I Think My Duolingo Routine Is Sticking Around This Time!

 One of my goals this year was to clock over 300 days on Duolingo, particularly in Spanish. Lots of people have done that, so why can't I? I've definitely accomplished a lengthy streak before, but then shortly after accomplishing that goal, my streak usually ends for one reason or another. Now that I know I'm dealing with ADHD now, I've been able to get some insight into why this might be happening. I find that it has to do with novelty. If I manage to accomplish my goal, the novelty of having reached that goal wears off. Or I get bored with the language that I'm learning. Something like that. If it's not novelty, it's motivation failing me. I might be really motivated by having a goal, but once it's accomplished, then I'm over it and it falls by the wayside. 

But this time around, something feels different. I'm feeling more confident that this will stick around even beyond reaching 300 days in a row. Now that I've been reading up more on ADHD and how it functions, I'm more aware of what I might need to make certain habits stick around for a long time! Here's what I've found and why I think it's working:

1. I have tons of reminders. Right now, I am connected with people who are very active on Duolingo, so their progress is also my motivation. The Duolingo notifications are very dramatic and over the top, but instead of getting annoyed, I'm choosing to take this as a cue. If that fails, I have Duolingo set up as a widget on my phone. All of my apps can be found on one screen (so I don't have to scroll through anything) and Duolingo takes up a big chunk of space. 

I also have other apps that I'm active with, like Finch, and I have daily reminders to practice each of the languages. When I do practice, I can check them off the list and I get daily points for practicing those languages :) It feels really good to me that I'm not putting all of my eggs in one basket, so to speak. I think that's one major reason why I'm slipped in the past.

ADHD-Friendly Elements: Multiple reminders throughout the day, keeping the important things in sight, creating urgency

2. Flexible features within the app. Before talking about other reasons why I've been able to stick to my language practice, I want to talk about specific things that are working for me within the app itself. Varied practices even in a single language keep things interesting for me. Take Hindi, for example, since I am learning not only vocabulary, but also an entirely new-to-me alphabet: sometimes I'm translating sentences in Hindi, or "writing" sentences in Hindi characters, practicing writing out the individual characters, reviewing vocabulary, doing listening activities... there's a lot going on! It's not all the same all the time. 

Duolingo is also good about celebrating the milestones you hit. And it's not just limited to the number of days you've practiced. There's acknowledgement when you've done a lot of lessons in a day, when you've hit a certain number of perfect weeks of practice, when you've corrected a certain number of mistakes, when I go up a level in a language... lots of different achievements. That pat on the back feels really great!

When you practice enough and earn enough gems, it's really easy to save yourself if you do lapse in your practice time. As of the time I'm writing this, I have a 167 day streak on Duolingo. Is this a true streak in that I have missed literally no days? No. But I was able to freeze my streak with the gems I've earned and then the streak continued once I picked it back up the next day. It's honoring the practice I've done rather than just the number of days that good practice I've managed to keep up. Real life gets in the way sometimes. There are days I'm so exhausted I fall asleep before I've had the chance to practice. But I've never been punished for those lapses or for life taking a different turn than I've planned.

ADHD-Friendly Elements: Positive acknowledgement of achievements big and small, safety nets without guilt (well, not that I take seriously, anyway), novelty through varied activities.

3. I have multiple languages I'm practicing at once! At the moment, I have five languages that are in heavy rotation on Duolingo. I have a few languages that I have studied previously that I am working to keep up and grow in-- Spanish, French, and Dutch. I have one language that is completely new to me, which is Hindi, and takes more effort for me to practice. I also have a language that is interesting to me and in the same language family as another language I'm studying, which is German. This keeps it interesting to me because it's so varied. 

Practicing multiple languages also means I can do the practice that I have the capacity for that day. If things are going really well, I can do multiple lessons in all five languages I'm practicing. If things have been hectic, I know that I can do a lesson in Dutch (which is in the same language family as English and is therefore simpler for me to grasp over other languages) or in French (which I've had a lot more language instruction in, so it's familiar and I'm comfortable enough with the grammar). 

ADHD-Friendly Elements: Novelty through varied activities, novelty through a variety of languages, activities for a variety of energy levels.

4. I am (tentatively) planning a trip. I have a friend who moved to India with his wife nearly two years ago. India has been on my list of places to travel since my undergraduate years, but I'm usually hesitant to go somewhere where I don't know even basic things in the language spoken there. As a result, I have started learning Hindi! It's been hard to learn this language since I'm unfamiliar with any part of the language and the alphabet is different from what I'm used to, but knowing I'm working towards travel has been very motivating.

ADHD-Friendly Elements: Novelty leading to motivation!

I'm feeling really good that my practice has been relatively consistent this year! I'm proud of the things that I've figured out that have been helping too :) Send good thoughts that I'll make it to 300 days and positive vibes that I'll be able to continue my practice even beyond that goal for 2025!

Goals for 2025 (Setting + Reviewing Goals All at Once!)

I'm entirely too late to the game, but... Happy 2025! It may be June now, but when I originally typed this post, it was late December/early January. I love setting goals for the coming year! The older I've gotten, the less pressure I have felt to accomplish each and every one of my goals, but I like the act of setting intentions that this practice gives me. I find that it helps give me a focus and keeps me working towards the person I want to become. So without further ado, here are the goals that I initially set in the beginning of 2025! I'll mark how each goal is going so far too.

1. Get my nose pierced. This is one thing that I have continuously put off. I would really like it if 2025 would be the last year this goal appears on my list! I haven't accomplished this yet.

2. Get a second tattoo. I found that after getting my first tattoo, the experience wasn't nearly as intense as I thought it would be! And this is coming from someone who has anxiety in medical situations, particularly around needles. It's a very different experience. I have some ideas for what I'd like next, so it's just a matter of making a decision, saving up the money, and scheduling the appointment! I haven't done this yet and I'm not sure if it'll happen this year. I have other savings goals that have come up and that I'd like to prioritize!

3. Decorate for all of our holidays. I would really like this to include putting lights on my house, but I will likely need to emphasize non-light-related decor. I would like decorations to make it to the outside of my house, particularly in the front yard. I've done a little more of this this year!

4. Build a fairy garden. I want to create more points of interest around my yard and I think fairy gardens are so cute. This would be a fun way to get me outside but not create a ton of new responsibility for me at the same time. Maybe it would motivate me to keep my yard in order better. So far, I've gotten as far as putting a lot of things on my Amazon wishlist. This will definitely be a slow growth kind of project! I have just the spot to start this fairy garden.

5. Complete 1/2 started house projects. This is one way my ADHD manifests itself, if I'm being perfectly honest. I'm getting kind of sick of having mini-construction zones scattered about my space and having a garage filled with materials that I have acquired for the purpose of accomplishing these different projects around my house. I have a list of projects I have started but have not yet finished in my Google Keep list and I'd like to finish those projects this year if I possibly can! If I can't finish all of them, I would at least like to finish a majority of them. Finishing updating the electrical in my house is the main task that relies on another person, so I'll be flexible with that project, but I don't necessarily need someone else to help me with everything else on the list. I have what I need to put my back porch in order and I have built a tool storage space in my basement! Progress :)

6. Have regular hobby days each month and keep them sacred. Having crawled my way to winter break this school year and struggling with feeling so drained, I want to make sure I'm making time for hobbies. One way I can make sure that happens is scheduling in that time. I'm resolving to have days I mark on my calendar specifically to sit and do some of my hobbies. I haven't gone as far as to schedule entire days where I'm just focusing on hobbies, but I have definitely been finding ways to bring them to the forefront of my mind each day. Right now this looks like a standing to-do list that appears on each day of my bullet journal. So I'm at least checking in each day about my language practice, whether or not I've made time to read, journal and write my own fan fiction. It's progress :)

7. Take voice lessons and/or find an outlet for singing. My family can probably attest to this, but I have loved singing from a very young age. I was painfully shy about it as a kid if someone commented on my voice but honestly, the older I've gotten and since having a kid, I've become more open to singing in front of other people. So I want to find a way to lean into that discomfort some more and make public singing less scary for myself. I've found a glee club in my neighborhood that has 6-week sessions and I've "discovered" the community education theater that puts on musicals in the summer. Somehow I want to sing with other people and in a public way. It'll be a real challenge for me. I haven't made steps in this area yet, but I also know it's not too late to make steps!

8. Take up piano again. I was one of those weird kids that actually asked to take piano lessons when I was in... I believe high school. The problem is, even though I asked for them, I really hated practicing. I don't necessarily want to sign up for lessons again for fear of the same outcome happening (where I don't practice), but I do want to brush up on what I did learn and maybe even create some kind of regular practice on my own. I have been practicing music on Duolingo, which has been fun and has been good practice reading music again! But ultimately, it's not the same. So I will need to adjust my tactic somewhat.

9. Make writing retreats a regular practice. My cooperating teacher when I was doing my stint of student teaching is an awesome writer and researcher. I really look up to her and one of the things she does is go on writing retreats. Sometimes they're with other people who are also writers and sometimes they're alone, but she always makes a point to get away and just focus on her writing. I want to give this a try and make this something that I do. I already do retreats for scrapbooking, so why not extend this to weekends away to focus on writing? I think it would be good for me as I work to better cultivate this part of myself. I haven't made this a regular practice yet, but I still have half a year to make this happen! Even doing this once would be really nice.

10. Create a teaching portfolio. I have been putting this out into the universe more the longer I've been a teacher: I'm not going to be teaching at my same school forever. At the time of this writing, I have been teaching 9th grade for 8 years (if you include my semester of student teaching) and I've worked at my current school (small community, charter, Title I) for 7 1/2 years. Small communities make it really easy to jump in and work to make a noticeable difference, if you're willing to put in the work, and I pride myself on being as involved as I am in my school community. So I want to pull together the units I have planned as the sole 9th grade language arts teacher and showcase the projects I have brought to my community in the form of a portfolio that can be shared with schools I may approach in the future. That way they can see what I'm all about and show them what I'm like as an educator through the different experiences I've had and cultivated since my initial licensure. I will need to make a post about changing teaching positions at some point this year. I have had to recount a lot of my teaching experience verbally, but I have yet to create a digital space (even adding on to what I created in grad school) where I am sharing student work and things I've created over the years. I definitely want to start this sooner rather than later though. Once summer is over, it'll be harder to make time to do this little project.

11. Visit every small/local coffee shop in my area. I've already made a list and I'm so excited for this :) We moved into our house in 2022 and since then, I really haven't ventured out and around our neighborhood beyond where we get our necessities for the week. So I want to prioritize exploring! I like coffee and coffee shop environments, so why not start here and find my new favorite places? Some progress has been made! But realistically, I would be shocked if I finished this goal in one year.

12. Clock 300+ days on Duolingo (specifically in Spanish). I really fell off the Duolingo train/Spanish practice at the end of last year, but I want to keep learning and growing in this area. I have an opportunity with students who at the moment speak mostly Spanish and are getting used to being educated in English, so they are receiving instruction bilingually. I'm doing really well with this goal! I'll talk about it more in a separate post :)

13. Schedule regular dates with my wife and stick to them! We definitely don't have a routine with this. Dates have been rather far and few between. I think we need to find what works for us. Since the beginning of the year though, she planned and executed a date for us and that was really lovely :)

14. Create a cleaning routine that is manageable on a weekly basis. I have found a tool that makes tracking this easier, but a routine remains elusive so far.

Reflecting on My 2024 Goals

It's that time of year again! Time to look back on the goals I set for myself at the beginning of 2024 and then wax reflective about each of them and how my attempts to accomplish each one went :)

✅ Get a tattoo.  I did this!! After years of saying I would like to get a tattoo, I finally followed through and got one that I loved :) My artist was a former neighbor of mine and he now has a shop just a short ways away from where I live. He was so easy to work with and honestly, as a very anxious and needle-averse person, it was so not a big deal. I was glad I brought a friend with me, but in the future when I get more tattoos (because there WILL be more tattoos!), I would be fine to go alone if it came down to it.

🤏 Create a rhythm for blogging.  I became a little more regular with my blog posts, but I definitely didn't hit a rhythm like I had hoped. I think this year was more about trying to answer the question, "So if I'm not writing book reviews anymore, what AM I writing about?" I spent a good amount of the time I did publish just following my interests and writing about the things that were weighing on my mind. So I think good steps were made, but I didn't identify the right goal for where I'm at in this process. I'll keep trying though!

❌ Get my nose pierced.  Didn't happen yet, but once again, I'm pushing this forward into my 2025 goals. Maybe this year will be the year!

✅ 52 weeks of gratitude.  I did it! Doing this in a weekly format as opposed to the daily format that I tried to pull off in 2023 was much more achievable. It was nice to sit down at the end of the week and think about things that I was grateful for, no matter what the week had been like. In fact, it was especially nice to do when it had been an exceptionally hard week. When things at work felt like they were falling apart around me, when my grandpa passed away, when my son was having a really hard time at school and needed more support than anyone thought he would need... it was a really good mental health practice to look for the good. The ways I was supported. The distractions that came at a good time and provided a reprieve. Whatever those glints of gold looked like for the week.

⚠️ Find a side-hustle.   I ended up taking this goal off of my list because it fell off the list of importance for me. I have this habit and history of only doing things if I know I will get paid for doing them. It's easier to justify taking on more things and trying new things if I'm getting paid to do them. But this realization hit me this year that... my time is precious? And my hobbies don't have to be monetized in order to enjoy them. So instead of stressing myself out trying to find more work to fill the time I don't necessarily have on a regular basis, I decided that it felt better to let this goal go. Temporary work has still presented itself at times through my full-time teaching job and my summer work and those have been greatly appreciated without feeling too overwhelming!

✅ Write for the purpose of publication.  This goal was at the forefront of my mind all year, but ended up getting accomplished in a way I didn't expect! I started out the year with the idea that I would submit smaller bits of work (like poems, for example) and slowly pick at a novel project of my own creation. And I did pick at a novel project of my own creation. But my interest in that project fizzled out after a while. Where I found some traction and modest success was in writing Harry Potter fan fiction and publishing it on Archive of Our Own. After months and months of reading every bit of Harry Potter fan fiction I could get my hands on, I decided to make the leap and write my own fan fiction pieces. In 2024, I finish one short work (27,000+ words over 8 chapters, which was 7 more chapters than I planned on writing) and I have a work in progress that is, as of this writing, 19,000+ words over four chapters with more in the works. It has been so fun to have a regular writing practice, projects that I'm constantly working on, and I also have the urgency of knowing that people are reading what I write, whether it's finished or not. I am trying to keep myself in check and not overly concern myself with the numbers side of things. Mostly, I'm proud of myself for taking pride in my own writing and actually having fun again :)

🤏 Decorate for all of the holidays.  When I wrote this goal, I had it in my head that decorations would be visible from the street and would be very obvious on the front of my house. Due to an electrical issue that is minor but I don't have the skills to fix, we couldn't (safely) put up lights on our house and that just kind of took the excitement out of decorating for me. Some decoration happened inside my house. I want to make an effort to make more of a holiday decorating effort outside of my house in 2025, but until we fix the electrical issue, I'll have to think of ways that don't involve lights (at least the kind that plug in).

✅ Understand my ADHD brain better.  I didn't read as many books on this subject as I wanted, but I had a good, quality book that I was steadily working my way through this year. And I've learned a ton about how my brain works!

⚠️ Learn to identify agates.   Plain and simple: this goal just wasn't interesting to me anymore, so I let it go. No worries. It happens.

✅ Find/rediscover mobile hobbies.  2024 was the year that I got into embroidery and upped my sewing game a little bit :) I ended up taking embroidery hoops and just the thread I needed for the project I was currently working on when I went away from home for a few days. If I was working on sewing a plush, I would bring what I needed in order to keep the project moving 

❌ Go through the junk boxes I've been avoiding.  I continued to avoid the doom boxes. But they will make a comeback on my 2025 goals.

❌ Create an indoor storage system for tools.  I acquired most of the needed materials, but that's about it. I'll have to execute at the beginning of 2025 in order to make my projects easier to accomplish once it starts warming up outside again.

✅ Create a savings.  Success!

🤏 Learn basic electrical.  This is something I started, but due to my father-in-law's schedule and professional demands, it's been hard to be consistent with this. We'll continue to make progress in 2025.

✅ Physical and Digital Book No-Buy Year. This was a moderate success! Did I still acquire books? Yes... but in a way that fit my rules with very few exceptions. Now I just need to read more of my digital books that I've acquired over time. I don't plan to go nuts with books now that my no-buy year is over.

I'm proud of the things I've gotten to check off this list this year! I've met people who are into setting resolutions and others who think resolutions are lame and pointless. But I find that they help me create focus points in my life. I can always evaluate when my priorities change. Goals like these help me work towards becoming the person I want to be. We're all works in progress.

2025 goals will be coming soon as well as other non-goal-related posts!