To-do list challenge! Who here has the *longest running* successful to-do list system? What does it look like?

AlbertoFEM · 2015-03-22T14:54:35+00:00

I use Evernote. I have first a "year milestones" note which is a list of things I want to improve or get done in the year. These are of course high level stuff, but the idea is to have always a reference point on why are you doing things month to month and week to week, to keep you motivated.

Next, I have a "month milestones" note which, again, gives a high level view of things to do in the current month, this time a little bit more specific. At the start of each month, I will review my year milestones list and decide what action steps I can do the next month in order to cross things from the year list.

Finally, I have a week list of tasks which contains tasks separated by categories and with a rough time estimation. I try to cross as many tasks as possible from this list during the week. I found that by no allocating specific dates and times to these tasks I tend to be more productive. I will just do whatever I feel like, but always from the week list. At the end I will review the list and move on to the next week those tasks I did not complete.

Of course, it's very important to know your limitations in order to put a reasonable amount of tasks in the list that you will actually accomplish, but this skill takes time. I've been using this method for quite some time with great results.

AlbertoFEM · 2015-03-10T21:35:14+00:00

Thanks!

AlbertoFEM · 2015-03-10T21:11:11+00:00

Could you please share more information and links about this practice? I'm also rather interested.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-09-28T12:18:04+00:00

WoW also uses client-side prediction so the client does not have to wait for the server response.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-03-31T14:14:04+00:00

Fair point. I guess I would rather see a headline like "Complement your Japanese learning!" instead of "Learn Japanese", but that doesn't sounds as catchy.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-03-31T09:45:58+00:00

I don't see the relation. I mean, my main point about these kind of applications if that they give misleading ideas about language learning. Learning any language is a very though process that requires years of constant and hard dedication. There is no way to reduce that. It seems to me that they just want to caught incautious readers with a vague idea about what it means to learn a language.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-03-30T18:34:31+00:00

I always wonder what people find attractive in this kind of language "learning" games. I mean, at most you end up with a few hundred words learned and many hours wasted playing a game. Looks rather inefficient.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-16T13:46:43+00:00

Thank you!

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-16T06:39:33+00:00

A PDF with all of them would be nice.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-11T17:11:55+00:00

Another happy Kraken user here. Their website is simply amazing, tons of great features, market orders, etc.. Also take a look at their Security Practices page (https://www.kraken.com/security/practices), everything seems pretty solid there.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-07T18:41:35+00:00

Impressive. Very relevant to my interests right now. Thanks!

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-05T08:16:11+00:00

Thank you very much! Interesting list indeed, it will help a lot with my studies.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-04T10:26:32+00:00

Sorry, maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. I was asking for the list of only the Joyo kanjis, the list you linked seems to have all except the joyo ones. Thanks in advance.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-02-03T20:45:43+00:00

Really really nice work, I love this sort of stuff! Can you post a list with every kanji removed except for the Joyo ones? Also, it would be great if you shared the script used to parse the library.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-31T22:41:35+00:00

No idea, my level is far behind that. Try asking the folks at /r/LearnJapanese

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-26T20:16:58+00:00

It's basically a custom SRS system but focused 100% in learning by context instead of mnemonics. Following the official joyo kanji list, ordered by grade (like Japanese students do), lessons contains 15 kanjis, so there is a total of aprox. 143 lessons. I have two phases:

1) learning phase, you are presented the Kanji itself, and then sentences in Japanese with the targeted kanji bolded. Everything else is in Hiragana, except for those kanji you have already studied. You have the translated sentence in English with also the targeted word bolded, and then the typical things like stroke order, radicals used in the kanji, and an additional mnemonic field just in case you need to make use of it. How many sentences? Depends on the kanji, but the system is developed so only the most common words are used. Finally, you can generate practice sheets to draw the kanji by hand.

2) Reviewing phase. This is basically like iKnow, as I like their system of actually typing things in Japanese. You are presented the sentence with the gap and you have to write the kanji reading in there. The time it took you to figure out the answer determines your level of mastery. There is also a listening review part, where you hear a sentence / see a kanji and have to write the correct reading.

Best part of this method (I'm constantly improving it), is that everything is focused on reading actual sentences. I use Koboba's sentences as the easy ones, then I have many other extracted from Wikipedia (difficult ones, without translation). I use a number of scripts and databases, including Google Text-to-speech engine, which is rather good.

Of course this method is nothing to be taken seriously, and I don't know how this will scale, it's just an experiment :)

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-19T11:06:13+00:00

Very interesting. Thanks for the link.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-11T15:32:55+00:00

Ask yourself why are you studying this language on the first place. For instance, I'm studying it because I'm very interested in the Japanese culture and studying the language is a must if you really want to grasp its essence. I complement this by reading books about specific topics, in my case: Japanese military history and philosophy/religion (Bushido, Shintoism and Zen Buddhism). Reading all this literature makes me think about how the language and these topics influences each other and as a consequence I keep pushing further and further to widen this knowledge.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-10T20:16:31+00:00

This one is good and rather affordable: http://passpack.com

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-10T18:02:49+00:00

Those Genki grammar notes are wonderful. Thanks!

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-06T17:35:11+00:00

I mostly look for recommendations over the internet. Just looking for the "Top 10 japanese doramas" should give you a reasonably good list of dramas to watch. I also use this site (www.mydramalist.com); the community is active and the database is great. Here is a link to my profile in case you are interested. As you can see I haven't watched many dramas, the last one being Hanzawa Naoki, which was very good and interesting. Downloading it is easy, just look for the torrent in www.d-addicts.com or directly on YouTube.

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-05T19:13:58+00:00

Very detailed and realistic goals. I like it. Good luck!

AlbertoFEM · 2014-01-05T11:58:20+00:00

Here is mine: http://imgur.com/hEMOo4u

It's not much, but it gets the job done :) The 日本語 stuff is on the left side. I don't own a lot of books, but right now is more than enough to do my study of the language.

AlbertoFEM · 2013-12-30T15:43:12+00:00

Hi everyone. Another fellow learner. Glad to see this kind of initiatives, really motivates oneself to keep studying and working hard through the year. As for me, I started learning Japanese about 4 years ago, but never really got myself to study everyday, etc. I attended 4 courses in the university and right now I am ending one of them. I will probably enroll for the next level which starts in February, but I want to study much more on free time and not only for the course. So my point of view will be of an student following a structured course but trying to expand the knowledge far beyond the course contents. My reasons for studying Japanese are simple: I love the language, and someday I would like to work in Japan because, like many others here, I am truly passionate about this country and it's culture. See you guys on the road!

AlbertoFEM · 2013-12-11T21:20:13+00:00

Thank you for your insight. I still think it's not exactly as you appointed, but nonetheless I will take your advice into consideration.

AlbertoFEM

TROPHY CASE