Remember the 3 things you need to have for the best self learning outcomes. They are

1. Motivation
2. Planning
3. Environment

The second thing is to plan your learning.

What is your goal? What can you do right now and what do you want to be able to do? Break it down to manageable goals based on what you can and can’t do. For example:

Problem: “I can’t read hiragana”
Solution: “Work on hiragana daily”

When you have a problem and solution set, thin about scheduling your daily routine. It could be something like:

Goal: to be able to read and write every hiragana character within 4 seconds
Task: practice 1 line (5 characters) a day. You can set a timer on our app.

This is a good planning because you have a very specific target to be able to read and write hiragana within 4 seconds. If your goal is to be able to hiragana, it’s just too broad and too general. If that’s the case, it’s easy to lose focus. And the task can be adjusted based on how much time you can spare every day to be consistent. Don’t make your task too difficult or too easy. If it’s too difficult, you can’t go beyond 3 days. If it’s too easy, it won’t be stimulating enough for you to continue.

Great planing will result in great results. Especially as a self-leaner, it’s difficult to stay focused, and it’s even more so when you don’t have a goal to aim for. Strong motivation is great but you have to use that energy first to prepare your own learning process.