Hallo, ein Monat [Hello, one month]

Last week, I mentioned I'd managed a whole month of doing the dishes. Which was an accomplishment and a half.
Today, I've another month-long accomplishment. I hinted at it, towards the end of that post, and it's past the one-month mark now.
And I'm chuffed.

So, first, what is it?
I'm trying to learn German, of all things. And there are two apps that I have on my phone - one is called Duolingo, and the other is called Memrise. They are very different apps, in how they go about teaching you, but they both do the same thing - teach you a language.

I installed Duolingo probably the middle of December. Possibly late November, even. And, for a while, I was good at doing it every day.
And then, well, as things tend to go, I was no longer good at doing it. I went about a month (January, actually) without touching it.
The crazy part is the app even tells you ever day that "hey, come play today so you can keep up your daily-streak!" and I still wasn't doing it.

I installed Memrise a couple days after Duolingo, and was just as crappy at doing it daily. This one doesn't give you a reminder notification on your phone, but emails you saying "you have x-number of words to review" on a regular basis.

And then I was sad.
Because it wasn't a difficult thing to be doing. It was easily less than half an hour to do complete the "daily goal" in both apps. And it wasn't like I wasn't enjoying it. I actually felt like I was learning, which was cool. And it was starting to make sense, even! But I just wasn't doing it. Which was no good.

So, the beginning of February, I said "okay, get serious, or don't do it any more."
And I got serious.
I have to make sure and add doing the apps to my daily to-do list. I have a check-off calendar type of thing in the back of the notebook I'm using to write vocab down. I have to have the Duolingo app remind me to do it some nights.
But it's getting done.

Some nights, I just do a review. Both apps give you sections or vocab that it thinks you need a refresher on, and it counts towards your "goal" for the day (which is either a certain number of points, based on word count, or getting through a section of a module (which are small)). I don't feel like putting a lot into it every day, and you don't really have to every day, either - it still counts as having met your goal.
Some nights, I spend quite a bit more time on it. And that's okay, too.

And I've been doing it every day for a month. Which is, again, a big deal.

The Internet isn't 100% in agreement on how long, exactly, it takes to make something a habit, but I understand that it's about a month.
I'd like to say that, at this point, it's a habit and I can do it just without thinking about it. That isn't the case, though, as even just the other night I saw the Duolingo notification to "come play!" and said to myself "oh yeah, gotta do that." It's not necessarily a natural thing for me to just do at a certain time of day, but I do try and remember to do it on my own.
And I'd like to say that I'm not saving it for about 9 at night, but I am. The reminder notification comes through at about 9:15, and about half the time I see that before I go through and do it.

The problem is that I remember to do it earlier in the day, but don't...because I can still do it later. Which, in the past, has normally led me to just be abandoning things (because the do it laters get to be do it tomorrows and then meh, do it? no thanks). And so that is the next step, to be doing it before 9 at night.

But, it's been a solid month of learning. And, again, I'm super proud of myself.

While I may not, at this point, actually know much of the German language, I know much more than I did a month ago. Which is pretty darned cool. Here's to another month (and then another...and another...and another...).

~Havok

P.S. Both apps are free on the Google Play store. You can do Duolingo online, as well, but I do not use it. And Memrise does have a subscription you can pay for, for extra features, but you can learn, do review, and do the time-trial exercises for free.