You may be thinking that learning multiple languages is too hard, too confusing, or too time-consuming, but the truth is that anyone can do it. The key is having the right daily habits to keep yourself motivated and productive. Here’s my best advice for how to manage daily habits for multiple languages.

There are so many questions and options when it comes to how to manage daily habits for multiple languages, but the most important thing is to just get started. The best way to learn about this process of experimentation and finding what works for you is by jumping in with both feet.

Truth No.1 – There’s no one way.

There’s no one habit setup that will work for every language learner.

Everyone has different learning styles and different needs, so it’s important to not fall into the trap of thinking there’s a perfect routine out there waiting for you if only you could find it.

The truth is far simpler: every learner has their own unique combination of skills, strengths, weaknesses and preferences which means everyone will have their own ideal solution when it comes to forming good habits.

If there’s one thing I want you take away from this article on habit-building though (and the entire ethos of Lindsay Does Languages) is that it doesn’t happen overnight! Building solid language habits takes time; sometimes weeks or months even before they become part of your daily routine. But once they are there – and once they’ve been adapted enough times over time – it allows us as learners greater flexibility around how we spend our limited study time each day because those routines allow us more leeway with less pressure than ever before.

Truth No.2 – It is possible to be good at several languages!

You may have heard that it is impossible for adults to learn another language. You’re too old, too busy, or just “not a language person” because you didn’t “unlock” the “gift” as a child. This isn’t true.

Let’s unpack this first. Children have been found to do some things better than adults when it comes to language learning. Mainly that’s:

1. Pronunciation.

2. Openness to trying – a lack of inhibition.

But what’s often not discussed when we praise how wonderfully children can learn languages is the advantages adults have. And there’s one big one: age. Because age = wisdom.

So actually, your age, and experience, and any encounter you’ve had with any language or learning anything has the potential to help you out when it comes to learning another language. Kids don’t have that.

And sure, there’s an age where the ‘power’ of our brain and memory begins to decline. Because we have human bodies, not robot bodies! It’s normal. It’s probably going to happen to all of us. But we have time between now and then. So really that’s one huge reason why now is the best time to learn a language, huh?

Or maybe you’ve been told you should avoid learning multiple languages at once because it will confuse you and set you back in one or more of the languages. But there’s no rule of “get to B2 before starting your next language” – you are in charge of when and how to bring in multiple languages.

When you learn one, two or seventeen languages, you can think of it differently to help with this. You’re not learning French, Arabic, and Ga as separate entities – you’re increasing your linguistic repertoire.

What’s your linguistic repertoire? It’s all of your language knowledge that naturally forms connections. Your brain doesn’t distinguish French from Arabic in the same we we’ve tried to organise and understand languages on paper. Language families mean nothing to your linguistic repertoire – there’s just your one language family that forms.

And when we accept that, it helps with one big thing:

We know why we sometimes mix languages. We understand why this happens which can help us calm down! It’s not a sign of weakness or being “bad” at languages! It’s actually a sign of being pretty damn cool because you’re becoming multilingual.

How to Manage Daily Habits for Multiple Languages

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Create a Daily Language Habit Tracker

You can use a simple sheet of paper, or you can make a habit tracker like the one I use in my video below.

Whatever you do, it’s important to make sure that your trackers are quick and easy to use. You don’t want them taking too much time out of your real learning time!

I have just added my digital Language Tracker to The Solo Language Learner Planner. So as well as 30 pages of printable and digital language planning, tracking, and study pages, you get my digital tracker in Notion too! Get your copy here.

Why do this though? Well, taking a few minutes to track what you’re doing really helps by giving you something to check back on and tally up how much time you’re spending on your language learning.

What also might be helpful here if you use an Apple phone is setting up some Shortcuts to help keep an accurate track of your time.

Make Your Habits Atomic!

Atomic? Huh? It’s a book.

I highly recommend the book Atomic Habits by James Clear*. His 4 laws of habit formation will help you no end:

He suggests that a habit needs a cue, a craving, a response, and a reward.

To help that process, you need to make your habits obvious (the cue), attractive (the craving), easy (the response), and satisfying (the reward).

To make your habits atomic, think about making them obvious, attractive, easy and satisfying.

Wondering what this looks like? Let’s go through an example for wanting to develop a new morning habit of writing a journal entry in the language you’re learning…

Making a habit obvious

You’ll be much more likely to write first thing in the morning if your journal (and a pen!) are kept beside your bed.

Making a habit attractive

What’s going to make you want to do this habit? This one can be triggered by different things for different people.

For example, perhaps telling yourself that you can’t get out of bed until you finish writing will make your habit attractive because you want to get out of bed.

Or perhaps you’re the opposite, and what you need is to reframe that as a chance to get a few extra minutes in bed when you’re writing?!

The most important thing here is that you pick something that suits you.

Making a habit easy

In our example, this is going to likely be affected by what “counts” as ‘a journal entry’.

Is it currently too difficult to write a whole page fully in the language you’re learning? Because if so, then your habit won’t be easy and you’ll therefore be less likely to stick with it.

You could start with writing one word, then one sentence, then a 2 line dialogue etc…as things gradually get easier, you can adjust the habit enough to keep it easy but still useful.

Making a habit satisfying

Often, I find this comes when the other factors are in place.

For example, if a habit was obvious, attractive and easy enough to happen, then it feels satisfying for me when it does happen!

However, if you want a bigger or more tangible reward, go ahead. Perhaps a weekly or monthly treat of some kind for sticking with things.

Figure out your activity priorities and language focuses

If a certain language learning technique is not working for you, don’t be afraid to try something different. Equally, if you’re feeling stuck in the weeds with one language, try another! The joy of learning multiple languages is that you can always feel productive even if you switch languages!

I’ve never written this down in any way but I have a rough guide to different “tiers” of activity and language that helps with this. I’ll try and write this down for the first time ever here to show what I mean…

Actually that was quite helpful! 10/10, would recommend writing this down.

Understanding where your language focuses and activity priorities lie really helps you to with how to manage daily habits for multiple languages.

Study in language immersion blocks (…or don’t!)

Language immersion blocks are a type of study technique that consists of focusing on one language for several days at a time.

For example, if you’re learning Mandarin and Korean, you might say that you’re going to study in a “Mandarin-only mode” for three days, then switch to Korean-only mode for three days. The idea is to immerse yourself in the target language so that your brain can focus on learning it without any distractions from other languages.

For some people this works really well. If you go all in and make your music, TV, film, and reading consumption also in that focus language too then you’ve basically created full-on immersion wherever you are in the world!

For others, however, they might prefer to keep things ticking in over in multiple languages in a day. Sometimes the anxiety of feeling like you’re leaving one language behind can weigh heavy.

So try it. If it feels good, great. If it doesn’t feel good, don’t worry. There’s still plenty of things you can do to learn how to manage daily habits for multiple languages for you.

Schedule specific times to study (…or don’t!)

Schedule specific times for study. This is one of the most important tips for making your daily habits more manageable. With a schedule, you’ll know when to start studying and when you need to stop, which will make it easier for you to keep up with your goals every day.

If the last piece of advice isn’t for you, this one might be more up your street. If you’re serious about learning multiple languages, try scheduling two or three blocks of time each day dedicated specifically to each language.

For example: Morning block = Korean; Afternoon block = Japanese; Evening Block = German.

The benefit to this kind of time blocking is that you are kinda telling your brain what to expect so it helps to make your habits easy. “Hey, brain! It’s morning time! Hope you’re ready for Korean, yes?”

However! (there’s always a however, huh?).

However, some research has found that our expectations of same place, same time, same resource studying isn’t as effective as it can be. It’s almost as if, when something is different it keeps us on our toes.

So if you’re wanting to keep specific times for your language learning, think about mixing up what you do during that time or where you do it.

Alternatively, if you prefer not having such a rigid structure in place every day – or if this feels like too much at first – you can just set aside one chunk of time each day as “language time” and decide what feels right each day! Think back to your language focuses and activity priorities to help decide what to do.

The Solo Language Learner Planner

You’re smart and independent. You know what you want to achieve and how to get there, but sometimes it can be hard to keep track of what you need to do and when.

The Solo Language Learner Planner is here to help. Our planner includes calendars, habit trackers, goal setting guides, records pages, notes pages and deep dive pages—all designed specifically for language learners like you.

This planner will help you stay organised while also helping you reach your language-learning goals. It even has a focus on helping you take things further with those deep dive pages that will help you dig into the topics you need to learn more about.

Learn more and get your copy here.