This is the language learning tip that eclipses everything else

You've been wanting to learn a language for a while. Being the average person living in 2025, you start doing some research on the Internet and find a video, a post, you name it, explaining yet another study method.

You find it a genius method, and start drafting your study plan. Once it's done, you commit to sticking to it, but the day where you actually begin never comes until, months later, you find that plan again, and suddenly you're hit by a wave of shame.

You had forgotten about it.

Your mind had successfully managed to erase the goal that you wanted to work on and that you were supposed be enthusiast about.

How could that happen? What about that genius piece of advice that you had found? Wasn't that supposed to be a foolproof strategy to achieve your goals?

What if I told you that there was a small, yet crucial detail you have missed? Something seemingly irrelevant, but capable of destroying any type of committment if it does not get tamed?

If you've been there before, you probably know what I'm talking about, and that is your screentime, specifically your useless screentime.

At the beginning of the year, I have committed to reducing my useless screentime, especially on my phone.

I have set up time limits on both my phone and my laptop, deleted all my social media apps on my phone except for Youtube (which also has a time limit on every device) and, in the meantime, I have worked on my language learning goals for the languages that I am learning (Portuguese, Turkish, Slovene and Korean).

However, in May, something started to feel off with my motivation, I felt like I was accomplishing nothing with some languages. Portuguese was going well, but I felt like I was stuck with the other three, especially Turkish and Slovene.

When I started studying Turkish, I had not seen any content on how to plan your studying and how to make tangible progress, so I decided to look for some advice online, and I found the ultimate enlightenment thanks to this video by Zoe Languages:

In the video, Zoe gives advice on how to learn Turkish according to your language level.

When talking about the beginner and beginner-to-intermediate level, she recalls that when she was learning the most basic grammar concept, she dedicated some minutes every day where she would focus on one concept and practice it.

Suddenly everything made sense: I was low on motivation and not retaining anything because I was not focusing. Over the months, I had sped up my studying sessions more and more, to the point where revising would last about two minutes for every language.

Embarrassing, right? And what had caused me to slack so badly? Again, technology.

I was using Busuu and Quizlet on my laptop, paired up with written practice on a physical notebook. However, the written practice on paper has slowly faded, and the online practice had become a hassle to get rid of as soon as possible, or it was delayed until late at night because I would just open Youtube or Pinterest before anything else.

The Google extention that I used to set them, StayFree, had also partly stopped blocking Youtube shorts, which contributed to frying my brain even more.

In short: time limits were not enough, I was lacking presence and intention during my study sessions, and I had to gain them back.

How did I do this in practice?

• For Portuguese, I had already partly switched to physical media. A few weeks ago I bought an interesting textbook to practice vocabulary through written exercises, and it has now become my main resource to work on. I still watch Youtube videos in Portuguese to train my listening skills, but I plan this in specific moments of my week.
• For Korean, I have mantained my study routine on Quizlet, but I started setting a timer to make sure that I dedicate the exact time planned to revising and practising and that I don't take any shortcuts.
• For Turkish, I have switched to physical media completely, using my grammar notebook as a reference for written practice on paper. Similarly to my routine for Korean, I also set a timer at the beginning of every study session.

My new routine for Slovene is still a work-in-progress, because I already rely solely on physical textbooks and notebooks, but I need to start implementing more practical exercises because my fluency level is zero, nobody would imagine that I am studying Slovene if I did not tell them explicitly. However, this is not an issue directly linked to scrolling.

These new routines are centered around two factors: relying more on physical media and accurately respecting the amount of time that you set aside to study and practice.

So far, I have been feeling much more motivated and even more in touch with the languages themselves. Especially during my Turkish study sessions, I feel confident that I will sort out all the rules and eventually reach fluency.

Now, these solutions reflect my experience and my specific needs, so they might not apply to anyone, but you can find your personal solution by asking yourself some questions:

• How much time do I think I dedicate to each language?
• Which methods am I currently using? Do they share some similarities (e.g. are they physical or digital media)?
• Am I having trouble focusing? Is it linked to my screentime?
• Is my current method compatible with my day-to-day schedule? Are there any major stressors in my life that I should be taking into consideration?

Regardless of your situation, I want you to know that you can absolutely get back on track and even going as far as detecting the cause of your slump is already a big step in setting yourself up for success. You've got this!

Instead, if you have already recovered from a slump, how have you managed to catch up? Would you leave additional tips? Tell us in the comments below!