Now, at first, I got all caught up in creating complicated schedules for myself. I’d do x on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays; y on Tuesdays and every second Thursday; and z on Saturdays that fell on an even-numbered date. But setting up, trying to follow, and modifying those schedules was starting to take up more time than my actual learning!

After a few months of trial and error, I’ve settled into a much less complicated approach to learning. I focus on things that I enjoy, and I do at least one thing that falls into each of these categories every day:

Of course, Skype exchanges are the best listening practice for my goal: being conversationally fluent in Spanish. But I also try to listen to at least one other form of media every day. I might watch an episode of , watch a short Spanish Youtube video, or listen to a podcast. I also sing along to Spanish-language music every day.

3. Read something every day

I’m a bookworm, so this was easy to incorporate into my daily routine. I’m currently reading Charlie y la fábrica de chocolate by Roald Dahl. I know this children’s novel well in English, so I’m finding it really easy to understand in Spanish. When I read a novel, I read extensively rather than intensively – I don’t stop to look up words or puzzle through verb tenses. I just read for pleasure, for about 15 minutes every night. I’m amazed at how much vocabulary I’m picking up and retaining.

I also read an article every week in preparation for one of my tutoring sessions. I read the articles more intensively than the novel, going over them more than once for a different purpose each time.

4. Write something every day

I write to an email penpal in Spanish a few times a week. She corrects my work, and then responds in English. This is quick, easy writing work that I don’t put a ton of time into, but it’s good practice. I also write and post a text online once or twice a week so that I can get it corrected by native speakers. I use an inexpensive grammar workbook, Practice Makes Perfect, a few times a week to work on verb tenses and sentence structure.

Like many other language learners, I use to practice vocabulary. Anki uses a spaced repetition system, organizing your practice so that you review difficult words more often. I have two anki decks, both of which I made myself and add to regularly. One has vocabulary from all over the place – Skype conversations, articles, videos, duolingo, words that I find myself lacking when I want to explain something. The other anki deck is for grammar study, based almost exclusively on the exercises from the Practice Makes Perfect workbooks.

So what does all of that look like in practice?

A typical Monday might look something like this:

30 minutes over coffee in the morning: run through my anki decks, listen to a song once or twice, write a quick email to my penpal Eva

20 minutes after lunch: read through an article twice, the first time on my own for general understanding and the second time while listening to the audio. Tomorrow, I’ll read it a third time with my highlighter in hand so that I can add new words, expressions and grammar structures to anki.

30 minutes in the afternoon: watch an episode of Destinos

60 minutes in the evening: meet on Skype with Cristina, my lovely conversation partner from Argentina (30 minutes of Spanish)

15 minutes before bed: read a chapter of my novel

That adds up to a total of 125 minutes of Spanish study. Out of those two hours, only 20 minutes feel anything like ”work”: the time that I put into reading and understanding the article. Articles are tricky for me and require a lot of concentration. Still, I enjoy puzzling through a new text. I just keep it to one per week for now so that I don’t get burnt out. On a daily basis, I try to spend no more than 20-30 minutes doing Spanish ”work” like reading articles or working through grammar exercises.

Since I’m a teacher currently on summer holidays, I can usually dedicate a good chuck of time to Spanish. On an extremely busy day, I might have not have as much time – or any at all – but I still try to hit all five of those categories.

A hypothetical don’t-have-a-minute-to-breathe-let-alone-study day:

• talk to someone – talk to my dog in Spanish as I take him for a walk
• listen to something – sing along to a Spanish song while I get ready to go
• read something – take a quick glance at my Spanish twitter feed on my phone
• write something – send someone a text – even if they can’t read Spanish
• practice vocabulary – read the word of the day from SpanishDict, say it out loud, try to use it in a sentence

Most of what I do in Spanish – talking to a friend on Skype, watching a TV show, reading a book – are things that I love doing in English or French. I think that that’s really the key for anyone self-studying a language: find activities that you enjoy doing in your own language, and then commit to doing them in the language that you’re learning.

And try not to overcomplicate things.