, location, and preceding events. Take a moment and think about your daily routine. How often does time have an impact on what you do? With most people, time will trigger them to get out of bed and start getting ready for the day. This is a habit that they developed early in life without even noticing it! Location is another huge trigger to consider. Think about when you get home from work and you set your jacket and keys down. Where do you put them? I bet it is the same location every time. That is because that location triggers your habit to put your jacket and keys away. Even something as simple as a preceding event can have an impact on your daily habits. When your phone rings, you answer it, right? Your phone ringing is a preceding event that triggers you to pick it up. Interesting, isn’t it? I bet you never even noticed how these little things have such an impact on your daily habits. Now, let’s find a way to trigger our new English learning habit. Think about your daily routine right now. Maybe you get home from work, and sit down on your living room couch to watch TV. Instead, let’s change this habit from watching TV to learning English. So, you get home from work at 14:00, walk into your living room, sit down on the couch, and begin your thirty-minute English lesson. This uses all of the triggers that we just went over. Time: 14:00, location: living room, preceding event: sitting down on the couch. Once you start doing this every day, the old habit of watching TV will subconsciously be replaced with the new habit of learning English!

Tip 5: The “But” Trick: Do you find that you have a lot of negative thoughts surrounding your new habit? Maybe you feel like you aren’t good enough or that it will be too hard. Try incorporating the “but” trick. What is the “but” trick? It is a handy way to turn a negative thought into a positive one. Simply add the word “but” after your negative thought, and then, add a way that you will overcome this problem. For instance, “Learning English is really hard, but, the more I practice, the better I will get!” See how that worked? Try it with your own negative thoughts. This will set you well on your way to a more positive mindset when developing your new learning English habits.

Tip 6: Never Make Excuses: The easiest way to fall off track when trying to develop a new habit, is by making excuses. When you hit an obstacle, it is a lot easier to make an excuse to not continue, than it is to face the obstacle and overcome it. But, when you make an excuse the first time, it will be a lot easier to make an excuse the next time. Before you know it, you will be making excuses every day, and you won’t even notice that you’ve given up on your new habit until it’s too late. Some common obstacles that cause people to make excuses and quit are, weather, time, difficulty, and cost. But those are just the common ones. There are tons of different reasons why someone might give up. The next time you hit an obstacle that gets in the way of your new English learning habit, try using “If-Then” statements to overcome it. Here is an example “If I get stuck at work late and I can’t practice English at 14:00, then, I will practice English at 16:00 instead.” Do you see how that worked? I came across a problem, but instead of letting it ruin the development of my new habit, I found a solution.

Tip 7: Reward Yourself: This is the fun part. Set up a reward system for yourself so that whenever you accomplish part of your goal, you treat yourself. Whether the goal is to practice English every day for a week, or to learn 10 new English words, establish a goal and a reward for meeting it. The reward can be as simple as treating yourself to a movie night, or as extravagant as buying yourself something that you’ve really wanted for a while. Whatever works best for you! This system will cause you to start associating your habit with the great reward and it will make your experience a lot more fun!

Creating a new English learning habit and truly sticking with it suddenly seems a lot more do-able, doesn’t it? We believe that the ability to establish a good English learning habit is so critical to your success, that we developed a unique system to help our students establish their new habit. When in doubt, refer back to these tips and tricks. And always remember, you can do anything that you set your mind to!

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