If you’re learning on your own, be it for work or for pleasure, it can be difficult to stay motivated. How often have you taken up a new hobby enthusiastically, only to lose interest after a few months? Sometimes this is perfectly fine: it you find your chosen activity is not for you there’s no harm in admitting this to yourself and moving on to something new. But what if you need to learn to get ahead in your career, or if you really want to learn a language, or if you just don’t want to give up? Here are some tricks that work well for me.

The first one: add learning to your calendar like you would for any other activity. This makes it easier to fit learning into your day and it’s less likely to fall by the wayside when you’re busy. Talking about busy: you don’t always need a lot of time. I need at least half an hour (preferably a whole hour) to practice playing the piano because I just don’t get enough done in less time. But learning Spanish sometimes only involves a five minute vocabulary exercise. More time is often better, but if you can’t commit to that, practising little and often is a good substitute.

By all means set goals, but keep them realistic. I’d love to play the piano every day but I know I won’t stick to my plan. If you set strict and unattainable goals you’ll probably drop out at some point (because life happens) and once you do it will become harder to start again. Set modest goals, even if this means you won’t progress as fast as you’d like. If you manage to keep going you’ll gain more in the long run.

And finally, make it fun. If you really don’t enjoy learning, and it feels like yet another item on your to-do list, look for different ways to learn. Perhaps you prefer learning with other people or need a more structured learning program? Or perhaps too much structure is the problem? Practice can be hard, and learning naturally comes with challenges, but if you rarely enjoy learning this is a sure sign something’s not quite right. Push yourself, but also take your feelings seriously.

Studying by yourself, to conclude, is a matter of taking responsibility for your own learning. Set realistic goals, monitor your progress and your wellbeing, and don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t meet your targets. Make learning fun and something you want to keep doing indefinitely. Most importantly: celebrate your successes. It can be easy to lose track of your progress, so schedule regular checks to assess how far you’ve come, and to celebrate what you have already achieved.

Image my own @thecococatani