TTT 10: Habit Stacking
Hi friends,
இரவு வணக்கம் (iravu vaNakkam), Buenas Noches, and Good Evening from New York City - let's get into it!
Thing I did
I wrapped up the last week of Mexican Spanish classes with Idahosa Ness, the creator of the Mimic Method!
This week was conversation with the Peruvian native, focusing on the tips from last week all while adding in roleplay - kind of like improv. We did a scene where she played a taco teacher from an AirBnb experience and I was a Colombian tourist. We even switched roles so I could practice imitating her exact phrasings, rhythm, and melody.
It surprised me how imitating a native speaker quickened my speech.
The anxiety of trying to speak faster consciously can derail the smoothness, but as a side-effect of mimicry it came naturally.
The biggest takeaway I got from working with Idahosa is to trust your body knows the quantitative details of movement from your practice so you feel more than think.
Even though the 1-on-1 classes with Idahosa are over, I got the contact information for the native Peruvian speaker so I can continue to practice conversation to prepare for my upcoming trip to Mexico!
Tweet I loved
What I loved about this tweet was how actionable it is.
It's important that my readers can meet with me if they want. I've come across so many awesome blogs in my time that made me want to speak to the writer. I hope for my writing to get so good other folks want to speak to me.
Setting up a pretty Calendly link is the first step.
Thought I had
I love when habits stack.
I just finished up a cohort on Newsletters led by Louie Bacaj and Chris Wong.
It was an awesome cohort and I’d highly recommend it to anyone who wants to write regularly.
Its focus on creating sustainable writing habits is what separates it from other writing classes I’ve taken.
One sustainable habit they shared was to promote ideas from your newsletter onto Twitter, LinkedIn, and even TikTok (via voiceovers). This creates a content flywheel. I'll be able to iterate on my ideas and improve them as they grow up through my Newsletter -> Twitter -> wherever else.
This week, I turned a newsletter about learning Spanish and Tamil “by ear” into a twitter thread that was touched on in TTT 6: Get Moving
It can be easy to fall into the trap of all content must be original, but luckily Louie and Chris saved me from falling in. So grateful to have the opportunity to learn from folks just a step or two ahead of me. They remember the trenches and lessons learned better than any Ivory Tower expert.
If you're interested in signing up for the NewsLetter cohort, you can leave your email here and they'll notify you when the next cohort is.
I'd love to hear any feelings you felt while reading this and until next time - be easy.
Love,
Janahan
P.S. If you enjoyed this newsletter, feel free to forward this email to your people or share this link. It'll encourage me to keep writing!