Its fun how you see your own strategies somewhat validated :). I started to improve my french by watching french movies and drinking one beer before and one while watching the movie. My experience is that I tend not to care about understanding one word while focusing more on whole dialogues. So I attribute that more to a healthy focus shift than a self-awareness issue.

Also, it makes the process more enjoyable, for me. I might want to add that I do not drink at all for long stretches (weeks) while still enjoying a good wine or beer, so this is also a real reward. This, in my opinion, is also key. It kind of lured me into actually doing what I intended.