Zen to Done method: be organised to gain time to learn French, in 10 steps

Before you start your learning journey, you will need to organise your time to have slots dedicated to your learning. With the Zen to Done method, you will be able to be more efficient and reach your objectives of learning French. You will find in this article the first part of this technique.

Structure your time

Why you should be organising your time to learn French?

You probably tell yourself, “I do not have time to do that”, “I am too busy”, “I will do it later”… I know I certainly have. Now consider this, the average daily time spent on social media worldwide is 145 min (or 2h40)¹. That means a lot of people spend more than 2h40 as it just an average. Clearly, I do not think you are on social media learning French, are you? Imagine if you were spending a bit less time on social media everyday, to learn a new language that will open doors and be useful? Take a look at my article “Why you should learn French” to understand its importance. I will help you to get organised to have enough time to learn French, stay tuned!

My experience in organisation

You probably wonder why on my blog to teach French, I am talking about organisation and why I can be trusted? I have always heard people telling me I am organised, even in my work, this is my strength. I never really understood, because I do not do anything extraordinary, I have never really been taught (from what I can remember anyway).

In 2018, me and my partner purchased our first house. It has not been decorated for probably 40 years, I can tell you there were a lot of work to do, renovation rather than decoration. We decided to live in it while renovating. We are both working part time (even doing overtime sometimes). I am also covering out of hours for work and on the evenings and weekends, I am providing French tutoring. On top of all this, I was practising hours and hours to prepare for an English test… I can tell you I was busy!

We decided to undertake renovation whereas I did not even know how to use a hammer to nail something! I was scared of heights with a super high ceiling (and I am not even joking), to tell you we needed dedication. And I am not even talking about all the admin tasks we all have (which are time consuming), such as comparing car insurances for the renewal, the car battery has died and needs to be replaced, the internet stopped working and you need to call the customer service… you know what I am talking about!

A month ago, I read about the Zen to Done method by Leo Babauta. I realised that I was following it without knowing what I was doing was actually a method. It is really easy to do and you will find out all the time you can gain applying it.

Zen to done method to organise your time to learn French

The Zen to Done method has been implemented by Leo Babauta. He is a blogger and author. He created the successful blog, Zen Habits, that he started to chronicle and share what he has learnt while changing a number of habits.

Find your passion, the most important of the Zen to Done method

It is important that the activity you want to undertake you have a minimum of interest about. Why that? Well, in the long term it won’t last if you do not like what you learn. If you always dreamt learning French then jump! Do it but until the end because it is going to take time. If you have no particular interest in languages or you are not sure if you will enjoy learning French, you can still give it a try. I will be providing a lot of free content and in the worse case, if you do not like it, your time is not wasted because you had the opportunity to learn “Bonjour” (“Hello” in English) or “Au revoir” (“Bye” in English), much rewarding than spending 2 hours everyday on social media, isn’t it?

Collect by making lists

If you have an idea that pops-up in your head, then write it down. How many times I was thinking of something or had an idea and forgot it an hour after. Have you experienced that before? I am sure it happens to everyone, right? 😉

So, make sure you have your note book always with you or create notes on your phone. I use Evernote which I love. You could have different categories for instance “Gifts” (“Cadeaux” in French), imagine you see an ad on TV and you think this would be the ideal present for your dad’s birthday which is in 6 months, are you going to remember it? You could have another one called “Shopping” (“Courses” in French) and while you are cooking, if you think you need more bread (“Pain” in French) for example, then write it down straight away.

By creating lists and writing what you need while you think about it, you will gain a lot of time! Otherwise, you will spend time to remember what you needed at the supermarket and probably never remember it, forget it and go there a second time, whereas you could have read a French article instead.

Process

Do not procrastinate. If you receive your water bill for instance, do not leave it on the side to do it later, just do it now! If you are working and focus on something else, then put it on your list of things to do at the end of the day.

You need to apply this same principal for your emails. Who already had hundreds even thousands of emails in its inbox? Well, not me anyway… how can you know where things are in all that mess? Few months ago, I realised I had 150 emails in my inbox which never happened before, I was horrified. It took me hours to tidy up whereas it takes me just 3 minutes each day when I do it regularly.

So, make sure you have some time dedicated to check and tidy up your emails in the morning and evening. In your emails, you can create folders and subfolders (if you are unsure how to do it, you can search on google and you will find videos showing you). For example, in mine I have one called “Property” and in it, I have subfolders such as “Bank” to archive all the interactions I had with the bank, “Solicitor”, “Quotes”. Perhaps at the beginning it will take you a bit of time to create folders and subfolders, but do not worry, it will be much easier on the long term.

Planning, one of the most important aspects of the Zen to Done method

At the beginning of each week, plan the biggest tasks that will allow you to reach your goal.

You can plan them in your diary and reflect the time you will spend. Take the time to think about your day and you will definitely find 10 minutes there, 20 minutes there…

If you prefer to practice in the evening or the morning, it depends on when you are the most efficient. If you split your day with a bit of learning through the day, it will be easier to follow in the long term than doing one hour straight everyday. For instance, if you have one hour lunch break, you can take 30 minutes to eat (if you prepared your lunch the evening before, you gain time) and then 20 minutes for your French. I give you an example of planning below.

Do

It is crucial that when you do a task, you focus on it and avoid multitasking. It always takes our brain a bit of time to be completely focused on a task. So if you have your phone ringing or someone asking you where are the car keys, your 15 minutes activity will take much longer.

First, find a quiet place in your house. Then, inform people around you that you really need to concentrate on this for 15-30 minutes. Anticipate any questions, if it is in the evening after diner, ask your kids to brush their teeth, put on their pyjamas… Put your phone away or turn it off and shut down your emails. Distraction won’t allow you to be efficient and what we want here, it is to be extra focused so the task takes you a minimum amount of time. In case you are interrupted, and need to remember to do something, make a note! You should have your notebook next to you as we mentioned earlier.

Simple trusted system

It is important you have a simple system in place. Do not try to over-complicate it, or keep trying different ones. Choose one and stick with it! You will waste time trying to use complex tools, figuring out how it works… so a simple notebook and your diary are more than enough.

Organisation, another point of the Zen to Done method

You need to put things where they should be straight away. Do not procrastinate, it will keep your work area, your house clear and you won’t have your mind thinking about it. For instance, if you received a catalogue advertising things you will never buy, do not put it on your desk it can go directly in the bin. Same thing with emails, organise them in folders as we talked at the beginning of the article.

Review

Do a weekly review of your goals and see the progress you have made. Just by seeing that you have followed the plan of your week, you will feel so proud and realise, it is not that difficult after all!

Simplify

In order not to be overloaded, the Zen to Done method advises not to attempt to do all the tasks, but focus on the most important ones by reducing your tasks to essentials. Do not try to be too ambitious at the beginning of the learning process, otherwise it won’t last in the long term. Break your objectives down. For example, if you want within the next 3 months being able to write better in French while doing dictations. Then, you will plan to learn everyday new words, as it is like that you improve your writing. Create sentences with these new words so in a different context you will not be lost and know how to use that word. Plan during the week to practice with dictations and you can read in French too, that will definitely help you improving your writing.

Routine, the last focus of the Zen to Done method

Creating a routine will help you to have a structure. In the morning, get up at the same time, have your routine: having breakfast, listening to 15 minute podcasts, doing your yoga….And create a routine in the evening too. You will see that it will become normal and you won’t even need to think about it as it will become part of your routine.

If you want to know more about the Zen to Done method, the free ebook is available here.

What to remember?

To summarize, you would need to:

So now, it is your turn to take action, tell me in the comments your objective in learning French and which tasks you will put in place to reach it? Feel free to share this article.

A bientôt!

Reference:

1.Daily social media usage worldwide | Statista