How I Built A Habit To Use Duolingo Every Day For A Year

Learning a new language with Duolingo only works if you practice consistently, but building that habit into your daily routine is harder than it sounds. Here’s how to make sure you keep your streak.

I don’t even remember why or how I got started with Duolingo. One day I was minding my own business speaking only one language and before I knew it I was celebrating my one-year streak and speaking semi-fluent Spanish. I still can’t believe how fast I picked up a new language, but I know the reason is because I was consistent in using the app every day.

If you’ve been wanting to use Duolingo to learn a language, or if you’ve had the app for a while but can’t seem to stick with it, here’s exactly how I built the habit to open it daily and learn (and retain) at a super fast pace.

Timing Is Everything

The biggest factor in working Duolingo into my everyday routine was logging in at the same time each day. For me, that’s about 9:15pm. I get in bed around 9 and the first thing I do when I get under the covers is a Spanish lesson. If I’m bored at another time during the day, I may open the app to do additional lessons, but bedtime is a non-negotiable for me, even if I’ve already done some that day.

For some people, bedtime may not be the best idea, especially if you don’t go to bed at the same time every day. You can do it first thing in the morning while you’re sipping coffee, on your lunch break at work, while you’re in the pickup line at your kids’ school, or whatever works best for you.

The goal is to find something you do every single day and add your Duolingo session to that routine. This helps you remember and gets you in the habit of opening the app. Some days you may not have time to do much, but building the consistency is better than not logging in at all.

Any Lesson Counts

Learning a language takes time, but retaining what you learned takes repetition. If you just fly through the units without taking time to absorb what you learned, you’ll burn out really quickly and quit. I don’t have a specific schedule when it comes to Duolingo, but I typically only do Unit lessons three days a week now that I’ve passed the one-year mark.

The other four days out of the week I do the listening, speaking, and word recaps in the practice hub, as well as Unit recaps and Match Madness. These mini games help me keep my mind fresh and remember what I’ve learned, but also keep my brain from overloading on new things.

Using Duolingo isn’t a race to finish, it’s simply a tool to help you. Hurrying through doesn’t do anything to teach you a language and you definitely won’t be fluent if you don’t take time to absorb it all. Try to only do a few new lessons a week and spend the rest of your days recapping.

Handwritten Notes

For retention, get yourself a fresh notebook and dedicate it to Duolingo notes. This is the thing that motivated me to move forward in the lessons and not just do the practice sessions over and over. To make it feel more fun, I used multiple colors of pens and made my notes “pretty” instead of just jotting down scribbles.

Having organized and aesthetically pleasing notes in a dedicated notebook made it more likely for me to flip through for refreshers, and just writing down words and phrases helped me remember them. I use a three-subject notebook and separate it by words, phrases, and grammar rules.

Celebrate Milestones

Duolingo is really great about making milestones a big deal. Every 50 days you get a little celebratory message for keeping your streak, as well as each year. Nothing is more motivating than rewards, so I decided early on that I would give myself a little present for each streak milestone.

At the 7 day, 14 day, 1 month, 100 day, and 200 day streak milestones, I went out to my favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner. And for my 365 day streak, I had a little party with my family. Now that I’ve passed that one year mark, I go out to that same Mexican restaurant for each 50 day milestone just to keep myself motivated.

Your streak rewards could be a restaurant that correlates with the language you’re learning, or it could be something simple like getting a new magazine you love or taking a nice long bath with your favorite movie playing on your phone. Whatever feels like a celebration to you is worth making it a prize for consistency.

Learn With Friends

If you’re a competitive person, this tip is for you. The only thing that motivates me to keep my streak more than the celebrations is the fact that I have friends who also use the app and they can see my streak. We compete often to see who can get the highest amount of XP in a week, we participate in Friend Quests, we race to see who can finish the monthly challenge first, and we use the “nudge” feature if we see that someone missed a few days.

Having accountability with someone who has the same learning goals as you do is really helpful, but honestly, the competition of having all your achievements, streaks, and XP be public on your profile is enough to keep me showing up every day. I’m not about to lose a Friends Quest and I’ll spend an hour racking up points until we hit it.

Pay For The Subscription

I don’t know about you, but I hate to waste money. I’ve found that if I get something for free, I’m much less likely to use it than if I pay money for it. Upgrading to Super Duolingo was the kick in the pants I needed to make the most out of the app. It’s not really the extra features that make me show up every day, it’s the fact that I paid for a whole year up front so I need to use it for the full year.

More Habit & Routine Building Tips

Need help building more habits and routines in your daily life? Head over to this category on the blog to get your home and life routines more organized than ever. And let me know down in the comments what methods have worked for you so far to keep your Duolingo streak.