How To Adjust Your Study Habits To Avoid Language Learning Burn Out?

Language learning burn out can be a real problem and it is a very unpleasant experience, which means you should really be trying to avoid it where ever you can.

A lot of the times burn out is caused by how we study; basically we just end up pushing ourselves too hard until we reach the point of exhaustion. An easy way to avoid this from happening is to adjust our study habits, which I will go through below.  

Your study habits can really make a difference and getting them right will help you avoid burn out and also actually help you be successful in the language.

Slow Your Language Studies Down

A lot of the time burn out is caused by trying to study too fast. You want to already be fluent in the language and you want to hurry things up to get there. This results in you flying through lessons and generally doing everything far too fast.

I’m sure you have heard the old saying “Don’t run before you can walk” which certainly applies in language learning where you need to pace yourself and build up your skills slowly.

Unfortunately learning a language is slow. You will spend a long time “learning to walk” and just getting the basics down, so trying to rush though things doesn’t work. You really need a lot of repeated exposure to remember new words or understand a grammar concept, it just takes times to get comfortable with these things and therefore if you do not pace yourself, you will end up getting burnt out.  

It can be a little difficult to do, but you need to be strict with your study routine. You need to tell yourself that it is okay to go a slower pace so that you can process things properly, even if you feel you can do more or you want to rush ahead to the next lesson or topic.

Reduce Your Workload

Another simple adjustment you can make to your study habits is to just reduce your workload during each study session.

Most people end up studying too much and this is what is what leads to fatigue and eventually burn out, so by just cutting back on how much you are doing every day it can really reduce the risk of burning out.

However, there are also a lot of people who do not do enough, which is why they do not make any progress and cutting back further really isn’t going to help things.

This really means you need to find the right balance; you want to push yourself hard enough so that you can make progress in the language but also not push so hard that you burn out. This will take some trial and error but over time you will start to get a feeling for what level of work is comfortable for you and what level actually gives you the progress you want.

Think About Your Language Learning Over The Long Term

I think a lot of people get very caught up in the moment when it comes to language learning. We worry too much about what we are doing today and do not look at the long term journey.

I have just said that you need to slow down or reduce your workload and I know many of you will think that is a stupid idea. I know you want to make progress in the language and I know doing these two things is going to slow it down.

However, you need to think of the long term gains. Even if you are slowing down, or doing slightly less today …if you add all this up over 10 years, it will still be a lot of work. Just keep things consistent and you will get there.

I would rather spend 10 years doing a little bit every day and actually seeing results, rather than smashing myself for 10 weeks only to burn out and give up, long before I have any real success in the language.    

Be Kind To Yourself

One of the best changes you can make to your studying, and life in general, is to just be kind to yourself.

It’s easy to get annoyed and frustrated when learning a language. It’s hard work and the progress is really not linear, which can call build up the stress levels. This is all going to make your chances of burn out much higher and being kind to yourself can help reduce this.

It isn’t always the easiest thing to do, but just try and not get so annoyed with yourself, especially if you feel like you are not doing enough, or working hard enough.  So long as you are doing something it will be helping and over the long term it will all add up, so just be kind to yourself and tell yourself that it’s alright, the progress will come eventually.

Make Your Language Studies Fun

You should try get into the habit of making your language studies as fun as possible. This can drastically improve your progress but more importantly it will reduce your chances of burn out.

When you are actually enjoying what you are doing it will not seem like hard work …it will just be fun.

You will also find that you can generally engage with the material a lot longer if you are having fun. It isn’t as stressful and not as cognitively draining, so basically you end up doing more before you start to feel tired, which as we know is going to really help you avoid burn out. 

Also Remove Any Of The Things You Hate From Your Studies

If it wasn’t obvious, you should also be trying to remove anything you do not enjoy form your studies. Increase the fun, and decrease the misery.

I know this isn’t always possible. Sometimes you have to just stick with something, even if you do not totally enjoy it and while that is fine, if you do think you can remove it, just do it.

You can always come back to the material or method at a later date when your feelings on it may be different.

Circle Back Over Material You Have Already Covered

You should start making it a habit to cover some old material every now and again. It can be an extremely good form of practice and it is never a waste of time to go back over the basics, even if you are very comfortable with them.

The real benefit of circling back over some old material is that it can really help reduce the chances of burn out.

A lot of the stress in learning a language comes from being overwhelmed by new things, so taking a break from this can help. You will also still be studying and engaging with the language, so even if you are not focusing on new things, you are still strengthening your foundational knowledge.

The whole experience is just less stressful and making this a part of your routine will help you avoid burn out.

Try And Study Earlier In The Day

An easy way to adjust your study habits to help avoid burn out is to simply change the time of day that you actually study.

I am often guilty of studying late at night after a long day of work and it really is not ideal. I am entering into the session already tired and it doesn’t take long to reach fatigue.

Constantly studying like this is going to increase the risk of burn out and studying earlier in the day will help avoid this. You are going to have more energy and generally be more alert and able to focus better if you study earlier in the day.

Really you could boil this down to “make your language learning more of a priority” as you would be putting it before a lot of other things in your day and giving it more of your energy, rather than coming to your sessions already drained from everything else.  

Take Rest Days

If you are anything like me, you might think rest days are a waste of time, but they are not. They can be a very important defence against burn out and they can easily be added to your study habits to help you.

Burn out is basically caused by prolonged exhaustion, so of course some breaks are going to help. If you pencil them in and use them wisely they can be really beneficial. A simple day off can really help alleviate the exhaustion and can keep you fresh.

You just need to make sure you do this properly, if most of your week is “a break” you are just avoiding the work and you will get nowhere. You still need to put a lot of effort in, just don’t be scared to occasionally have a rest.   

Focus More On Doing Immersion

If you are not already using the immersion method for your language learning, then you should start making this a habit.

Immersion is a lot of fun, you just have to either watch some shows in your language, or read some books. It is really easy and it’s very enjoyable. However, it will actually help you avoid burn out.

Immersion learning requires a lot less effort than other methods, which means you will find it is less fatiguing and you are less likely to suffer from burn out as a result.

The downside is that it is very slow method, and really to get the best results you need to pair it with other methods. All of this added up can start to drain you, but if you manage it well, and make the immersion the bulk of your study, then should be able to avoid suffering from burn out.

(You can read more about – Will Immersion Cause Less Language Learning Burn Out?)

Conclusion

Hopefully you can start to introduce some of these habits into your language learning routine to help lower your chances of burn out.

Burn out really can set you back and it is just not a great experience, the more you can do to reduce your risk the better.

The habits I have discussed will help with that, but they will also help you to keep making progress, which is really what we all want. Just stick with it and you will get good at the language, it just takes time.

(You can read more about – Frequently Asked Questions About – Language Learning Burn Out)