As always, this tip applies to all kinds of projects and tasks. I’m merely using web development as a personal example.

I’ve been working as a full-time web developer for the past four months. This means that I have to deal with project management all the time. I’ll often be working on a project alone, and have to design a rough plan for what I need to do in order to create the final product. The list usually starts to snowball as I progress and keep jotting down additional tasks.

These general to-do lists are important for coordinating your work and reminding you to complete tasks at appropriate times. But what I’ve noticed is that when I have a big project on my desk that includes dozens of different tasks and features that need to be implemented, I often lose track of where I have to go the next day—especially if it’s a Monday morning. So every time I go to work, I have to reorient myself to pick up from where I left off the previous workday.

I’m a web developer so most of my time goes into designing and implementing features for web applications and websites. Most of the time I can’t just leave a single file open in my code editor and continue from there the next day. Since applications usually comprise multiple files, I have to take everything into account. This is why I’ve learned that it’s important to plan a little bit ahead and give yourself some instructions for the next day.

It doesn’t require much effort. All you need to do is write down a few lines describing the next steps that you need to take. Simply remind yourself what needs to be completed. The core idea is just to quickly reorient yourself.

When writing tasks for yourself I recommend that you stick to one action per line to make sure that you don’t skip over any important ones. It’s much simpler to focus on one thing at a time, and go onto the next list item when you’re done with the previous one.

For example…

Case A

Read Emily’s email, and reply to her.

Work according to her instructions.

…is more prone to mistakes than:

Case B

Read Emily’s email.

Reply to Emily.

Work according to her instructions.

Now, here are a couple of example task lists.

Example Scenario 1

You’re working on your client’s blog. It’s almost time to leave the office, so you create a new file and start to scribble down immediate tasks for tomorrow:

Create an author bio element inside the div.sidebar element.

Set the font styles for all text elements in the author bio.

Check for redundant stylings.

Example Scenario 2

It’s Friday 5pm and you’re writing an offer to a prospective client. But you notice that you have to leave half of it for Monday…

Read the last paragraph under Delivery Policies.

Finish writing it.

Review the entire section to see if it’s coherent.

Example Scenario 3

You’ve just finished editing a short promotion video for a product ad, so your task for tomorrow is to render it and inform the client about it.

Render video.

Email client.

By writing a clear task list for yourself you no longer need to worry about remembering what needs to be done the next day. And so you can also avoid wasting half an hour every morning trying to figure out where you left off the previous day.

Since you’ll be writing these notes at the end of the day, it’s best to keep them short and to the point. They’re not supposed to feel like a chore. Allow yourself to get used to the fact that they really help you to get organized, and that writing the instructions doesn’t take longer than a minute.

Learning a language takes time. Depending on how much time you have at your disposal, learning how to communicate in a foreign language can take anywhere from a month to several years. From what I’ve noticed, one year of consistent effort (daily practice) is usually enough to have a casual conversation in a new language.

Today we’re not gonna be talking about how often you should study a language (we’ll leave that for another time), although I’d like to point out that in a lot of cases daily practice is counter-productive because you can easily burn yourself out.

So today, I’d like to deal with an important practice that many people seem to dismiss. That is, keeping a record of language-related questions.

It’s a simple concept but so many people (including myself before) don’t bother with it, so they lose many opportunities to gain extremely useful information.

Allow me to explain what keeping a record of questions is about.

Questions are spontaneous. They appear whenever and wherever they will. As you’re buying your Monday groceries, you might wonder how to ask for a product that’s easy to use in the language you’re learning. But when you’re alone, the only thing you can often do is write a note about it so that you can look for the answer afterwards.

However, without having a written record of your question, you’ll easily forget about it and will never get the answer until the question reappears at some point in the future. Mental notes just don’t work.

Whatever it is that you’re learning, the learning process requires you to adopt new habits. Many of the habits will feel troublesome to you at first, but without them you can’t progress. People often say that they’re only dabbling in something when, in reality, they’re not confident to say that they’re learning it, because it would create expectations and pressure.

Here’s a short list of expressions I recently wanted to know how to put into Chinese…

If it’s tomorrow then I can go.

Not salty enough.

I don’t live in Japan anymore.

If I have to…

Had I not recorded the questions when they appeared I probably wouldn’t know how to say them now. But because I saved them on my smartphone, I was able to come back to them later when I was hanging out with my Chinese friend and ask.

(If you’re curious to know the answers, here they are:)

如果是明天的话，那我可以去
rúguó shì míngtiān de huà, nà wǒ kěyǐ qù

不够咸
búgòu xián

我已经没有住在日本
wǒ yǐjīng méiyǒu zhùzài Rìběn

如果我必须
rúguó wǒ bì xū

I specifically wanted to emphasize recording your questions, because they’re directly related to you, and how you use a language. What we need to learn first and foremost is how to express our own thoughts.

When you have the questions ready, you can just ask your teacher, friend, consult an online forum, or look them up on the Internet.

A language textbook is a handy source of study material, which is why nearly every language course on the planet uses textbooks for maintaining structure throughout the lessons.

But it’s damn hard to find a textbook that lets you learn the language with maximum efficiency. Moreover, if you’re learning a rare language that doesn’t have a wide selection of textbooks to choose from, it’s even less likely that you will find optimized books.

What I mean by efficient textbooks is that the creators have put genuine thought into the design and scope of the textbook. Poorly designed textbooks teach you how to use pointless phrases like “Sir, is this your wristwatch?” or “I seem to have an eye infection. Could you please give me the directions to the ophthalmologist?”

I think there’s a misconception in the textbook business, or in the language learning department itself, that people tend to think that they should first learn the things that concern safety and well-being. How to find the doctor, how to describe your symptoms, how to order food, etc.

In reality, though, these kinds of phrases are not typically used in daily conversations. In fact, I’ve never had the need to see a doctor while traveling. Besides, you’d probably be better off speaking basic English rather than causing fatal misunderstandings in the ER.

And as a beginner, you should focus on learning how to use common words to construct descriptive phrases.

You might want to learn some of the more commonly used phrases, such as “I am ___,” “Where is ___?” and “I’d like to ___,” to start expressing yourself dynamically—without always relying on fixed phrases. When you find yourself lost and unable to find an expression for a given situation, you won’t have the flexibility to describe your thoughts in your own words. Self-constructed phrases are not going to be as concise and grammatically correct as textbook phrases, but you’re training yourself to SPEAK the language rather than reciting pre-constructed expressions that you’ve merely memorized.

The above phrases are useful because they can be transformed into other useful expressions just by changing the key words.

Here’s a great list of commonly used English phrases translated into several languages.

Pros and Cons

Now that we understand why textbooks aren’t always the most efficient way to start learning a language, I’d like to talk about creating your own customized textbooks.

Having your own textbook comes with advantages as well as disadvantages. I’ll list down a few of them:

Advantages

• The words and expressions will be tailored to suit YOUR own needs.
• Reduce clutter. You don’t waste time on useless topics.
• You can keep track of your progress.
• Your textbook serves as a reference of everything you’ve learned so far. Whenever you forget something, you can look it up easily.
• You are learning as you’re writing the textbook.
• It’s free.

Disadvantages

• You need to create the content yourself. You have to look for the material.
• You are in charge of keeping it organized.
• Your textbook won’t be 100% error-free (unless you hire a proofreader).

You must be thinking that having a textbook with errors would defeat the purpose of efficient learning. Let’s face it, it would be awesome if every textbook on Earth was error-free.

Sadly, this is not the case. As we know, commercial textbooks come with errors and misprints. My Chinese textbook has mistakes in it. And your textbooks will have them too. But that’s a good impetus for us to work even harder.

Have you ever seen newbies that spoke perfectly? Everyone makes mistakes even if their textbooks are 100% error-free. But as long as you are honest with yourself and accept that you’re human and prone to making mistakes, you will learn from them.

I’ve been studying Mandarin Chinese on my own for the past 8 months or so, and I know that I make mistakes all the time. But I’ve learned a lot during these 8 months. If I compare my current self to the one 8 months ago, I’m completely different. I still make mistakes, but I’ve come a f***ing long way.

Where to Gather the Materials

Your textbook will always be a work in progress. You will add more content as you find it, so don’t worry about populating your pages too quickly.

And don’t make the mistake of deliberately looking for content just to fill the textbook. You’ll only want to include things that are truly useful to YOU, and eliminate what’s nonessential.

Use a variety of different sources to study your language. I personally like to use YouTube and TV shows for learning natural Chinese. I also use Google extensively to look up certain expressions and their English equivalents that have been asked and answered by native speakers (it works surprisingly well). You can also take a look at my post on how I’m currently studying Mandarin Chinese for some tips.

So whenever I learn something new, I just store it in my textbook. You can see a couple of examples later in this post.

Style and Format

When it comes to formatting your textbook, simple tends to work best.

My Mandarin Chinese textbook follows a very simple format: 1 block per entry, 3 lines per block for Chinese, pinyin, and English.

Yours might be different. The important thing to remember is readability. You’ll want your textbook to be easily accessible. Keep it organized so that you can quickly find the entries you’re looking for and add new ones.

If you want to include images, do so, but I personally haven’t found them necessary because I’ve made the translations and explanations descriptive enough for myself. As long as you get the right meaning, you’re fine.

Here’s an excerpt from my Mandarin Chinese textbook:

得到
dé dào
get; obtain; attain

你最想得到什么？
Nǐ zuì xiǎng dé dào shén me?
What do you want to get the most?

事实上
shì shí shàng
in fact; actually; as a matter of fact

___结束了
___ jié shù le.
___ is over.

旅行结束了
Lǚ xíng jié shù le.
The trip is over.

订阅我的YouTube频道
Dìng yuè wǒ de YouTube pín dào.
Subscribe to my YouTube channel.

Structure

Textbooks can grow extremely fast—mine is currently a 135-page long OpenOffice document. This is why you should consider organizing it into appropriate sections. The ultimate option probably would be to have an application to handle all the data, so that you could just focus on viewing and adding content and let the application handle the organization.

As your textbook grows, you’ll also have to deal with duplicate entries. But sometimes it’s beneficial to keep duplicates even though it might seem redundant. If you’re dealing with the exact same word or phrase accompanied by the exact same definition, description, etc., by all means delete the duplicate(s). But if the entries are different from each other—that is, if they use varying examples or describe nuances—it’s worth keeping both entries, or merging them if appropriate.

Sharing Is Caring

Consider publishing your textbook for free. Many people would appreciate your generous contribution. I’m also planning to publish my Mandarin Chinese textbook, but it needs to be properly organized before I can offer it to the public…

I’ve been studying Mandarin Chinese on a day-to-day basis for about 8 months now, and I’ve made some discoveries on good study practices. So today I’d like to share with you some of the methods I use for learning Chinese…

1. I speak to myself in Chinese before going to bed. It’s awkward to say this but I actually take some time off before hitting the sack to talk to myself in Chinese. I usually try to use words and phrases I’ve recently learned. This refreshes my memory and also puts the vocabulary into proper context.
2. I write random phrases. This is what I probably do the most out of all the exercises. I always have a stack of loose sheets of paper on my desk for jotting down random sentences in Chinese. I prefer to write stuff with a pen because then I’m simultaneously improving my handwriting as well as reminding myself how to construct the characters. The topics are totally random. I just write stuff that pops into mind.
3. I read Chinese stuff online and look up new words. Although my skill isn’t high enough to understand articles written in Chinese, I try to read forum posts that use conversational Chinese. What I usually do is, I Google a bunch of keywords that I want to see in action, and see where it takes me. And whenever I stumble upon words I don’t know, I use the 有道词典 dictionary to look them up.
4. I post in Chinese on Facebook. When I want to convey a message particularly to a Chinese-speaking audience (e.g. “Happy Year of the Dragon!” or “How much does bubble tea cost in Taiwan?”) I write it in Chinese.
5. I watch Taiwanese dramas. I enjoy watching Taiwanese dramas regardless of their educational benefit. But it’s also a fun way to learn more words and expressions. Watching movies and TV shows is particularly effective for listening comprehension, because the more you keep hearing the same words, the more accustomed your ear gets to recognizing them. The experience is totally different when listening to an instructional track where the actors speak unusually slowly. Furthermore, Taiwanese dramas come subbed by default, so if you fail to catch what they’re saying, you can always analyze the subtitles and find out what they’re saying. I recently finished watching 命中註定我愛你, which was recommended to me by a Taiwanese friend.
6. I watch videos on YouTube. Another thing I enjoy doing is watching random videos on YouTube. I can watch anything. I’ve watched variety shows, Chinese lessons, travel shows, music videos, etc. Remember, it’s all about learning. As long as you’re learning something, it’s worth your time.
7. I try to put my thoughts into Chinese. To condition my brain to work in “Chinese mode” I often force myself to think in Chinese. This kind of simulation is very important, because in order for you to become a spontaneous speaker, your new Chinese brain needs to become familiar with as many scenarios as possible. This is to avoid freezing up in actual conversations.
8. I ask myself how to say something in Chinese. When I find myself wondering how something would be put into Chinese, I give it a try. If I can’t think of a way (e.g. if the syntax seems too complicated) I look it up on Google or ask a friend.
9. I write to my Chinese-speaking friends in Chinese. Unless I have to explain something that is too difficult or in danger of being misunderstood, I try to say it in Chinese. I find it fascinating how easily you can explain many simple things despite having a limited vocabulary. You might not be producing the most eloquent sentences, but you’re none the less getting the message across. The important thing is not to worry about making mistakes. No matter how clichéd it may sound, we learn so well from our mistakes.
10. I listen to Taiwanese radio stations. I do this partly because I’m a fan of Asian music, and the great thing about Taiwanese radio is that they play all kinds of Asian music—Taiwanese, Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, and Japanese pop. When I’m at work I usually tune in to Kaohsiung Kiss Radio Taiwan or Taipei Hit FM.
11. I use Google Search to organically look up words and phrases. A good way to find out out how to put something into Chinese is to input the phrase in English and add 怎么说 (how to say) or 什么意思 (what meaning) at the end. It should bring up pages where people have asked how to say something in English, thus allowing you to get the Chinese equivalent written by a native speaker. Google Translate RARELY works, so I recommend you look up phrases written by real humans.
12. I use Google Translate to look up pinyin tones for characters. The sole reason I use Google Translate is because it has support for pinyin tones. This means that I can examine how words are supposed to be pronounced. You have to be careful though; Google makes mistakes too, especially when dealing with a preceding 不 or 一 in a compound word (such as 不是 and 一起). So before you use the tool, you should know the general rules on tone changes.
13. I listen to Chinese music, and try to decipher the lyrics. Although songs often use expressions that wouldn’t be used in colloquial Chinese, there’s a ton of good stuff to be learned from C-Pop.
14. I read Chinese textbooks. I don’t use textbooks as a primary source of study material, but I like to read ones that have colorful illustrations and useful examples. I’m currently using a textbook I bought in Taipei called Chinese Made Easy.
15. I watch Chinese lessons on YouTube. I’ve particularly found Peggy’s Chinese lessons and these Chinese lessons (in Japanese) to be useful.
16. I take notes, constantly. Whenever I learn something new, I write it down and save it in a file. The document that houses all my Chinese notes is currently 128 pages long! My word processor is starting to get laggy at times so I’ll soon have to think of an alternate way to record notes. By the way, the point of keeping an extensive collection of notes is not because you’d want to review them from beginning to end (that wouldn’t be realistic with a 128-page document), but rather to have access to a familiar set of searchable records that includes everything you’ve previously worked on.

If you’re learning Chinese, or any other language, I’d love to hear your input on what methods have yielded the best results for you. Please leave your tips in the comment section below. 谢谢!

So you’ve set up your Mac to let you input Chinese characters. But what if you wanted to write Chinese using the Latin alphabet, i.e. pinyin? Since writing pinyin correctly requires the appropriate tone marks for flat, rising, falling-rising, and falling sounds (¯ ´ ˇ `), we need to configure your Mac to support them. Let me show you how…

Setup

The setup is quick and easy.

1. Open up System Preferences.
2. Go to Language & Text.
3. Select the Input Sources tab.
4. Scroll down the list until you find an input method called U.S. Extended, then put a check mark next to it. (See below)

Now that you’ve added the input method, you’re ready to start using pinyin. If you’ve been typing with the regular U.S. input setting, you can now remove it and just stick with U.S. Extended because the former is more or less the same (correct me if I’m wrong) except without the added keyboard shortcuts for special characters.

How to Use the Tone Marks

Tone 1 (flat) mā – Option + a, then hit a vowel key
Tone 2 (rising) má – Option + e, then hit a vowel key
Tone 3 (falling-rising) mǎ – Option + v, then hit a vowel key
Tone 4 (falling) mà – Option + `, then hit a vowel key

So if you wanted to get ě you’d first hold down the Option key and v, then release them, and hit e.

If you have any questions, let me know—down below.

Click here to download my complete Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I notes

The Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I audiobook is an excellent tool to jumpstart your language studies, since it focuses on teaching you the essentials and most commonly used phrases and terminology for conversing in Mandarin. The Pimsleur language learning audiobooks are well known for their philosophy of anticipation and graduated interval recall. What this means is that they use intelligently placed pauses and intervals to hardwire the words and phrases into the learner’s brain.

For a more in-depth review of the audiobook, you can read my full review of Pimsleur Spanish I, which essentially covers the same aspects as the Chinese counterpart.

Now, the Pimsleur method focuses almost entirely on speaking and listening, so you won’t be able learn how to read and write Chinese just by relying on the audio CDs. This also raises another problem: it becomes cumbersome to do any revision without having access to written material, unless you take your own notes. But Dr. Paul Pimsleur advises that you refrain from doing anything aside from focusing on the audio program; he believes that multitasking your way through the units only distracts you and decreases the potential of the program.

But worry not. I’ve already done the work for you. As I did with Pimsleur Spanish I, I’ve now also crafted a complete set of notes for the entire Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I audiobook for you to use.

The 22-page PDF document is broken down into 30 units. Furthermore, each entry comes in three parts: Chinese characters, pinyin, and English. For the Chinese I’ve chosen to use simplified Chinese characters mainly because the language program is taught using a variety of Mandarin Chinese commonly heard in Northern China (e.g. 儿化音). If you wish to learn traditional Chinese characters instead, you can easily convert the characters using Google Translate.

Example:

多少钱？
duō shǎo qián?
How much does it cost?

Please also note that the document may include typographical errors. If you find any mistakes in the notes, please notify me (and everyone else) in the comments below. Xiè xie nǐ.

Feel free to share the notes!

» Download Pimsleur Mandarin Chinese I Notes (PDF 270 KB)

This is a post I wrote a month ago while waiting for my flight to Taipei. I was inspired to put some thoughts down when I saw what people were emptying their wallets on in the duty-free arcade.

Sunday, 4:42pm – Gate 121, Incheon Airport, South Korea

Question of the Day: How can you own fewer items and remain satisfied?

I strive to own as few things as possible, but I still like to enjoy the comfort of advanced technology and craftsmanship.

I’m happy to have a smartphone with an Internet connection in my pocket so that I can stay in touch with my friends and family. The device is also handy for looking up train routes and timetables on the go, and I love the fact that if I tell it to do so, my phone will magically remind me to do something at the right moment. That’s just incredible. And it also performs well as a portable music player and RSS reader.

Before I used to buy lots of things I didn’t need at all. I used to hoard stacks of key holders, figures, pens, and all kinds of junk that just ended up cluttering the closet.

Some minimalists might argue that food, clothes, and shelter are the only necessities in life—period. But ordinary people like myself (I think) still want to have a soft bed and a reading lamp in the bedroom, and a couch in the living room, and more than one ricebowl and a pair of chopsticks per person in the pantry. Etc.

The problem arises when excess takes over necessity.

It’s easy to associate necessity with usefulness—or more commonly, the feeling of “just in case”. Noodle makers are useful, but not necessary unless you own a noodle shop or consistently make your noodles from scratch. But do you need to have five pairs of scissors lying around in the house? You would probably do just as well having only one pair with razor-sharp blades made of solid stainless steel. Do you need both an MP3 player AND a mobile phone that can play music? How about replacing your bookshelf with an ebook reader?

Before becoming an iPhone convert, I used to switch phones on a yearly basis because I was never happy with what I had, so I kept looking for newer and better models. But when I got my first iPhone—the 3GS—I was content. Not only was the operating system easy to use and responsive, the outer shell was pleasing as well. And after two model updates since 2009, I still haven’t felt the urge to upgrade since the 3GS perfectly satisfies my needs.

The same principle applies to other items as well. Surely, getting a $400 Louis Vuitton wallet won’t guarantee unlimited durability, but by investing a bit of money in genuine leather and fine craftsmanship, you can be quite sure that your wallet will last a decade or two.

I’ve just returned from a 31-day trip to Asia (South Korea and Taiwan) and thought I’d share some health tips I found in an article, Forty 5-Minute Health Fixes, in the Asian edition of Reader’s Digest (Nov 2011 issue) and thought were interesting and worth giving a shot.

1. Take short 10min cooler showers to avoid stripping moisture and natural protective oils from the skin.
2. Stay up all night to lift depression.
3. Brush your teeth with sodium bicarbonate, a.k.a. baking soda, once a week to remove stains and whiten your teeth. (This is what I’m currently working on.)
4. Do breathing exercises if you wake feeling low.
5. When feeling nervous, tighten and release your abdominal muscles. Repeat several times.
6. Eat a whole raw onion at the first hint of a cold to stop infections.
7. Use a couple of drops of olive oil to smooth your skin.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I recently made a visit to South Korea and Taiwan. I had a great time exploring the country, so I thought I’d share some footage with you guys… Hope you like it!

It’s been a while! I hope everyone enjoyed the summer. I certainly did, even though I spent most of it at the office (and the army barracks). But as I’m writing this post, I’ve got 10 days left in the military. It feels incredible to have 260 days under your belt.

There’s also another announcement to make. I’ll be heading off to South Korea and Taiwan at the end of October, and I’m planning to share my experiences through Twitter so be sure to follow me at @ericnishio!

As you might guess, life in the barracks can get extremely boring unless you come up with things to do in your spare time. But rather than think of it as a source of frustration and boredom, the better alternative is to treat it as a great opportunity to focus.

As a soldier, the number of personal possessions that you keep in your locker is limited. You won’t have your entire book or magazine collection with you, nor will you have a fancy entertainment center equipped with Xboxes and audio systems to play with.

My personal belongings were limited to three things primarily: a book, an iPhone, and a journal. Surely I could have crammed my locker full of items, but I don’t think my superiors would have liked the mess—especially during basic training when they did frequent locker inspections to see that everything was arranged according to the instructions given.

The good thing about having so few items with you is that it sets limitations on what you can do. I was lucky to have my iPhone connected to a 3G network most of the time, so I was able to peruse the YouTube library quite comfortably, and spend at least a couple of hours each day learning Mandarin Chinese. I didn’t have a single boring moment during the 9 months, and I was able to accomplish more than ever.

You are reading this post because you want to start running. Nice. Running is a great sport. The reason why I particularly like it is because of its simplicity. You don’t need to invest a whole lot of money in order to start running; there’s no need for a gym membership, or any expensive equipment. All you need is a body that can withstand the shocks that result from stamping your feet against the ground.

Now, I’m not certified to offer any kind of medical advice, so I’m only going to share what I’ve personally learned from running. (And I’m still a beginner.)

Although you can choose to run barefoot, I recommend that you get yourself a decent pair of running shoes just to avoid unnecessary injuries. Barefoot running requires conditioning and is not recommended for beginners. For a newbie it’s extremely important to start safe, because once you get injured it can take months to recover and get back in the game. Every person’s feet are different so you’ll have to do some research online or ask the store staff which type of shoe to buy.

When you have your gear in order, it’s time to start.

Don’t Exhaust Yourself

Did it ever happen to you that when you decided to try running—perhaps because you thought you were in poor shape—and got out the door, you found yourself 15 minutes later completely nauseated and about to throw up? It happened to me several times. But I can assure you that it doesn’t have to be that way at all.

No human is born a runner. If you’ve spent the last two years working a desk job with most of your exercise consisting of walking to the train station and back, even 10 minutes of running can make you feel like your lungs are about to burst.

Don’t start like that.

When you first start out, it’s important that you acknowledge what kind of physical shape you are in. Being thin doesn’t mean that you automatically possess high endurance. Endurance needs to be developed over time. If you haven’t run a single mile in the last six months, you need to start with humble objectives.

First, see if you can keep running for 5 minutes. (You’ll need a stopwatch.) And don’t start as if you were going for a 100m dash. That will only wear you out and make you nauseous like before. Start slow. Focus on finding a pace where you can run comfortably, and see if you can reach that 5-minute goal. If you really concentrate on maintaining comfort, you will be able to do it.

When you’ve completed your first goal, stop. Keep walking, and allow yourself to be proud of what you’ve just accomplished. Do you feel nauseated? Was it as bad as last time? Meditate on it. You were able to finish running without feeling like crap; and that’s how it’s supposed to be. Running should never make you feel sick. If it does, you’re exceeding your limits—and you should slow down.

Next time you go running, set yourself a new goal: try running comfortably for 10 minutes. Always be conscious of your speed, and keep it steady. If you start to feel signs of exhaustion, slow down, and readjust.

After each run, record the results, and jot down a few lines on your performance. Comment on how you felt during and after the workout.

Keep setting new challenges for yourself, but keep them realistic. It’s also fun to set a long-term goal (e.g. “complete 5K”) and see how you progress. If you can’t accomplish it in due time, don’t worry—keep working on it.

Just one important word of advice: Don’t strain your ankles and knees. It’s incredibly easy to damage your joints, so you should run short distances at the start, and make increments as your body becomes stronger. Whenever you feel even the slightest pain in your joints, stop, and give your body plenty of days recover. Never force yourself to finish that last mile.

If your purpose is to lose weight, try to let go of that thought for a moment, and instead focus on developing your technique and mentality. The weight-loss will take care of itself, but what’s more important is to acquire a positive taste for running. Don’t run because you want to lose weight, do it because it’s enjoyable and rewarding in itself.