A Study Routine That Survives Work and University

Twenty focused minutes a day, built around a commute and a shared kitchen. Posted on March 14, 2024.

Most study plans I read assume a two-hour block that simply does not exist in my week. Between a morning shift, an afternoon seminar, and the shared kitchen where four of us cook in turns, the only reliable windows are short. So the routine I keep is small too, and it has held for longer than any ambitious version I tried before.

It runs in three pieces. Right after I wake up, before the kettle boils, I reread yesterday's notes for about five minutes. Not to memorize, just to see what my own handwriting says. On the bus, I listen to one podcast segment, usually ten minutes, and I stop it the moment I lose the thread instead of pushing through. Before bed, I write a short prompt for fifteen minutes, no dictionary, no corrections. The mistakes get fixed the next morning, which is the part I refuse to skip.

I stopped trying to learn new grammar at night. My attention is gone by then, and new rules never stick when I am tired. Evenings are for producing messy sentences; mornings are for reviewing what went wrong. That split made more difference than adding hours ever did.

When the week falls apart

It does, roughly once a month. A deadline, a shift swap, a friend visiting from abroad. The plan survives because the smallest version still counts: five minutes of rereading is enough to keep the thread. I mark the missed days in the margin instead of pretending they did not happen, and I pick up on the next morning without rebuilding anything.

More notes from the same notebook live in the blog archive, and if you want to compare routines or send a correction, the contact page is open.

A working note on the pronoun shift that trips up almost every learner in Buenos Aires.

Vocabulary Notebook: Market, Bus, and Pharmacy Words

The everyday nouns that textbooks skip and that you actually need on a Tuesday afternoon.

How the notebook method is organized

What goes into a study session and what stays out of it.

Grammar note

Rioplatense Voseo: When to Say Vos Instead of Tú

A working note on the pronoun shift that trips up almost every learner in Buenos Aires.

Voseo is not a regional curiosity you can skip if you actually want to talk with people in Buenos Aires or Montevideo. This note walks through the present-tense endings that change, the small set of verbs that behave irregularly, and the moments where switching to tú sounds stiff or foreign. It also covers how vos interacts with imperatives, since that is where most learners freeze mid-sentence. The examples come from real conversations at kioscos, in class, and over mate, with the corrections I had to write down twice before they stuck.

Read the note

Vocabulary list

Vocabulary Notebook: Market, Bus, and Pharmacy Words

The everyday nouns that textbooks skip and that you actually need on a Tuesday afternoon.

Most vocabulary lists teach you how to describe a sunset and not how to ask for change at a fería. This entry collects the words I actually reach for when buying vegetables, topping up a SUBE card, or explaining a headache at the pharmacy. Each term comes with a short note on register, because some words are fine with a friend and odd with a pharmacist. I also mark the ones that differ between Rioplatense and Dominican Spanish, since I keep both in my head and they do not always agree. The list is not finished, and that is part of the point.

Open the list

Study routine