I’m writing this article to provide an update to this post. Since writing, it here’s what I’ve gotten done:
- bought tickets for RRR (a new Telugu film) on Friday
- skimmed through a book (Learn Telugu in 30 Days) to see what I would learn from it, but didn’t study it
I wanted to get more done by this point, and in the spirit of working on the process, here are some things that I think I need to do to be more successful in this endeavor.
First Thing
If I don’t do something I prioritize first thing in the morning, then I probably won’t get it done. Life gets in the way. That’s what happened the last few days – I would intend to work on Telugu, but would need to go grocery shopping, or want a coffee, or something like that. I should prioritize Telugu to be the first thing I do after my morning routine.
Focus Time
Building on that previous point, I find that unless I sit myself down and use some sort of timeboxing technique (like the Pomodoro technique), I can get easily distracted. I spent two hours yesterday walking around Lower Manhattan. It was a ton of fun, but I didn’t realize how long it lasted until after I calculated it out.
On the one hand, the summers in NYC are really nice so I’m not upset by spending time walking around the city. But I’d like to reward myself with that kind of walk by first getting some focus time done.
I’m going to target getting 3 hours of focused work done per day. I’d like to spend 1 hour on Telugu, and the other two can be on whatever. That may not be a lot, but the person who just won the Fields Medal said they only did 3 hours of focused work a day. If that’s enough to win a Fields Medal that’s probably enough for me to learn Telugu.
Morning / Evening Routines
Another impediment is that I don’t have a consistent routine. Sometimes I go to sleep (or can’t fall asleep) until 3 or 4, and then don’t wake up until noon. With that kind of sleep schedule, it feels like half the day is gone. Part of the reason for that is outside my control. NYC in the summer is particularly humid and hot, and our apartment doesn’t have central air (only window units) which makes it more challenging to fall asleep. Part of that is within my control, in that sometimes I’ll go out later in the night (9 or 10pm), which makes it harder to wind down.
I want to build a better routine around sleep/wake, since sleep is one of the best investments you can make in yourself. My goal is to wake up by 10am everyday, with the goal of moving that backwards to 8am gradually. That would require me to turn off electronics by midnight, and be in bed by 1am. I would have to have my last coffee of the day by 3pm. I’ve also received advice that a good way to shift your sleep schedule is to workout first thing in the morning, so I want to incorporate a light jog into my morning routine.
Setting Clearer Goals and Deadlines
Another challenge is that I don’t have a clear plan of what I need to get done everyday. That makes it much easier for me to procrastinate, because I don’t like the uncertainty of not knowing what to do. Routines will help bound some of that uncertainty, but I can do more to outline what I want to get done each week, commit to it (publicly, via this blog).
Here’s what I want to get done by the end of next week (7/15):
- Complete a vowel video accompaniment to this video
- Storyboard a video for my Telugu verbs primer article
- Next steps: record the video
- Go through the word lists in Learn Telugu in 30 Days with a native speaker to determine their accuracy
- Next steps: put the words in Anki and study them
- Understand causation in Telugu (I’m doing this because of x) by reading a chapter of A Grammar of Modern Telugu
- Next steps: practice it with a native speaker or tutor
- Create a plan to learn to read Telugu