Note: This time, you’ll see a few words that have footnotes. The footnotes won’t work in your email, so if you click to view the post on the website, you can click back and forth to see the footnotes. I’m trying to include footnotes as a place to put some phrasal verbs, some expressions, and some challenging vocabulary. These are things you can practice throughout the week.
Hi everyone. We are back. It’s Saturday afternoon here in the South of France. And guess what? I’m only just now creating the content for this week’s assignment. Which can only mean one thing. You guessed it: I’m a big procrastinator.
Let me procrastinate just a little more. Because I love words so much, let’s quickly dive into the etymology of this word, where this word comes from. Most English words are from three major sources: Germanic (Old English and Old Norse, languages spoken before the year 1000 AD), French (which is a Romance language that comes from a spoken Latin), and Latin itself. The oldest words in English are words with Germanic roots. Most of the core grammatical words—like the, a, it, she, he, her, him, his, they, their, am, was, be—these all have Germanic roots. Other words come from French or Latin. Sometimes, a few words in English will originally come from the same word, but entered the English language at different times. These are called doublets, and I’ll link to a much longer list of them. One example of this are the words hospital, hostel, and hotel. These are all places that people stay for one reason or another, but they obviously differ a bit.
Okay, that’s enough of that. But I could go on for days and days about little surprises in the history of English. I won’t, though, at least not today.
All this to say, you’ll be happy to know that the word procrastinate has been happily part of the English language for nearly 500 years!
Here are a few examples, with the dates the word is recorded in written English:
From 1548: The kyng of England..was so sore moued against the Scottysh kyng, that he would not procrastinate nor deferre one houre tyl he were reuenged.
From 1647: To procrastinate in matters clear..may be dangerous.
From 1816, Jane Austen’s Emma: Mr. Weston, always alert when business was to be done, and as incapable of procrastinating any evil that was inevitable, as of foreseeing any that was doubtful, said, "It was time to go;" and the young man, though he might and did sigh, could not but agree, and rise to take leave.
In these examples, we see that the word procrastinate really just means to delay, to put off till later. Of course, with the current meaning of the word procrastinate, we imagine a possibly boring or unpleasant task. Or maybe just a project you need to get done that isn’t due till later. Making this recording is by no means boring or unpleasant. Actually, once I get into the swing of it, the content sort of just writes itself. It’s just a task I know I have to complete on a weekly basis, and I know it has to be done over the weekend, so, naturally, I just wait for the weekend to arrive, and then I do it.
What about a change in behavior?
I usually complain to myself: “Why do I wait until the very last minute? Next week, I am going to start the process earlier.”
But I never do. Sure, I can try to believe that I will. And maybe it is something I should actually try doing, but I haven't been successful thus far so instead of continuing to resist and change behavior, which is really, really hard, sometimes I think it’s better to lean into it. Just accept it and incorporate it into your schedule.
For me, procrastination usually means that I have other priorities in my work, in my day. Not always, but sometimes. So I know that it’s totally fine for me to wait until the weekend to do most of the work.
And when that time comes, I buckle down and get to work. This deadline is incredibly motivating for me, and that both helps me focus and helps me be creative. If I tried to do it on Monday, for instance, I’m sure the end result would be s**t.
But what if you want to up your study of English? What if you want to push yourself to work a little bit more?
Well, you can set yourself some mini-deadlines throughout the week. Something I really enjoy doing in another language is reading opinion pieces in a newspaper that I get every week. It’s not necessarily the most active form of language learning, since I’m reading, looking up a word here or there, and thinking about the topic. But it’s still active learning time, and because I know I receive it every week in my physical mailbox, I feel obligated to read it. And I do. (Most of the time. I got out of the habit once when I was studying for an exam, but now, I’m almost caught up.) So this is a weekly deadline. It’s something that happens regularly, that I enjoy doing, and that is a realistic amount of work, all good things for a deadline to be.
At the same time, I had loosely set another goal of reading more fiction in a foreign language. I’m going a lot slower than I thought, but this doesn’t need to be a weekly goal. For me, it’s okay to change things up a bit and be a little more flexible.
Along the same lines, obviously having scheduled English practice, in the form of a lesson, can be very motivating. This is something that really motivates me, especially when I have something specific to work on before a lesson. I know I have to be present during a lesson, so that’s dedicated practice, and then I review that content later in the week.
You and your teachers can help set practical goals together, and your teacher—maybe that’s me!—can help hold you accountable. Even just saying that goal aloud to somebody else can really help motivate you to keep your goal. Say it out loud, write it down, tell your partner, tell a friend, tell me.
Having that deadline hanging over you can be extremely motivating. But the trick is to consider it an actual deadline. It has to count. You have to stick to it. You have to keep doing it.
Lean in to your procrastination
Use your procrastination of other tasks to do a little language learning. We all procrastinate tasks in our life. I sometimes vacuum, do the dishes, or go for a run, all in order to procrastinate. Good thing that none of these activities prevent me from practicing a foreign language. What I usually do is put on a podcast and listen while I do these tasks. Even 10 minutes of passive language learning—of just listening to something or watching something—is still language learning. I have two go-to podcasts that I switch on whenever I’m in a situation like this.
Don't create extra work for yourself. If you already have things you do in your native language, try to switch one of those things into English. When you spend time reading, listening to music, watching a recipe video, try to do it in English. Or carry a little notebook around with you of phrases to practice during the week when you have a little downtime. All practice is good practice, even just a few minutes here and there, from time to time.
In addition to 2, pair other activities with language learning. There are tons of workout videos, yoga videos, even tutorials on things you might already do. Some of my students have gotten into padel, a tennis-like sport. Watch a tutorial in English about it, and then try to think about it in English when you’re playing. I’ll link to an 11-minute wake-up yoga video, that’s from the channel Yoga with Adriene. Watching yoga videos is a great way to learn some body movement vocabulary and to really coordinate hand and leg motions with the rest of your body. Right hand comes to the left knee, left fingertips can come behind and you want to be careful not to push or force here but keep it nice and easy as we begin to deepen the breath and wake up the spine. And keep the shoulders relaxed as you bring it back to center. Once again, big inhale as you reach for the sky. Spread the fingertips. Find a nice big stretch through the front body, the back body, and the sides of your body here. Reaching up to breathe in. And then exhale, twisting as you breathe out.
Get to know your procrastination a little bit. What do you usually procrastinate? What language learning tasks do you usually avoid doing? Make a list of things that you do regularly and that you would like to do regularly but you don’t. What do you notice about things you are able to keep up? About things that you just don’t do? What activities are more pleasant? Dedicated grammar study maybe isn’t fun for you, but watching a TV show in English might be more fun. And this is something you can adapt and try to extract more value from.
My overall philosophy is that language learning isn’t a 10 kilometer race, or even a marathon. It’s a longer journey, maybe a long walk on a trail, with different stops along the way. Some days, some weeks might be more productive than others. Maybe you go farther, or climb higher, or walk faster. Others, you stop and spend a little bit of time, sitting by a lake, maybe talking to a friend, or somebody new. But the most important thing is that you enjoy the journey.
This week’s work
Think about how you procrastinate, why you procrastinate. What are the tasks you procrastinate? Do you see any opportunities to insert English? Where? When?
Can you think of a deadline to set for yourself this week? A small one?
Can you think of a few phrases you’d like to think about this week?
Write a few sentences about your own procrastination. Or record a few moments talking about it. What are some ways that you can use it to your advantage? To help you focus? To help you progress?
Finally, make a list of all of your language-learning habits and routines. What are all the things you currently do to learn English? These can be large and small. But be specific. Think about the past week, or past month. And then think about what you can do to build off that success.
Some examples:
I looked up words as I read a book in French. I underlined some of the words and put them aside. Maybe your next step here is to revisit those words, look them up on Youglish, and see how else they’re used.
I started listening to a podcast about Simone Schwarz-Bart, a novelist from Guadeloupe, a French overseas territory, while I was doing a light jog yesterday. I want to revisit this podcast and listen again, this time, looking for phrases and ideas that are interesting.
I had a French lesson. I need to review a few phrases and select a few to practice for this week.
See? That wasn’t so hard. Now it’s your turn.
Of course now, I’m quite late! It’s already Sunday morning. I started writing this before I went out to grab a drink yesterday with a few friends, since grabbing a drink is something you can do now that restaurants in France are allowing outdoor dining.
I’m not sure what this week will bring, but every week is a new week, to try something a little different, or just view yourself a little bit differently.
Good luck this week! I can’t wait to hear your thoughts on procrastination.
Let’s talk soon.
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