Comments on: Timeboxing is Scary

By: Kimura

Kimura — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 06:46:56 +0000

It can really help if you’re a chronic three-day monk and frequently have 300+ reviews due. Kanji for ten minutes, sentences for ten minutes, something else for however long, repeat until done.

By: kalek

kalek — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 05:26:41 +0000

I thought I’d try out timeboxing again after reading this post, and then I realized that timeboxing has become so much a part of my daily life that I forgot that already use it. Constantly.

I cannot imagine my life before SRS or timeboxing.

By: SomeCallMeChris

SomeCallMeChris — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 03:17:22 +0000

You should probably try timeboxing at some point… time boxing settings are built into Anki, and I presume into Surusu. It can make the time use more efficient because you know you’re against the clock and focus, even if you don’t have the ‘starting’ problem. For me, for kanji, though, it really didn’t help… once I start doing my kanji reviews I just get into the groove and keep going until they are done, sometimes with a break halfway if I have a lot of reps that day. For vocabulary reviews though, timeboxing really helps with the ‘getting started’ thing.

Also for -adding- stuff to my decks, easily the most tedious task in studying Japanese which is why people love premade decks, but I really want to review -specific- vocabulary for re-reading / re-watching some things. No built in tool for that, though, need to set a timer for that.

By: Sakurazuka Seishirō

Sakurazuka Seishirō — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 01:22:08 +0000

Is timeboxing really necessary if you’re still learning kanji? I’ve been doing RTK(anji) for like three days and am only on the 114th one…I do SRS reps about an hour a day, and spend two hours on the book. I feel like I could do more, but I try not to push myself too hard (or hard at all, actually. I don’t like pushin’ muhself to do anything). I feel like I’m getting along okay, with a 91% (not too great, but whatever) retention rate…would timeboxing help me?

By: ライトニング

ライトニング — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 19:34:44 +0000

I prefer timeboxing with sentences. I only have like 15 Kanji reps per day, so I just do them in one go, but sentences, I set a question limit of 25, then take a 5 minute break, then repeat. I guess you could call it Question boxing 😛 I just prefer it more.

By: あんど

あんど — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 12:22:19 +0000

Dude, I do the same thing with music as well! It really is a nifty tactic, ain’t it? 😀

By: Miss Language Learning

Miss Language Learning — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 11:42:07 +0000

Thanks a lot for reminding me that I need to give timeboxing another chance.
I used timeboxing at some point and it does work REALLY well.

By: Apple Head

Apple Head — Sat, 22 Oct 2011 09:59:40 +0000

Sometimes I time box with music to add a little spice to it. For instance, I’ll find a song I like that’s around five minutes, or whatever time, and then try to finish or do as much of my task as possible before the song is over. And if I’m doing a repetitive task, I’ll put the song on repeat until I get sick of it.

And for me, time boxing doesn’t really help me with the “showing up” part. It does decrease the amount of time I spend on things, though, because it helps me focus on getting more done in a smaller time window. I mean box.