Learn Japanese Today

Well, a lot has happened since I posted last. I’ve officially transitioned back to school, making my base of operations Minnesota rather than Chicago.

Also, I broke my nose.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.

But.

I have a shiny new toy for you. It’s called Getting Things Done.

Getting Things Done was the brainchild of management consultant / life coach David Allen. It’s essentially a way of thinking about life and how to best manage your “work.”

“Work” in this sense, refers to things you either want to, or are expected to do. It can be answering e-mails, writing a term paper, planning a birthday party, and yes, studying Japanese.

The goal of GTD is to have you focusing 100% on the task at hand and not on other things. If something else enters your mind, it’s probably something you still have to do, but are helpless to do anything about. So you just worry. And that wastes your mental energy.

So what you need to do when something else enters your mind is write it down somewhere, somewhere you know you’ll check later. If it’s someplace you know you’ll check later, then you can trust that you’ll get to it then, and stop worrying about it in the present.

Doing this regularly will allow you to completely respond to your “work” and focus yourself as best as possible.

I can’t summarize the whole book in this article, so you’ll just have to get it yourself here.

As far as Japanese goes, there are some really useful ideas for working on your Japanese in this book. Beyond the benefits of getting all the other thoughts out of your head, this book also stresses the importance of breaking down your long-term goals, like learning japanese, into smaller goals, like learning the jouyou kanji, into smaller tasks, like studying kanji for two hours a week.

I’ve been trying this system out for the past couple weeks, and I’ve noticed a big increase in my productivity as far as studying, schoolwork, and writing goes. Try it. It works.

I’ve touched on some key ideas in Getting Things Done, but I can’t summarize the whole book in this article, so you’ll just have to get it yourself here.

Trackback URI | Comments RSS