Read something and log vocabulary.
I have been reading a Russian youth novel, it used to be at first I would just look up any words I didn't recognize, but then I would almost instantly forget them. So I bought a notebook and every time I encountered a word I didn't know, I wrote it down with the meaning and stress. It helped a lot. I also noted it was much better to read a whole chapter without the dictionary and try to guess at meanings, at the same time writing down all the words you don't know(but not looking them up), then look up all the words and reread the chapter. Recently I have started to write short summaries of chapters and posted them on here for corrections, it helps to include new words/constructions you have learned in your writing. You can see yourself my own improvement - it is going slow, but my writing skills are starting to improve.
