Study regularly

As much as possible, study the language every day, at an hour when you know you can give your full concentration and energy. It’s more effective to study it for half an hour each day than to do it for five straight hours on a weekend. If you can study it for more than an hour each day, divide it into 2 or more half hour sessions.

Pace yourself

Go over each lesson several times, perhaps once in the morning, once in the evening and once several days later. Give your brain time to digest the material, but make sure the gaps between periods of study are not too long, i.e. more than a few weeks, or you will forget most of what you’re trying to learn. Make sure you have got to grips with the contents of one lesson before moving on to the next.

Master the basics

Be sure that you have the basics fully mastered before you on the more advanced levels. Remember that the language’s orthography and pronunciation is quite complex and you should spend a good amount of time on understanding it. Without a solid foundation, you will pick up the wrong habits that will take much longer to unlearn.

Set timelines

Do motivate yourself, and even push yourself, by setting goals. This will help you go from one level to another in a specific time frame, so you can really monitor your progress and jumpstart things if you see that you’re falling behind.

Focus on your interests

When you have learned the fundamentals of the language, you can now proceed to the fun part: practicing how to talk, write or read it. This can be as fun as you make it. Go on the Internet to read about things that interest you. Watch a movie in that language. Make friends on the Internet so you can practice your skills with people who are fluent in that language. Join clubs.

Don’t worry about making mistakes

Nobody’s perfect. You will occasionally stumble and that is nothing to be ashamed of. The point is that you are communicating, even if it means that you will sometimes grope for words.