How to Find Time to Learn a Language When You’re Busy

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A common complaint I hear from people is that they want to learn a language, but they just don’t have the time.

“Maybe later when I’m not so busy”.

Years later they still haven’t started learning that language.

They still don’t “have” time.

I’ve definitely been guilty of this myself, thinking that there will somehow come a better time in the future. That the time for me to get started will somehow just magically appear.

Because let’s face it, life gets busy.

A mentor of mine told me years ago that “you’ll always find the time to do the things you want to do”.

I felt so frustrated hearing that - “I mean I just don’t have TIME right now”. I just can’t make it work trying to juggle everything in life.

But, he was right.

We find the time to watch the latest news, instagram reel, or the latest season of TV shows like Married at First Sight or Bridgerton.

I started learning Spanish less than 2 weeks before me and my wife went to Spain.

In the months leading up to that I had actually found myself feeling like I don’t have enough time to really put into my languages the way I would like to.

And here I was adding a third language into the mix.

Surely that wasn’t the solution! Or was it actually?

Since I knew I was gonna put up a video of me speaking on YouTube already on Day 7 of me learning Spanish, I had to find the time time FAST.

You can see part of this Spanish conversation in my video Week 1 of Learning Spanish (And My First iTalki Lesson).

If you’ve already seen this video you’ll know that I have a habit of using “dead time” throughout my day to learn a language.

So with Spanish I started to aggressively look for these opportunities throughout my day, because I was under a tight deadline that I hadn’t been before in my language learning.

Before that it was more “I wanna make sure I improve at least a little bit every day”.

This time I had to get to the place where I would be able to have a conversation in a very short time.

Finding time in the daily routines of life

When I wake up in the morning I do a 30-40 min workout. So I thought why not take the opportunity to improve my language skills at the same time?

With Spanish I would just do Pimsleur lessons at the same time as working out. It works out well since the lessons are audio only.

After that I typically unload the dishwasher and start making breakfast. I would keep Pimsleur going or listen to some Language Transfer lessons.

This was another 30 mins.

That’s already an hour of language learning, and my day was just getting started! I didn’t even need to set aside any extra time for learning. Because honestly, I didn’t have extra time.

Then during the day I was doing certain tasks that didn’t require my full attention, such as washing the dishes, cooking, walking to places and even certain work tasks. I would then use those times to put on Pimsleur or a LingQ mini story on audio at the same time as completing those tasks.

Sometimes it was for 20 mins, other times it might only have been for 5 mins.

But that’s fine. I would just pause and then whenever I would have more time later I would just press play and continue where I left off.

I just made sure to make learning Spanish part of my day and use every opportunity I could find.

This becomes especially important when you need to do learn a language fast but you’re busy (which I’m sure most of you reading are). And I certainly was busy with work and getting ready for our 6-week trip to Spain (watch more of our travels and arriving in Spain in this video: [VLOG] Traveling to Spain (+ trying out my Spanish skills)).

If you attach your language learning to your already existing routines then you don’t have to create new ones, since they are already there for you!

It can be your morning or evening routines, workout routines, traveling to work or other places.

Anything where just by doing that activity you’re automatically learning your language. Because the routine of learning a language has become one with and a part of your other routine.

James Clear talks about this very topic in his excellent book Atomic Habits (which I highly recommend reading)

I mean hey, why not see if it’s available in the language you’re learning, import it to LingQ (get a longer free trial + 37% off LingQ), and start learning how to create lasting habits while improving your language skills at the same time. That’s exactly what I did when I read the book in Finnish!

I was SHOCKED at how much time I actually had

Once you start looking for these windows of time you realize that there are actually a lot of them.

I was even SHOCKED myself at how much language learning time I had managed to accumulate at the end of the day. It was easily 2 hours every single day (sometimes even 4 hours).

And we’re talking regular work days here, not weekends.

It was actually an eye-opener for me because I had been believing that I didn’t have enough time for Finnish and Cantonese. I mean I spent some time each day, but it certainly didn’t feel like it was “enough”.

I wasn’t satisfied with it.

I was somehow waiting for that time to magically “appear” in front of me.

When that time was already there all along.

Gay Hendricks says in his book “The Big Leap” that time is not something we “have”, but rather something we “create”.

We create the time for the things that matter to us. It’s not something that is just given to us.

That really changed my perspective on time.

The first step is to not complain about not having enough time (anyone else guilty of this??).

If we believe we don’t have enough time then it becomes like a self-fulfilling prophecy. And complaining about it certainly only enforces this belief.

But if we stop doing that and instead start taking ownership of our time. To “own” our time instead of being a victim to it, things start to change.

And in my experience, once I sopped complaining about not having enough time (I still have to remind myself of this), time started to feel way less limited in my life.

There was enough time.

Making a conscious choice

Priorities are also a big key, and sometimes we might wanna prioritize something else rather than learning a language. That’s fine.

But at least then it’s a conscious choice.

So the first thing to define is “how important is it for you to learn this language”? “How would it change your life a year or two from now if you were able to speak it”?

Imagine yourself speaking that language and how incredible it’s going to feel.

At the end of the day learning a language is supposed to add to your life and make it better. To open up new doors and unlock ways of thinking that were previously unavailable to you.

When there’s a strong why behind it, and as in my case a sense of urgency, it’s fascinating how much time we’re actually able to find.

This is definitely something I’ve already taken with me to my Finnish and Cantonese from my experience of learning Spanish.

So the ironic thing is that adding a 3rd language, Spanish, into my daily routine, ended up creating more time for me for those other two languages I’m learning.

That doesn’t mean that you need to spend several hours a day like I did. Maybe you find that 30 or 60 mins is perfect for the pace you wanna go at.

Well that’s gonna add up to roughly 175-350 hours in a year. A significant amount.

Taking that time consistently every day will work magic over the course of time. As long as you stick with it.

If you really want it and it’s important to you then I guarantee you’ll find the time if you just look for it as well as set up some simple and automatic habits.

For me, I often don’t make a conscious choice to learn a language. It’s just part of my day and routine.

It’s mostly just when I’m wanting to create a new routine that I need to be a bit more intentional about it. But then again, I try to look at what routines I already have established and attach my language learning to those.

If you’d like to read more about how to make language learning part of your every day life then I’d recommend for you to download my free 22 page e-book Intuitive Language Secrets.

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What are some of your daily routines that you combine language learning with? Would love to hear in the comments below!