1. Write characters everyday (20 minutes)

Some enjoy it, most don't. It's endlessly repetitious. It's work, it's drilling yourself. Focus on 5 to 10 new characters each day. write them for 10 minutes. Then write the characters of the previous day again. Continue to this for 6 days. On the 7-th day you repeat all.

2. Talk, shout, sing

Language is about communication. Making yourself understood. If you're in China you have every opportunity to speak although you may be put off at times by the Chinese stare indicating they don't have a clue. Just persist, don't be bothered if it takes time. It's the only way of improving your skills.

If you're not living in China, chances are harder to find a spot to practice in a live environment. It helps saying the words out loud. Yeah, shouting into nowhere may seem weird but speaking just in your head won't make you heard.

Talk at least 15 minutes everyday.

3. Write an email

Find a penpal and email them in Chinese. Sure, the grammar probably will need work, your penpal may laugh at you and in the worst case misunderstand you. Writing an email, with a short story about what you did or about something that interests you can be fun and useful. If you can't find the word, try one of these Chinese dictionaries that can help you out. Typing Chinese is also a lot easier than writing with a pen as you can type using pinyin.

Write one email a day

4. Listen to a Chinese Podcast

There are a couple of websites offering podcast that can help you to learn chinese.

Reading an overview and reviews of learn chinese podcast is a good start.

After you made your choice, probably Chinesepod suits you the best, you just listen to one each day while you are commuting to work, falling asleep or doing the dishes.