You are 100% unique. Just like everybody else.

Having seen a couple thousand people work their way through my various courses, I’ve developed a sense for who’s going to wash out before they finish.

Invariably, it’s the people who are “too cool for school” and don’t want to trust the system or follow the instructions.

Yes, you are unique and no one has ever existed who is quite like you.

But it’s a mistake to think that you’re immune to the pressures of human nature.

Here are four ways you can guarantee failure at this course:

1. Not using headphones.
2. Setting the number of new cards per day too high.
3. Starting too many new decks too soon.
4. Not setting a recurring alarm to remind you to study.

Not Using Headphones

This course is waaaaaay easier when you can hear clearly. Make a point to keep your headphones handy.

Plus: the mobile version of the Anki app is more satisfying to use with headphones, since it autoplays the audio.

Too Many New Cards Per Day

When I was testing various iterations of this course, I had the New Cards/Day set really high just so I could test them all quickly.

Man, did it suck. There were days when I was doing ear training for half an hour, forty minutes even.

Ain’t nothing effortless about 40 minutes of listening to interval pairs.

Hurry slowly. The long way is the shortcut.

If you’re crushing 15 new cards/day after a month, feel free to up it to 20 or even 30.

But if you start to dread doing your daily ear training? Turn it back down.

Too Many Decks Too Soon

The other half of that 40 minute ear training slog was that I was working on things I wasn’t really ready for. I hadn’t done the prep work, and I was getting humbled by these flashcard decks. It was soul crushing.

I added the Guided Singing lessons specifically for that reason. They’re there to prime you for success. Make sure you’re comfortable with those before starting the accompanying deck.

And make sure your flashcard workload is well below the 5 minute mark before you fire up the next deck. It’s the nature of the program that the first few days in a new deck take the longest.

Again, trust that the system is going to get you there in time.

Not Setting An Alarm

But of all of these, not setting a reminder is the biggest potential pitfall.

Common wisdom holds that it takes three weeks to develop a habit.

But even that is bullshit—it’s closer to three months.

You simply can’t depend on remembering to show up.

Some days you won’t feel like it. Other days will get hectic all too fast and you’ll forget.

I set two reminders. One is a recurring alarm set in my calendar:

And the other is a checkbox in my personal dashboard:

However you choose to do it, do it.

Then take a screen shot and email it to me at [email protected].

Once you’ve done that, you’re done with setup and ready to get into the course itself.

See you inside,

Josh