I'm too busy to study.
Studies on learning have proven again and again that studying a little each day is more effective than long cram sessions. In fact, you can make real progress studying for just 20 minutes a day.
What's the trick? You have to stick with it.
We recommend you add an appointment to your calendar for when you are going to study. If you can make a routine -- study for twenty minutes every day while you drink your coffee, take your lunch break, or digest your dinner -- you're more likely to keep at it. Do a little. Do it often. You'll be amazed at how you progress.
Setting an appointment in iCal or Google Calendar is easy, just follow the steps below!
For iCal (calendars on your iOS devices):
Open your calendar app and choose today's date (or, if you prefer, a date in the future). Tap the plus sign in the upper right-hand corner to create a new event.
A blank screen will pop up where you can enter information about the event you're creating. Name your event whatever you choose and select the twenty-minute window that you'd like to use.
In this case, we're creating an event called "Practice Spanish!" for every day from 3 pm to 3:20 pm. You can make the event repeat by selecting the repeat option towards the bottom of the screen. We're picking 'Every Day,' but the 'custom' option will allow you to select only certain days of the week.
Here's our finalized event. You customize your event and decide whether you want a reminder alert or add the Fluencia URL so you can go straight to your practice from the event. Make sure you click the 'add' button in the upper right-hand corner. Now the event should be on the calendar for every day from 3:00 to 3:20 PM. Check a future date to see if the reminder is there!
For Google Calendar:
From your Google Calendar, double click on the approximate time you would like to set the reminder for. A window to create an event will appear. Since this event will be a repeating event, click the "Edit event" link to be taken to the event details.
This time, we're making an event that only repeats Monday through Friday, but you can choose and customize whichever days you like.
Just like with iCal, you can create a pop-up notification or add a note with your Fluencia homepage, app.fluencia.com. Here's our finished event, "Practice your Spanish!" that repeats every Monday through Friday from 12:00 pm to 12:20 PM. You can see that we've also created a 10-minute pop-up notification.
Now there is an event daily, but not on weekends, on the calendar. Twenty minutes a day and you'll be making progress before you know it!
If you're having trouble setting up reminders or just want some encouragement, feel free to email us!