The i+1 idea helped me a lot with learning

For a long time, my Dutch input felt useless in two opposite ways.
Beginner stuff was too easy and I’d zone out. Native content was too hard and I’d understand almost nothing.

What finally helped was being more intentional about difficulty and sticking to what’s called i+1:

i is what you already understand comfortably.
i+1 is content that’s just one step above that.

In practice, that means you understand maybe 70–85% of what you hear or read. Enough to follow what’s going on, but not enough to be on autopilot. You still have to think, guess from context, and notice new words or structures.

When input is too easy, your brain doesn’t really learn. When it’s too hard, your brain gives up. i+1 sits right in the middle.

Once I started paying attention to this, speaking also got a bit easier over time, because the language I was reading/hearing was actually usable.

I also stopped treating speaking as something for "later". Even short spoken summaries or repeating sentences out loud helped connect input to output.

I use a tool that’s built around this idea, and helps keep input at the right level, I don't know if i'm allowed to share the name, but honestly the concept itself is what made the biggest difference.