How to learn a language using the principles from Atomic Habits

There's a book called Atomic Habits, written by James Clear, that tells you how to create new habits that are useful in your everyday life. I'm going to talk about how those principles can be applied to learning a language, no matter what level you're at. I'm James, I'm a native English person, I can speak Spanish and Italian, and I have 13 years of language learning experience.

1. Reduce the effort it takes to start

Basically, reduce the activation energy. If something takes a long time or a lot of effort to get started, you're less likely to do it as a habit. Think of brushing your teeth. You do it every single morning because it's part of your lifestyle. On the other hand, there are many things you should be doing that take too much effort to get going, like the gym, or getting up really early. In language learning it could be telling yourself you'll sit down to study grammar or write a list of grammatical things. That takes a lot of energy and thinking to get going.

So make every language learning activity as easy as possible. Tell yourself, "I'm going to read this book in Spanish now, or watch this Netflix show, but I'll just do two minutes." The two-minute rule is really good, because you tell yourself, "I won't do it for long." And I bet most of the time you'll spend more than two minutes. But it's that mindset, that you'll just do a little bit, that reduces the friction and means you're more likely to start.

2. Habit stacking

You have an existing habit in your life, and you stack something language related on top. If every morning you drive to work and it takes half an hour, or you commute by train or metro, normally you might be listening to the news in English. Instead, listen to a podcast or radio in your target language. If you want to add a language learning activity to your life, the best way of making it stick is to attach it to another habit you already do.

3. Think about your identity

This is a bit more profound. If you think of yourself as someone who does that thing, for example if you go to the gym and do a lot of sport, your internal voice says "I am sporty". It works the same way with habits. A lot of the habits we do are based around our identity. Many people who practise languages think of themselves as a language learner.

The incorrect framing is to say "I am someone who's fluent", because that's very subjective, and if you don't believe it yourself, it doesn't work. For me, I'm English and I can speak Spanish and Italian, and I think of myself as someone who's practising languages. I don't put a status on how good I am at any language. I just know internally that I'm a language learner. So opening a language app or listening to a podcast in my target language sits more naturally with how I see myself. If you see yourself as someone who learns languages too, it'll be easier to implement habits around that.

4. Make the habit obvious

This comes down to your environment. If you've got easy access to a cheat sheet of Spanish phrases, on your desktop or phone, or your home screen is language learning related, the more obvious something is in your day-to-day life, the more likely you are to do it. It triggers you to think, "Actually, I need to study Spanish because I'm going on holiday in a few weeks and I can see it in front of me." Even something as simple as bookmarking a TV show on Netflix that's in your target language, so when you click Netflix you go straight to that show. You're designing your environment so language practice is the default.

5. Make it attractive

This might sound weird, but if you do something you enjoy, you're more likely to do it. If I'm into kickboxing and karting and I'm studying Italian, the best thing for me is to set it up so I'm watching or consuming content related to kickboxing or karting while also incorporating Italian. Maybe I watch a vlogger or someone in Italy doing kickboxing. The more enjoyable your language learning activity is, the more likely you are to continue and repeat it over time.

6. Never miss a day twice

Obviously we all have illnesses and things happen. Maybe a day is absolutely packed, you've got an hour, you're absolutely knackered and you miss your language learning practice. That's fine. But never do it twice. Missing two sessions starts a habit of not practising. You might relate if you used to go to the gym. One morning you say, "Actually, no, I'll leave it for now," and that carries on to another day. You set your threshold a bit lower every time.

It's okay to miss once, just not twice, because no one can be completely consistent every single day. As long as you do one little thing the next day, even two minutes on a language app, you've told yourself, "I'm not going to stop this habit. I can miss one day but not another one." Long-term consistency beats perfection.

7. Think in systems rather than goals

Instead of thinking "I want to get fluent", think "I want to practise this language X amount of times a week, when I'm doing this or that." It's a repeatable system that can be done every single week and aligns with your routine. Your routine doesn't have to be set in stone. You could be a nurse or someone on shift work. Whenever you have a break at work, you do ten minutes using your favourite language app. Or when you're commuting you listen to half an hour of a podcast 100% in your target language. You integrate these things into your life.

If you say "my goal is to get fluent", it's hard to identify what fluent means and how you'll know when you've hit it. When creating goals, it's always better to have many little goals, like "I just did two weeks straight of listening to a podcast every day". That's brilliant, that's a goal. Psychologically it's much easier to accept that you're doing a bit at a time, rather than thinking "I want to get fluent" and not seeing results for ages. Fluency is a byproduct of having a system in place and being consistent enough for a long period of time to get good at your target language.