Learning the Spanish Language — Project Day 1

A disappointing day (see checklist below) in which I was reminded of lessons that I've 'learned' before.

It was already midday by the time I really got into substantive language learning. By 2:30 pm I was feeling my enthusiasm wane. By 4:30 pm my head was beginning to nod. And by 6:30pm I was fast asleep on the sofa ... sigh.

It's important to note that the late start, diminished will-power and later collapse were not the products of active procrastination. I really wanted to work — evidenced by considerable effort expended to keep going after 2:30 pm.

Set-up 'costs' account for most of the delayed start — unavoidable tasks, that I hadn't anticipated in my planning. The rest, and the later collapse, are best explained as psycho-physicological effects of sleep deprivation.

I hadn't gotten to sleep until 2 am the previous night. I'd woken up at 7 am and been unable to get into the additional sleep cycle, that my body was crying out for. Poor decision-making and executive inefficiency inevitably followed.

Stronger and better routine could probably have mitigated both defects, e.g. eating and exercising early might have allowed me to dispose of the set-up tasks more quickly — or even allowed me to anticipate and complete some them over the weekend. Its absence was probably also a factor in my loss of sleep — reducing my ability to resist anti-sleep factors in the environment. So ...

Apply more effort and better judgement to the task of routine-building. Is the over-arching lesson of the day.

Task M T W T F S S
Read - Spa. press (10)
Read - Spa. fict. (10)
Read - Spa. nonfict (10)
Talk - aural Spa. press (10)
Talk - aural Spa. fict. (10)
Talk - aural Spa. nonfict (10)
Listen - Spa. audio news (5)
Listen - Spa. audio fiction (5)
Listen - Spa. audio nonfict (5)
Listen - review aurals
Listen & Talk - phrases (10)
Listen & Talk - sentences (20)
Listen & Talk - aural Qs (30)
Listen & Sing - a song (10)
Write - Sum. audio news (10)
Write - Trns. audio news  (15)
Write - comprehension test
Write - List today's 'issues'
Write - Stop positions
Physical - exercise (40)
Watch - subbed drama (30)
Watch - subbed Film (30)
Watch - no-sub docu (10)
Research - lang. acquisition
Review - this checklist (15)

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