- I can't take large scale flashcard grinding for long
I can do the "3 day monk" thing with gusto. But longer term big volume grinds just lead to another abandoned deck. My threshold seems to be about 30 mins / day max. Anki IS very effective at helping me remember things! But in general I need to work with longer chunks of (somewhat) real content to stay sane and keep Anki usage light and focused. - I VERY easily get sucked into "preparing" instead of "doing"
I can spend hours getting my materials in the right format (trimming audio, making flashcards, searching for subtitles, ripping DVD's, etc), and realize I haven't actually USED them. I also can get enamored with the next most brilliant method that just a bit better than the last idea... "I just need to edit my materials into X format or find Y style material and use it like Z and it will certainly be 'more efficient' than what I've been doing." I'm better at this than I used to be, but I really try to watch my time usage and chant "good enough" a lot. - I must fight my engineer brain's perfectionist side
I feel a strong urge to look everything up and add EVERYTHING to my Anki deck. It is tough for me to "just guess and move on" --- my devil's advocate brain doubts all guesses too much, i.e. "It could mean X... or Y... or Z... or half dozen other things... oh what's the point? I just don't know." - My ear for words isn't the best
I've always had a tough time even just picking out English lyrics from songs. Although I do have an ear for pitch, so that helps a bit. - I have maybe 5-10 hours each week I can use for language learning + some dead time driving, etc.
Ok, this is really more of a limitation than a "weakness", but whatever. My wife and I spend a lot of time together and we don't watch a lot of TV, so there's little time for "extensive" language activities.
I think I've found ways to circumvent my issues adequately, but I'm curious to hear from others:
What does your list look like?