Kimini 30-Day Experience Report (4): There Are Times When You Can't Do Lessons Every Day
I continued it properly every day for 30 days. ...I wish I could have written that, but the reality is different.
I completely stopped for two days in the middle. Today, I will honestly write about that story and how I managed to get back on track.
You might think it was only two days. However, once you skip two days, it becomes quite difficult to get back into it.
To give you the conclusion first, the reason I was able to return was not through willpower or grit. I simply "changed my approach." Specifically, I moved my preparation and review from home to the train. Just by doing that, the number of days I could continue increased significantly.
If you read this article, you will see how to recover after "skipping once," not as a matter of mental attitude, but as a matter of system.
▼ Click here for the previous article
The record of the days I skipped remains
[▼ Screenshot of lesson record calendar (first half)] [▼ Screenshot of lesson record calendar (second half)]
The 7th and 8th are completely blank. These were the two days I stopped. The cause was overtime work.
The good thing about Kimini is that preparation, lessons, and review are connected on a single track, but on the flip side, you must finish the preparation to take the lesson. In my case, I needed to eat dinner, do the preparation, take the lesson, and then do the review. It required about one hour in total.
On days when I came home late due to overtime, I simply couldn't carve out that hour. "I'll just skip it today." Thinking that, I went to bed without opening my computer.
While I was skipping, it was quietly painful
For those two days, I felt guilty the whole time.
Thinking "I have to do it," while wanting to watch videos or TV. Can you relate to that feeling? Even though no one is going to get angry at me, only the guilt of not keeping what I decided for myself remains. Because online English conversation is free, no one says anything to you even if you skip it.
And what's troublesome is that if you skip one day, the hurdle for the second day goes up. The feeling of "I didn't do it yesterday either" becomes a weight on the next day. If I had left it for three or four days like that, I probably would have finished there.
The turning point was when I was playing a smartphone game on the commuter train
The trigger for returning was something simple.
While commuting, I was playing a game on my smartphone as usual, and I suddenly thought, "Can't I do the preparation during this time?"
[▼ Screenshot of preparation screen (materials I was opening on the train)]
I tried it, and it worked. I can proceed with the preparation materials on my smartphone without any issues. Choosing words, constructing English sentences, and watching grammar videos—all of these were tasks that could be completed on the train.
The same goes for review. I can just finish it on the train ride home.
In other words, the only thing I needed to do at home was the 25-minute lesson. The moment I realized that, the conditions for continuing became much easier.
Once I changed it to 'only 25 minutes at home,' I was able to keep going
The difference after changing my approach was beyond what I had imagined.
Before, I needed an hour if I considered eating dinner and doing the preparation. Now, the preparation is already finished by the time I get home. All that's left is to open my laptop and talk for 25 minutes.
Honestly, I could manage with about 30 minutes of overtime before, too. But what really made a big difference wasn't the time itself, but the peace of mind.
When I get home, the hurdle of thinking 'I have to do the preparation now' versus 'all that's left is the lesson' is completely different. When you get home, the desire to just relax inevitably wins out. I reduced the amount of work to be done at home to a level that I could overcome that feeling. This was the correct answer for me.
If you look at the second half of the calendar, you can see that from this point on, lessons around 9:00 PM are lined up neatly. I wrote in the previous article that 'my lessons were often at 9:00 PM,' but that schedule was actually solidified after this failure.
To be honest, there were a few days I skipped after that as well. The only time I missed two days in a row was these 7th and 8th days.
Summary: If you slack off, doubt the system, not your willpower
To summarize the reason why I was able to return after skipping 2 days out of 30:
The cause was not 'having weak willpower' but 'having too much to do at home'
Moved preparation and review to my commute on the train
Limited home tasks to just the 25-minute lesson
As a result, I was able to continue even with some overtime
If you are currently blaming yourself for not being able to continue, please try doubting your method before you blame yourself. The reason you can't continue might not be your fault, but simply that the structure makes it difficult to keep up.
I have summarized the details of Kimini's preparation and review, as well as the learning flow for each course, in a review article on my blog.
Next time is finally the last installment. I will reveal the results of my speaking test with numbers to see if my English really changed in 30 days.
It's okay if you have days where you slack off. What's important is to have a structure in place that allows you to return.
[Click here for parts 1-3]
Kimini 30-Day Experience Report 1: My experience with a teacher cancellation during my first lesson
Kimini 30-Day Experience Report 3: My realistic lesson schedule as a full-time employee
#EnglishLearning #OnlineEnglishConversation #KiminiEnglish #ContinuingEnglishStudy #WorkingAdultStudies
