I’m guilty of looking at a textbook and going, “Whoo boy that seems like a lot of work. I’d better save it for when I have a few hours free,” more than I care to admit. I’ve mentioned my “good enough” weak point before, and that every much comes into play when it comes to studying something.

The thing is, you don’t have to settle in and commit to hours of studying at a time. I know that’s the impression people give you, but if you find that sort of thing intimidating, it can help to remember that anything you do is better than nothing.

Maybe you have fifteen minutes. Cool, read a page or two of the book you’re doing. Maybe you have five minutes. Pull up the vocabulary practice app of your choice on your phone. Maybe you can’t really focus on studying while commuting- that’s fine, just put some music on or a podcast in your target language.

Whatever the case, promising yourself just that bit can lead to something more- a half hour when you planned for ten minutes, tops.

But even if it doesn’t? 

At least you got those ten minutes in.

What about you guys, do you find it easy to get started? If it’s tough for you to study, what do you do to help yourself?