Have you ever considered tracking your habits when it comes to learning and practicing French?
In this article, I will show you how and why use a habit tracker in your French language learning journey. I will discuss the benefits as well as the risks it may entail. Finally, I will provide you with my coaching tips for using it optimally.
What is a habit tracker?
A habit tracker is a tool that allows you to monitor the habits you establish.
A habit tracker can take various forms, such as:
- ⚫ Excel spreadsheet
- ⚫ App
- ⚫ Table in a journal or diary
Personally, I use an application called Loop – Habit Tracker (thanks Tetyana Skrypkina for showing me this tool!).
With a habit tracker, you can monitor the frequency, quantity, and time you spend on various activities.
For example:
- ✔️How often do you speak French?
- ✔️How many emails do you send in French in a day?
- ✔️How much time did you spend reading in French this week/month?
- ✔️How many times did you work on your language goals?
3 advantages of using a habit tracking tool
Reality check and clarity
Our brains can often play tricks on us and provide a biased perception of reality but the data are clear and precise.
Tracking these habits can reveal discrepancies between reality and perception.
Tracking your habits using such a tool allows you to gather data and numbers adding a sense of reality to your perceptions and provides a clear picture of the actual situation
Some individuals may have difficulty realizing the actual amount of time they spend speaking French or working on their French language goals.
For instance you might believe that you don’t spend much time reading, but when you accumulate the hours over a week or a month, you realize it’s more than you thought.
Similarly, you might think you regularly speak French at work, but when you track the frequency, you realize the opportunities were rather scarce, and vice versa.
With a habit tracker, unless you fail to enter the data, you cannot deceive yourself.
Analyze and identification of areas for improvement.
Let’s say your goal is to improve your listening comprehension, but you realize that you spend more time writing and doing grammar exercises than listening and working on your listening skills.
After observing the reality through your tracker, you can adjust your habits based on your goals. It becomes an effective lever to create a strategy towards achieving your objectives.
Example:
One of your current French language goals is to enhance your ability to write emails in French. Thanks to your habit tracker, you realize that you write fewer than one email per day.
Change: You decide to increase the quantity of emails you write.
Satisfaction and sense of accomplishment.
Every time you check off a good habit or enter information into your habit tracker, you receive a dopamine boost. Satisfaction, pride, and a sense of being on the right track are interesting emotions that contribute to your motivation and determination to progress.
As I mentioned in the introduction, habit tracking can also come with a few risks.
Depending on your personality, level of perfectionism, and past experiences, tracking your habits can trigger negative emotions such as stress or feelings of failure. It can also impact your motivation or lead to a loss of flexibility and spontaneity.
In conclusion, I can only encourage you to give habit tracking a try to see if this tool suits you. However, keep in mind that it may not be suitable for everyone, and it’s perfectly okay if it doesn’t work for you.
Tell me in the comment section below what habits would you like to start tracking?
Need an acountability partner to help you achieve your French goals? Book a free Discovery Call now, and let me help you develop the right mindset and strategy for achieving your language objectives.
