I’m a learning geek, and for a long time I tried to optimize the way I learned languages down to the second. This is the story of my mistake.
I studied and put into practice every relevant concept that comes from cognitive science: spaced repetition, comprehensible input, continuous feedback, active recall… and all with some success. If you’re not familiar with these concepts, I can only recommend looking into them (starting with books like Make It Stick for the general side, and Fluent Forever for languages in particular).
But a few months ago, I realized that this obsession with performance was hiding a blind spot.
In reality, when you try to optimize your learning, there are two directions you can take:
• “micro” optimization means getting as much as possible out of a given session
• “macro” optimization means stepping back and placing your learning in a broader context, that of your personal life.
And while at the micro level, optimizing comes down to doing more (more flashcards, applying more cognitive science concepts, practicing more…), at the macro level, you may find you have to do less.
Consume less content so you don’t saturate your brain and leave enough room for the new things you need to absorb.
Practice less so you get enough rest and keep a clear mind.
Clean up your life to get rid of pointless distractions.
I naturally leaned more toward the micro solution during my first [years] of optimizing. And if you tend to be demanding of yourself, I bet you’re the same.
Thinking about it, the reason for this neglect is very simple: macro optimization requires making tough choices.
Choices that affect you day to day and can change the course of your life:
• giving up an activity you love to free up time
• putting one language on the back burner while you make progress in another
• scaling back your goals when you have other, more pressing concerns in your life
Macro optimization is the hardest to put in place, but it brings a peace of mind you can’t find just by piling up hours of work.
Since I understood that I was missing this kind of work, I’ve made a lot of choices that changed my daily life: I stopped using Spotify, blocked all my social media on my phone, replaced my digital notes with an analog system, and put Russian on hold to focus on Italian until I pass a certification.
Tough decisions (especially at first), but they paid off for my overall well-being and my learning performance.