Transitioning from input to output with a reasonable schedule
Curious to hear from others in this boat. Not directed toward people who spend 6 hours a day learning Spanish.
I’m at around 880 hours of CI, with a daily target of 100 minutes a day / 50 hours a month. I’ve also been reading about 15-20 minutes a night for 2-3 months now, and have gotten up to some reasonably complicated books (native content for kids aged 10-15 I’d say), for which I can understand the general plot.
The input side has been a slog, but overall doable and definitely seeing results, which is motivating. The output side however… different story.
I work 8-6 every day and go to the gym after, usually putting me on my couch at 7:30, giving me 1.5 hours to “relax” (which increasingly I use to watch content in Spanish as native content is beginning to get unlocked). I can get my input in pretty easily if I’m somewhat disciplined during the day. 20-30 on my way to work, 20-30 during my breaks at work, 40-50 end of day / at the gym gets me there. But speaking is a different beast. I can’t take iTalki classes or practice with AI while I’m walking to work or at the gym. Suffice to say, I’m finding it much harder to find the time and honestly the motivation to speak, especially given my only real dedicated time seems to be at night, when I’ve been grinding all day at Spanish + job, so the last thing I want to do is use my little free time to practice output.
I’m looking for more practical advice, commiseration, thoughts than “you have to want it more”. I’d say I’ve been able to carveout on average 10 minutes a day of speaking between narration and dedicated active practice through two lessons I’ve taken and a lot of time with Gemini. But speaking just exhausts me so much more quickly than listening, and I never know what to say.
A couple things I’ve been trying have been narrating to myself and reading aloud, but honestly I just haven’t been seeing the results I’d like and it’s getting really discouraging on the speaking side.
Anyone else in this boat? Any interesting strategies or success stories?