The Secret to Accomplishing Big Goals Lies in Breaking Them Into Flexible, Bite-Size Chunks

The prospect of learning a new language can be daunting, especially for an adult. Spending dozens of hours a year on lessons just to make slow progress on a new skill can seem out of reach—particularly when juggling work and family responsibilities as well. That was certainly how one of us (Milkman) felt about her decades’ long ambition to learn Spanish.

That all changed, however, when a popular language-learning app presented a more attractive approach: complete one lesson—just six or seven minutes long—every day in order to eventually become bilingual. This adds up to about 40 hours of study each year, the equivalent of a full work week, but it is presented as a bite-size daily commitment.

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Read the whole story (subscription may be required): Scientific American