This upcoming Wednesday will be the start of a pretty long 5 day holiday here in Korea – Chuseok.

It also so happens that it’s a long holiday in China.

As such, my schedule is completely free and I feel like I finally have time to catch up on a lot of things that I have been putting off.

The main things for me to catch up on are house chores, cleaning, organizing, and such.

However, it is also a good opportunity for me to add some fuel to the engine of my research and study habits.

So I need to just make a list of things to do and knock them out of the park.

One idea that I keep reminding myself is this idea of being 1% better.

I’m not sure if I’m getting the idea exactly right, but if I remember correctly, the idea is basically that if you are 1% better every day, then over the course of 365 days, that effort will compound to make you 37 times better by the end of the year.

For me, from a macro point of view that makes sense, but on a day to day micro point of view, it’s just so easy to say “oh I’ll do it tomorrow” or “oh, I’ll catch up later.”

Seeing the big picture, the starting point and end point, and the overall path to success is really easy for me, but getting down to business every single day and telling myself to keep going is a challenge.

I know that I just have to make things automatic, so that it becomes easier to do my studies and research than to not do it.

I think it’s a mental battle for me, fighting between hard work and laziness, watching YouTube, and wanting to turn my brain off.

I think just aiming to be 1% better will keep my daily expectations in check and help me realize that my daily progress, no matter how seemingly small, is really going to add up to something great at the end.

It’s been a long time since I’ve used books to study.

I’ve been used to just using YouTube, audio lessons, and Anki flashcards to study, but there is a merit to using traditional books.

It also brings me back to when I was teaching in public schools and I used to make curriculum plans and schedules for my students years ago.

Now I’m making a curriculum for myself.

So now I’m planning out my weekly study plans and things to do.

Now the important thing is just to execute and get things done.

I find that I’m pretty good with the macro organizing and planning, but the daily micro tasks are a bit more difficult for me to focus on.

One of the habits I really need to work on is getting my sleep right.

Here’s what usually happens.

It takes me 2 hours to get back to my home in Incheon from Seoul.

On the bus ride home, my tiredness takes over and I end up taking a nap.

Then I wake up, get off the bus, and have to walk home.

Since I have to walk home, I get some blood rushing and my muscles and brain gets kind of active.

So by the time I get home, even though it’s past 11 pm, my brain is very awake and I end up buying some snacks along the way home.

The thing is, the next day, after I wake up, my brain is all messed up and it’s hard for me to focus on my research and studies.

So basically, what I’m trying to say is – I need to just walk straight home and not stop by any food stores or convenient stores.

Walk straight home, enter my house, brush my teeth, and go straight to bed.

Also, I need to NOT turn on my computer – just brush my teeth and go to sleep.

This will make sure that my following day will be as smooth as possible.

I have been trying to find a good resource for learning Japanese, specifically Japanese grammar, and I have found a couple of them.

1. Genki Japanese 1 and 2
2. Tae Kim’s Guide to Japanese

I’ve been studying Kanji and Vocabulary in isolation these days, but I figured that I need some sort of graded textbook that I can use to measure my progress.

I’ve read that the Genki 1 and 2 books can get you to a JLPT N4 (2nd lowest level), but it would be a good foundation for me to get to JLPT N3 (middle level).

I’m in kind of an interesting position, because I can leverage my knowledge of Korean to learn Japanese quickly.

One thing that I have had success with before is just studying in bed.

I remember that when I first started trying to learn Kanji many years ago, I just laid in bed in the winter and just crammed the flashcards.

I was able to focus for quite a long time, for hours on end it felt like.

I did some studying today while laying and bed.

While I was able to focus, I think it would be better for me to study outside to get sunlight.

However, What can I learn from studying in bed?

• I think my bedroom has far fewer distractions compared to my computer table area.\
• I am farther away from the kitchen, fridge, and snacks compared to my computer table area
• I’m very comfortable and don’t want to move

I think If I can apply these principles to studying outside, it will help me both get my sunlight and vitamin D and study as much as possible.

One thing that I’ve been relatively consistent with is studying outside while getting sunlight and Vitamin D.

One challenge that I’ve had, though, with studying flashcards is staying focused and keeping my mind from wandering.

Specifically, this is what happens.

1. I study flashcards for 5 to 10 minutes
2. Open up Facebook, Instagram, browser and browse for 10-30 minutes
3. Repeat

Interestingly, I notice that if I try to just study flashcards using only my smartphone and nothing else, it’s relatively hard to focus.

However, once I start adding pencil and paper to the mix, I find that it is much easier for me to focus on studying the flashcards.

I find it easier for me to study the Kanji flashcards compared to just vocabulary flashcards because I find writing Kanji by hand is quite fun.

Maybe I should also practice the vocabulary flashcards by writing them out by hand as well.

One big issue for me with focus and work seems to be the black hole of the internet.

Well let me list out my black holes:

• Eating in front of the computer
• Mindlessly browsing on the computer
• Watching tons of YouTube videos that aren’t related to learning Japanese grammar
• Checking FaceBook and Instagram repeatedly
• Looking up news about the new upcoming Apple Silicon Macs
• Looking up random stuff on my smartphone when I should be studying flashcards

So let’s list the things that I should be doing instead of getting lost in the black holes:

• Don’t eat in front of the computer
• Eat food “analog” style
  • No smartphones, no computers, etc
• If I use my smartphone, there should only be two main reasons:
  • Study flashcards
  • Listening to Japanese grammar audio
• If I use my laptop, there should only be two main reasons:
  • Work
  • Working on research and data

I’m going to write out an overall weekly goal template with dates.

I think having deadlines to follow will help me stay on track

Studying Flashcards with Anki 

• Korean-Japanese vocabulary
  • 500 every two weeks
    • 1st week = Learn 500 + Review
    • 2nd week = Reviews Only
  • 1000 every month
  • Goal – 4000 by 1/4/2021
• Kanji to Keyword
  • • 500 every two weeks
      • 1st week = Learn 500 + Review
      • 2nd week = Reviews Only
    • 1000 every month
    • Goal – 2200 by 11/23/2020
• Keyword to Kanji
  • 500 every two weeks
    • 1st week = Learn 500 + Review
    • 2nd week = Reviews Only
  • 1000 every month
  • Goal – 2200 by 11/23/2020

Creating Data / Research

• Rewrite Japanese words in Pahanngana
  • 500 every two weeks
    • 1st week = Learn 500 + Review
    • 2nd week = Reviews Only
  • 1000 every month
  • Goal – 4000 by 1/4/2021
• Deconstructing Kanji / Rewriting Kanji Pieces a la Remembering the Kanji. 
• Summarize Sound Groups
• Kanji sound group analyses (like my published data before)

Computers are a very powerful thing.

If used effectively and efficiently, you can do some pretty amazing stuff with them.

For example, today I made about 900 flashcards, digital flashcards, for my Korean and Japanese study.

On the other hand though, I wasted several hours watching a bunch of YouTube videos.

I think I need to really start being strict with myself and using a timer or Pomodoro method just so I know how much time I am wasting on stuff like YouTube.

It’s just so easy, too easy, to get sucked into the black hole of the internet.

One minute I’m clicking around to watch one YouTube video, and the next thing I know, several hours have passed.

What the eff.