What small task (scheduling appointments, returning packages) gave you disproportionate relief? Why?  

All small tasks that are one part of what I should do, for example, answering a question in the weekly topic. Becasue that can give me a sense that I'm really doing that.

Besides, I was afraid of German when I first watched these teaching videos (especially pronunciation). Thanks to Duolingo, I could learn German words and sentences first then learning the phonetic symbols.