Hey,
First of all I must say that I mean manage as in organise/approach etc and not how is it possible to do more than one hobby. Secondly I will also admit that whilst posting this I am not sure what I am looking for in an answer or how it could help me out, yet the question still stands.

Many of you will have other pursuits other than Japanese and I just wanted to know how you manage to ensure both get done with focus each day. Recently I have been swinging back and forth between Piano (which I have done for years) and Japanese and find that often one is neglected and only one is done, although done well. It’s almost as if I can’t focus on doing the two at the same time, in some OCD way I feel like I have to be giving my all to only one of them. I obviously don’t wish to quit either and that’s not to say I am on the verge of doing so, but I have recognised this as a problem and wondered if anyone had anything that could help?

P.S. I apologise for posting one of those horribly convoluted and subjective posts, but sometimes just writing it out has a cathartic quality.

I switch between several main subjects, though I prioritize two. I try to go by both mood/energy and efficiency, and sometimes switch my focus in smaller chunks of time, sometimes larger.

You could try this or variations of it: http://www.43folders.com/2005/10/11/proc...-hack-1025

I know exactly what you mean, I also feel like I have to focus on one thing. For this reason I often find myself neglecting my reviews because I'm busy programming something. Even if I say to myself "Right, I'll do an hour of Japanese, then an hour of programming, and so on" I always end up just spending the whole day doing just one thing. It's a bit annoying =(

I can identify with you. When you have multiple hobbies, it's hard to control your interests. Somedays, I'm just more into one hobby. Sometimes, I'll obsess over one hobby for weeks and my others will go neglected. It sucks when Japanese gets put behind my other interests, because it's easy to forget over a couple of days.

I don't have a great solution for this. Since it never works to divide up the hobbies evenly each day (one hour of japanese and one hour of drawing just turns to 4 hours of japanese) I just try to do a bare minimum each day for the hobbies (usually things that are easy or quick). Japanese, I try to listen or watch a show, and get at least 20 SRS reps each day. Art, a quick sketch. Then, I just work on the hobby I'm more interested in at the moment, and that's usually more productive anyway.

Thanks for all your replies guys.

I must say I am very relieved that I am not the only one to experience this. When I was typing it out I was wary of coming across as the neurotic ‘over-thinker’ who couldn’t just suck it up and get on with things.

I will definitely give the (10+2)*5 approach a go today and see how it goes. At the least I think it might help with the starting of the other task, sometimes viewing it as one large block means it will all be done, or not a minute of it will be started.

I manage it by having no free time.
I come home from work at around 3pm, shower, go on my run(marathon training), study sentences, eat, add sentences, spend some time with my wife, go back to studying(adding, reviewing, reading). And then work on my photography.

By the end its about 10-11pm and I realize the day is over.
I don't take breaks...my wife fears for my health.

Well you're posting here, that counts as a break right?

To the OP, daily, weekly, and monthly reviews help IMMENSELY in gaining control over what you get done. I'm a huge getting things done fan, although I'm wary of what it looks like to be promoting such a system on a web forum. So I'll just say that adding in reviews of what you've accomplished at the end of the day, week, and month and, more importantly, a review of how far that progress takes you towards your goals (and keeping track of all that in some sort of external system so it's not all in your head) does wonders for your productivity across the board. The focus of the daily review is to make sure you're not spending more time on one project over another, the weekly review to make sure your study techniques are working and giving you the progress you're looking for, and the monthly review is the big-picture "are these goals I'm working towards in the weekly reviews still relevant to my ilfe and overarching plan" sort of thing.

I'm just trying to accept that I can't do everything at once. For now learning Japanese is my priority. It's a full time hobby that can take all my free time (but also provides a variety of activities) so everything else is mostly on hold.

If another hobby becomes a priority very quickly there is a conflict and I start to neglect Japanese.

I have quite a few hobbies and I was getting stressed about it until I remembered something:

They are HOBBIES. Treat them as such, and the whole problem goes away. Don't feel like doing hobby A? DON'T. Do the hobby you feel like doing at the moment, and forget about treating hobbies like they are your job.

wccrawford, I'm not the OP but I would say different strokes for different folks. I do enjoy studying languages for its own sake, but it is a hundred times more satisfying to achieve real results. It's also a self-image thing.. I want to become a truly multi-lingual person as this is part of how I self-identify. So I guess in general I do agree with your advice, but some of us are really emotionally invested in learning a 2nd (or 3rd) language... maybe I should stop referring to Japanese as a hobby?

I'm rambling.

wccrawford Wrote:They are HOBBIES. Treat them as such, and the whole problem goes away. Don't feel like doing hobby A? DON'T. Do the hobby you feel like doing at the moment, and forget about treating hobbies like they are your job.

I think sometimes, pushing ourselves a little bit can be worthwhile later when we get the satisfaction from what we have accomplished. Off course, there should be times when we just do what feels like fun

Combine them. Well, easier said than done, but some hobbies might have some common ground wherein you could combine the two. Piano, maybe not so much, but you could read reviews of current artists in Japanese, read music blogs in Japnaese, post music statements about yourself on lang-8, etc.

The most important thing is prioritize ONE and only one thing, I know it sound difficult, well it is!
I love studying japanese, but I even love going to the gym and shape my body, doing 3d, video editing, studying other languages and so on.
I really want to do all but it's rather impossible, and the day tendED to be "all and nothing".
Now that I approach my last year of high school the mornings will not be available and I decided to put on top of the list the Jap
However I can tell you one thing, read this book:
http://www.amazon.com/DNA-Success-Know-W...0060006587
good luck

I plan specific time to do things, and I stick to it. I run first thing after I wake up at 5 am. I add new sentences to my SRS in the morning before I go to school. I have an hour and a half between two of my classes on Mondays and Wednesdays, so I sit outside and read my Chinese/Japanese history book while I eat lunch (not for class, just for me). I review when I get home. I do my homework and read my textbooks either right after that, or when I get home from work if I work that day. I hang out with my wife other than that, and I waste some time online. Weekends I do any reading I still need to do for school and I spend time with my wife. We try to go out sometimes (there are several great places with great beer around here), but we're just as happy at home watching movies. I'll probably have more of a social life once I meet some people (just moved here a little over a month ago).

You just have to remember what's important to you. For instance, my first time through college, I lifted weights all the time. I still like to do that but it isn't nearly as important to me as long as I stay in shape. So a lot of times the gym gets neglected, sometimes for a long time. Not a problem, because I'm doing things that are more important to me. You just have to make choices.

I didn't read the other posts so I'm not sure if this was said yet, but you can find ways to overlap them.

-Japanese website for sheet music:
http://e-ongaku.info/contents/piano.html

-Japanese drama that involves a lot of piano playing (there is also a manga):
http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nodame_Cantabile
(my favorite drama which I would recommend to anyone, btw)

-Japanese-published piano books.

It might be interesting to make it a goal to get at least a basic Japanese understanding of piano. Learn all the terminology, so when you're doing anything piano-related, you can think in Japanese more. Examples: 楽譜 (sheet music)、鍵盤 (keys)、調節 (tuning)

Edit: It's an overwhelming wiki article, especially when in Japanese, but maybe try browsing around here to start: http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%94%E...2%E3%83%8E

mafried Wrote:maybe I should stop referring to Japanese as a hobby?

I refer to my learning of Japanese as a project. It has clearly stated mensurable goals and a defined, albeit self-imposed and somewhat flexible, deadline. My guitar playing, on the other hand, is just a hobby. I'm not really trying to achieve any objectives while I play; I'm just enjoying it. This may change someday if I choose to actively improve my playing; but I'm fine with it for now.

The main difference between project and hobbies, time-wise, is that projects have a minimum slice of my time per week or per day guaranteed, no matter what, while hobbies don't. So I have far fewer projects, and think more carefully before starting new ones.

You don't have to do everything every day. The SRS requests daily attention for reviews and it's best not to fall behind with those, but most things aren't so fussy.

jmkeralis Wrote:I am experiencing the same problem...I run, dance (swing and tango)

I salute you, fellow Lindy Hopper!

I didn't have the free time problem before when I was in uni. Back then I trained in about 3 martial arts, learned music etc etc while (barely) passing uni.

Now since I've started working, I found you just have to learn to prioritise. Drop the hobbies you love less. In my case, I keep swing dancing regularly, maintain violin/piano practice and squeeze Japanese in when I can. I had to drop all my martial arts.

Thanks again for the replies they have all been helpful.

I think my definition of hobby is more in-line with ISoron’s projects. I go to the gym a couple of times a week but I wouldn’t call it a hobby, nor would I say watching DVD’s or reading were hobbies although I do a fair bit of both.

However to those of you who suggested only focusing on one thing, I have to respectfully disagree. I thought a lot about whether I wanted to take up another project/hobby which was Japanese, but I wouldn’t ever have taken up another instrument, I wanted to broaden my spectrum. I figured that Piano is not something to ever finish as it doesn’t have an ultimate goal, apart from getting better and better, so I would perhaps be limiting myself early on with a never-ending hobby ,never to move onto other things such as learning a language afterwards. Hence my decision to have the two projects with equal dedication.

I will look at overlapping at least the reading aspects of Piano in my reading as soon as I get better at my Japanese, I am still very much an absolute beginner, but hey there’s another goal on my list of things to hopefully do once I get better. I could also join a Japanese Piano community online etc, so thanks I hadn’t thought much about those things.

Ultimately I know that the only real resolution is to get them both done everyday and perhaps become more resilient with this even when life –gets in the way- as it has a habit of.

Shingo Wrote:nor would I say watching DVD’s or reading were hobbies although I do a fair bit of both.

I'd like to add that I've also dropped all unnecessary leisure stuff due to the lack of free time. Things like movies or computer games. I now focus on hobbies that develop some character or some sort of skill.

The only problem this poses is that I rarely get a social life...

Yeah I have dropped all computer games, all my stuff is boxed up now and I don't watch TV. I just got the Akira Kurosawa box set though so I will watch those at some point. Reading is a keeper though for me, hopefully I can transfer over to reading in Japanese in the future and hit two birds with one stone.

Good point actually. But its my own fault. I use it as an outlet for exercise. So I go to the venue, dance, and go home. Home to my precious precious kanji =P

Shingo Wrote:However to those of you who suggested only focusing on one thing, I have to respectfully disagree. I thought a lot about whether I wanted to take up another project/hobby which was Japanese, but I wouldn’t ever have taken up another instrument, I wanted to broaden my spectrum. I figured that Piano is not something to ever finish as it doesn’t have an ultimate goal, apart from getting better and better, so I would perhaps be limiting myself early on with a never-ending hobby ,never to move onto other things such as learning a language afterwards. Hence my decision to have the two projects with equal dedication.

I will look at overlapping at least the reading aspects of Piano in my reading as soon as I get better at my Japanese, I am still very much an absolute beginner, but hey there’s another goal on my list of things to hopefully do once I get better. I could also join a Japanese Piano community online etc, so thanks I hadn’t thought much about those things.

Ultimately I know that the only real resolution is to get them both done everyday and perhaps become more resilient with this even when life –gets in the way- as it has a habit of.

I do not know what your current schedule is like, but speaking as someone who also has a variety of responsibilities or hobbies ("projects") that take up most of my day (2 jobs, Japanese and college), I've found that -- for me, personally -- the only way I'm able to do anything is if I completely stop having a personal life and essentially forfeit all of my free-time, sans maybe 15 minutes here and there for myself when my brain feels like it can't take anymore Japanese input.

I also think that you would be better off if you were to set a fairly strict schedule for yourself and try to stick to it. For example, approximately 2 hours for Japanese and then 2 hours for piano, or whatever. In the past, I've given up on one hobby for a short time, in favor of another one I preferred, only to really regret it a couple months later. So I'd really recommend, as much as possible, you just go half and half.

Have you ever considered singing basic Japanese phrases while playing the piano? I don't know how much it would interfere with your practice, but it might be an easy way to do both at once.

I would just like to say that the (10+2)*5 approach has been very useful. Not only does it allow small parts of the larger days goal to be done in spare moments leaving less for my-self later on. It also greatly reduces wasted time and allows tracking of actual study time. For instance it is easy to open a grammar text book start working - whilst not looking at the clock - and after a while go, wow, I need a break, but you might have only worked for 20 minutes and end up taking a 20 minute break, whereas splitting it up would have prevented such a large break being necessary and kept ones mind fresh. I hope that makes sense.

I am also aiming to correct a bad habit of accepting invites to go out with friends before having completed my days project time, despite having the intention to do it afterwards as often things wont get done. I have decided that if I still have them to do I will decline, just as I would not expect them to skip sports practice or their activities. I think they have a hard time realising that just because I can do them in my home they they are also similar commitments. Hopefully this will allow me to remain on target for my projects, and get them done earlier so that I can see my friends as well.

I think I am also going to try to start waking up earlier and going to bed earlier, the late evening/night hours are the easily the least efficient.

The waking up earlier trick really works, if you can maintain it. But it's certainly not a stable configuration (for me at least).